Canon PowerShot G7

The Canon PowerShot G7 has a 15mm eyepoint real image optical zoom viewfinder. By "real," I guess they mean that the image is not generated by a sensor. However, the image isn’t "real" - what you see is not what you get. The viewfinder is above and to the left of the lens, so its view has a different perspective for sure. In fact, when the lens and zoom viewfinder are zoomed wide, users can see the lens in the viewfinder. Canon’s specs confirm this: the viewfinder is only 80 percent accurate.
There is a diopter adjustment to the left of the viewfinder platform that has 8 steps between -3 to +1 for users who want to shed their glasses. Despite that, the entire view isn’t very clear. The center of the view may be clear, but the outer edges of the window look blurry. Besides that, the eyecup surrounding the viewfinder isn’t very comfortable because of its hard plastic construction. Considering the 2.5-inch LCD screen, users don’t have to get up close and personal with the camera to preview images. The screen provides an accurate field of view and lets users know whether they’re in focus along with a host of other information. With the inaccurate field of view, blurred edges, and plastic construction of the optical viewfinder, the LCD screen is a much better viewing option.

LCD Screen (7.0)

The Canon PowerShot G7 has a very different LCD monitor than the G6. The older model had a 2-inch screen that folds out and rotates much like those on the A-series cameras. Its resolution was sub-par too at 118,000 pixels. The new G7 does much better in this area with a 2.5-inch LCD screen and 207,000 pixels. The resolution is decent, but many other competitors are offering 230k pixel screens in the same size. The Canon G7’s screen does not fold out, although it does have a reasonably wide angle of view. It’s not the widest viewing angle on the market, but it’s okay. The screen doesn’t automatically gain up or down in difficult lighting, but there are 15 brightness settings in the setup menu that can be manually adjusted. The G7’s screen is normally bright indoors, but may need some adjustment outdoors on a bright day. As a viewfinder, the LCD screen is hard to beat with its nice size and 100 percent accurate field of view. The only drawback is its refresh rate, which doesn’t seem to be fast enough to smoothly depict fast-moving subjects. Display information can be changed with the designated Display button. It cycles through the following modes: off, on with info, and on with info and histogram. The following info can be displayed on-screen: mode, image size, compression, flash, drive, anti-shake warning, pictures remaining, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, and metering. The display modes can be changed in the menu and customized to show grid lines, histograms, etc. Overall, the low-temperature polycrystalline silicon LCD screen is nicely sized and its accuracy makes it a better viewing choice than the retro viewfinder.

 

The Canon PowerShot G7 has a built-in flash unit that isn’t well-placed. Its spot in the top right corner of the front of the camera makes it a prime candidate for accidental covering by the left fingertips. It will invariably cast shadows to the right of subjects. I did this several times and the resulting semi-lit pictures were not desirable. The flash reaches from 1.6-13 feet in wide and 1.6-8.2 feet in telephoto when the ISO is set to Auto. In the macro mode, the flash is effective in a narrow window from 1-1.6 feet; closer distances will cause subjects to look blown out and the flash’s coverage to look completely lopsided.

This is a decent range for a compact camera, but users can add optional flashes on the hot shoe for even more power. The hot shoe accepts Canon Speedlite flash units, including the 220EX, 430EX, and 580EX models and the HF-DC1 flash. The last flash unit, the HF-DC1, fits onto other PowerShot digital cameras and is effective to about 23 feet. Users can also purchase an optional off-camera shoe cord that tethers a flash to the G7, which allows some flexibility in its positioning.

The PowerShot G7 has a few flash modes, but even more options to supplement them. On, Off, and Auto are the regular choices. In the recording menu, users can turn off and on the red-eye reduction and slow synchro. The red-eye reduction mode didn’t use a pre-flash, but shot out the auto focus assist beam instead; its method worked in the test pictures. There are also 1st and 2nd curtain flash options and a flash exposure compensation adjustment available. The adjustment offers three levels with the built-in flash in most modes and a standard +/- 2 compensation in other modes; this works well with close-up portraits that need less illumination, avoiding the "white forehead" look. When a Speedlite flash is attached, 13 levels of adjustment are available.

The G7’s flash lights up most of the frame, but misses the bottom two corners. This won’t likely show in busy pictures but will be more noticeable when shooting simple subjects. Users who want to take pictures of their Beanie Babies to sell on an online auction will need more lighting than what is offered on the camera to make the products look half-decent.
 

The 6x optical zoom lens extends from the camera in two segments and is surrounded by a retro-looking silver ring. The look isn’t very telling of its high-tech nature though. The lens is constructed with 9 elements in 7 groups and includes a double-sided aspherical lens and special SR coating to reduce chromatic aberrations and ghosting. This coating isn’t available on any other Canon cameras or lenses; the only other Canon product it is included on so far is the top-of-the-line professional grade camcorder.

The G7’s 6x optical zoom lens is definitely an upgrade from the G6’s 4x optical zoom lens, with an expanded focal range and the addition of optical image stabilization. The stabilization system includes Continuous, Shoot Only, and Panning modes and works very well. It is touted to correct up to three shutter speed stops, though we see it as more like two to two and a half stops. The image stabilization’s positive effects are most noticeable in the movie mode where it eliminates all the jumps and jiggles from handheld video.

The Canon 6x lens measures from 7.4-44.4 mm or 35-210 mm in the more recognizable 35 mm format. The lens’ max aperture reached f/2.8 at its widest and f/4.8 in telephoto. The telephoto’s max aperture is smaller, but not as small as many compact models’ apertures in telephoto. To keep the aperture from shrinking even more, Canon included a digital tele-converter that won’t reduce the aperture when zooming. There is also a Safety Zoom feature that digitally zooms without degrading the picture; it is only available in reduced image sizes though. Users can zoom up to 8.4x in the 2272 x 1704-pixel image size, up to 14x in the 1600 x 1200-pixel postcard size, and 24x when shooting VGA-quality photos. Standard digital zoom is available to 4x but the image quality degrades quickly.

The zoom lens is controlled by a ring that surrounds the shutter release button. It is quite small when compared with the other controls on the camera body, but still offers enough slack to zoom quickly. The Canon PowerShot G7 accepts conversion lenses. The WC-DC58B wide lens activates 0.75x magnification, while the TC-DC58C telephoto lens magnifies everything by 2x. There is also an optional LA-DC58H lens adaptor and hood set that is compatible with the G7.

Overall, the lens is decent and seems to have been given some care and consideration by Canon, though we would have liked to see the focal range start wider than 35mm, and offer a larger max aperture through the zoom range. For a 6x lens, closing down to f/4.8 will take away a lot of available light shooting opportunities and force users to boost the ISO to compensate. On the plus side, the optics appear to be very high quality, capturing very sharp pictures with hardly any distortion. The only exception to this is in the macro mode, when some barrel distortion is evident.