Canon PowerShot G15 12.1 MP Digital Camera

• 5x Optical Zoom with 28mm Wide-Angle Lens
• 12.1 MP High-Sensitivity CMOS sensor with DIGIC 5 Image Processor
• 1080p Full HD Video With a Dedicated Movie Button
• High-speed AF, High-speed Burst HQ for a maximum of 10 frames
• 12-bit Multi Aspect Recording in RAW + JPEG

I've long been a fan of my trusty Canon G12. Since it hasn't been upgraded in quite some time, I thought it was the end of the line for the series. When the G15 was announced, I immediately wanted one. Having had it for a couple of days now, I'm very happy with it. Out of the box, the biggest difference I noticed was that the G15 no longer has an articulated swivel screen. To a lot of people, this will be a huge disappointment. There is a positive to this though. Without it, the camera is thinner and lighter now. The screen is also larger and higher resolution. (3", 920K). The lens has the same focal length as the G12, but the new G15 lens has a wider aperture. f1.8 vs f2.8. My results show a nice improvement in low light situations. Canon has also improved the auto-focus speed. Megapixels have been increased from 10mp to 12mp. The G15 has a 1/1.7" CMOS sensor, which is larger than most compact style cameras. The DSLR style controls and menus are easy to navigate and understand. On my initial battery charge, I managed just over 300 shots, which I consider good. Now for the most important thing. Image quality. I took several hundred pictures in various conditions. Image quality was excellent under all circumstances. I shot in JPEG mode, using ISO 80-800. Images shot outdoors in good lighting conditions were almost DSLR quality. Images shot indoors were excellent too. Image noise up to ISO 400 was barely noticeable. At ISO 800, noise become more noticeable, but results were still much better than you'd expect from a compact camera. I only shot a minimal amount of video since I have little interest in using it, but what I did shoot does look good. The G15 can do 1080P at 24fps. All in all, the Canon G15 is just a great camera.

Pros:

Excellent image quality.

Fast 5x 28-140mm lens.

RAW image capture.

DSLR style manual controls.

Good battery life.

Fairly thin and lightweight.

3", 920K screen.

Optical viewfinder.

Cons:

No articulated screen.

Ergonomics might be awkward to some.

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The first thing I noticed when I took the G15 out of its box for the first time was its impressive build quality. Everything is tightly constructed and what feels like a tough mag alloy body. It's not necessarily pocketable but is slightly smaller and thinner than the G12. One minor complaint, however, is that the handgrip up front seems shallower than on the G12 so at first it doesn't feel as comfortable to grip. The battery is of a good size and the camera gets excellent battery life.

The control layout on the back of the camera is the same as the G12 and G1X, generally straight-forward and logically placed. The menu system has not changed at all from previous models... so if you're coming from the G12, you should be able to locate where everything is rather quickly. You have the function button for the most commonly accessed settings and the menu button for all other settings. The LCD on back, while sadly, not articulated like on the G12 is gorgeous...very bright and clear. The viewfinder is the same small one found in the G1X and G12..but it works okay when you can't use the LCD.

Canon promised improved AF performance over the G12 and it is most certainly quicker. It isn't the fastest in its class but it does have reliable AF and no problems even in low light locking on. Most folks will find it perfectly satisfactory. Lens performance is quite snappy though, and you can zoom in and out relatively quickly.

This camera's main flaw from an image quality standpoint is its overexposing. It has a real problem with that for some reason or another and moreso than other enthusiast compacts on the market right now. Fortunately you can fix that very quickly by dialing in negative exposure compensation using the physical dial on top of the camera. You might find it's better just to leave it on -1EV or so permanently. By all other measures though, the camera is an excellent performer. It has the best color reproduction of any camera in its class (though I like the LX7 in this regard as well), the lens is sharp, detail is very good. ISO performance is respectable, it can't match the Sony RX100 in this regard but I would say it does a better job at noise management and detail retention up the ISO scale than any of its counterparts with a 1/1.7" sensor. You can get respectable looking photos right up through ISO1600 if you're not blowing them up to billboard size and are willing shoot and process RAW files.

I have not messed much with the movie mode but it has a few manual controls. One feature that stuck out to me is the 1280x720 HD iframe recording, which can be imported right into Apple video editing software without losing any of its quality.

Taking everything into account, this is probably the best enthusiast compact on the market right now. It's not best in class in a number of areas but it's a solid performer in every area and a joy to shoot with. It's built to last and will probably give you many years of dependable operation and great photos. A great alternative to a DSLR if you want something that has an enthusiast level feature set and great optics but is relatively compact. Highly recommended.

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I have owned and loved my Canon G12 for the past two years. When I recently learned of the new G15 I wound up buying it on impulse due to my previous good luck with Canon and the promise of improved performance. Also influencing my decision was the fact that I was about to leave on a fall vacation trip which would provide a great opportunity to test the camera.

I could not be happier with the performance of the G15. Here are the features that impress me the most.

1. The smaller form factor does make it a bit easier to carry.

2. Low light performance is incredible. Even at higher ISO's up to 1600 this camera produces very useable images.

3. The image stabilization continues to be excellent and allows good handheld shots to be taken in difficult lighting situations.

4. I use the movie function sometimes just to insure that I capture an optimal still image for various events. The new 1080p HD shooting mode and ability to refocus while zooming are real improvements that I find very useful.

5. The elimination of the separate ISO control on the top of the camera and the rearrangement of the exposure dial control have been easy to adjust to and have not caused me any difficulty.

6. The loss of the moveable rear LCD display has also turned out to be a non-problem. I only used this feature sparingly on the G12 so the larger and sharper (although fixed) LCD on the G15 is actually another improvement for me.

A quick comment on the included software. I find the Canon Imagebrowser to be largely worthless for my needs. It has a strange interface from my perspective and takes up a huge amount of disk space. My main need is to edit movies. For this task the freeware program Video Pad is much superior. For RAW image manipulation the Canon Digital Photo Professional software is quite sufficient.

The bottom line for me... I think Canon has done a great job of moving the G series along with the new G15. I am extremely pleased with the camera and strongly recommend it for those considering an upgrade.

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The G15 is summed up by dpreview, in the conclusion to their multipage review, as follows: " The Canon Powershot G15 is a well-refined product and a joy to use. It is very quick and responsive in operation, built like a tank and offers the most external controls in its class. In combination with the fast 28-140mm F1.8-2.8 lens that makes it a very versatile and pocketable photographic tool that offers almost the same degree of control as much larger DSLRs "

The G15 is highly commended by this reviewer ( I have owned one for a few weeks ) for outdoor work, where a high quality compact camera is required for convenience and portability, and it is useable at higher iso settings than any previous G series Canon. Within the 'G' series, the G10 will produce very slightly higher quality images, but only at its lowest iso setting, above which it gives up ( unless you're prepared to post process raw files). High iso settings are essential for taking photos in low light, or of night scenes like floodlit cityscapes without a tripod, and only recently in the history of digital camera development has it been possible to achieve good high iso results with compact cameras. The G15 is as good as it gets in this regard, at time of writing, for a compact camera with a fixed zoom lens. It is wonderfully fast to focus, as well.

The G15 must be used with care for good results with flash. By default an evening scene will be transformed into bright daylight with all the atmosphere of the evening or nighttime lost. Best portraits indoors or in low light are usually taken with fill in flash and Canon is notoriously worse than Nikon or Fuji at getting this right in auto mode. To compare: If I set my Fujifilm X100 to auto, I get a perfect shot every time, retaining shadow detail and lowlight atmosphere with the flash set to 'on'. The G15 needs more work, but that's not to say it cannot be done. This is how, for an indoor portrait where you are within 12 feet of your subject:

TIP: Set the mode dial to 'P'. Click the flash up, and set it to 'ON'. Set the iso to 200 iso. Set white balance to 'auto'. As a starting point I would suggest exposing at an exposure compensation of -2, and setting the flash compensation dial to -2 as well. Too dark? Of course it is, but now you know how to find the two settings you need to adjust! Raise one or other slowly, a little at a time, and only one at a time between each trial shot. This is trial and error, to get the result you want, but with no variables because you are only adjusting one setting at a time. When you have reached the level of brightness that you like, remember your settings, write them down, and use them for indoor portraits. Finally adjust your white balance away from 'auto' if you wish to remove a colour tint ( for example if your lighting is correct but your result looks too yellow, or blue, or orange...)

TIP2:Another method: Don't use flash at all. Set the camera to auto iso. Make sure your subject is lit more brightly ( you can still be subtle about it ) than their surroundings so that they do not disappear into the shadows. Shoot. Adjust white balance as necessary. Shoot again.

Combine both of the above. or even try using an external flash, which can 'bounce' or ' diffuse' the light it produces. Photography is, after all, best described as " Painting With Light ".

The G15 is a fabulous compact camera, the best 'G' series ever, and I know of several photographers who would unhesitatingly use one to take exhibition quality landscape shots to print at sizes up to A3+. At a level of expertise where the results might be mounted and sold, most semi-pro photographers would then post process, but it is not necessary to do that to create very fine photos indeed, even in auto mode if you are a beginner.

I chose the G15 over all other compact cameras because it takes fabulous pictures and because of the size and shape of it, which better than all of the others, for me, allows me to hold it steady for best results, even on top of a dartmoor tor in a howling gale. And because of how fast it can focus, even in low light. And I still love my G10 ( see my review of that also if you're interested ), just as my wife continues to enjoy her G12.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy your photography!

The Canon G15 is just what I've been waiting for, after recently selling my rugged and reliable G10 to my son (for a song, I might add). It has all of the features that G series owners love, now updated to the highest level.

This camera is not a toy. It is a professional piece of equipment you will enjoy from the first time you point and shoot. The photos it takes are of amazing quality, and with the new lense, depth of field performance has never been better.

If you're looking for a high-quality, upper-level point and shoot and are tired of toting a SLR, this camera is for you.