My Canon G7 Died, Long Live G9

(via CameraLabs)

My Canon Powershot G7 died last week on the last day of our Aruba trip.

I purchased it at MicroCenter during their '20% off cameras' sale, on clearance, so it only cost around $211. I bought the $70 'accident insurance' since it actually covers accidents (unlike most protection plans). I also purchased a DiCAPac waterproof camera bag so I could take pictures while snorkeling.

I purchased the largest one they make, which MicroCenter just happened to stock, based on the recommendation of one of the employees. I told him I didn't think it would fit, and tried it in the store. Sure enough, the zoom would not extend all the way because of the design of the bag, so I returned it.

I later decided that I would avoid using the zoom while in the bag, so I returned and re-purchased the bag.

It worked great every day, except the edge of the rubber around the lens glass on the case intruded into the pictures. I decided I would just zoom in a little, just enough to get the rubber out of the shot. Big mistake. The end of the lens exactly fits the inner dimension of the rubber surrounding the lens glass in the underwater case. Apparently the end was wedged into the rubber during use, gripping it tightly. When the camera tried to sleep and retract the lens the end of the lens came off. Technically, this didn't kill the camera, it just broke the assembly that protects the lens when not in use, but it was enough of a problem that the camera wouldn't work without me 'making it worse' by removing the lens cover blades, springs, and other bits in the end of the camera (which I didn't do).

I was sad for a while because it was such a great cameara at $211, but I bought the insurance so I decided to just return it and get credit torward a 'real' camera in the near future (read: DSLR). My wife thought we should bet a new equivalent camera otherwise what is the point of the insurance, so she took it back to exchange. Long story short, she got the money back from the G7 as well as the money for the insurance since it was their recommendation that broke the cameara, and put it all toward a G9. At first I told her that $430 was too much to spend on a new camera, that we should just wait until I could afford a DSLR ($600+). Then I thought about it and realized that I would not take the DSLR with me as much as the G9, and that the waterproof case for a DSLR is over $1,000, while the 'official' underwater case for the G9 is $130, something I COULD afford the next time we go snorkeling. I also read up on the G9 and found that it is the P&S of choice by many DSLR users, especially since it has RAW, an ISO dial, and instant analog access to f-stop and shutter speed settings. Although the G7 has the same buttons & dials, it only has RAW via a hack, and it requires additional steps to get those RAW files converted into something Adobe products can understand (G9 does it natively).

She's unable to go to our son's swim meet tonight, so they gave my Fathers' Day present early so I could take picutres and video for her. I'll write about the G9 in the near future.