I’ve heard some good things about the Canon G9 so I’m wondering if anyone out there has any feedback for me?  I’m especially interested in the macro capabilities, but any information would be welcome.  I would probably get the Ikelite housing for it along with a DS51 strobe.  Thanks!

My experience with the G-9 has been excellent. I don’t own one, but I have taught around 6 u/w photo students with this camera, and I’m very impressed with its capabilities.
It has fast start-up, Two Custom Modes which are great for storing two sets of settings for u/w use - this makes it much quicker to change from one type of shooting to another, without accessing various menu’s. It also shoots RAW (unlike its predecessor the G-7). I like the dial that just changes ISO. The LCD screen is big and easy to view. It takes very nice sharp photos, and the JPG’s straight out of the camera are nicely saturated.
Only one minus, is that due to the lens design/construction, you can’t use an add-on wet wide angle lens with this camera underwater. This is because the lens retracts progressively into the camera as the zoom is widened. When at full wide angle, the lens is so far back that when a wet wide angle lens is attached to the front of the housing (on either Ikelite or Canon housings), it is too far from the wet lens to focus and vignettes (cuts the corners of the image) badly. But the standard lens is wide enough for pretty well anything except broad scenics, and as a macro or fish portraiture camera (In my opinion) it is as close as you will get to DSLR quality without buying a DSLR !
It is currently my recommendation for “Best Buy in Compact Camera’s for u/w use” - for what my opinion is worth

Jeff:  a short port can be purchased for the Ikelite housing that allows wide angle adapters to be used.  It does however limit the maximum zoom range (telephoto end) that can be used.

Reefwalker - 17 May 2008 11:43 AM

My experience with the G-9 has been excellent. I don’t own one, but I have taught around 6 u/w photo students with this camera, and I’m very impressed with its capabilities.
It has fast start-up, Two Custom Modes which are great for storing two sets of settings for u/w use - this makes it much quicker to change from one type of shooting to another, without accessing various menu’s. It also shoots RAW (unlike its predecessor the G-7). I like the dial that just changes ISO. The LCD screen is big and easy to view. It takes very nice sharp photos, and the JPG’s straight out of the camera are nicely saturated.
Only one minus, is that due to the lens design/construction, you can’t use an add-on wet wide angle lens with this camera underwater. This is because the lens retracts progressively into the camera as the zoom is widened. When at full wide angle, the lens is so far back that when a wet wide angle lens is attached to the front of the housing (on either Ikelite or Canon housings), it is too far from the wet lens to focus and vignettes (cuts the corners of the image) badly. But the standard lens is wide enough for pretty well anything except broad scenics, and as a macro or fish portraiture camera (In my opinion) it is as close as you will get to DSLR quality without buying a DSLR !
It is currently my recommendation for “Best Buy in Compact Camera’s for u/w use” - for what my opinion is worth

Thank you Jeff!  The research I’ve done certainly supports your comments and I think I’ve made my decision.  The truth is, I do have a Canon XTi that I was planning on housing, but on some advise from a local u/w photographer I began to look into the G9 as an alternative to the high cost of it all.  The ability to shoot RAW was the clincher, and from what I understand, a wide angle adatpter will work well with the Ikelite short port.  Again, thanks for your comments.  It’s reassuring to hear that I’m leaning in a good direction.

hey,

I bought my G9 with a Ikelite housing and a ikelite DS125 strobe in December I went to Malaysia (Kapalai) with it in April.
The macro possibilities are great. I’m a fan of macro. That’s why i’m going to Lembeh (Indonesia) in October.
I also bought a macro lens from Epoque but did not test it yet.
I think that the canon G9 is the best do-it-all compact camera you have for the moment.
I wanted to go for a SLR, but the disadvantage is, you have to choose before diving if you want to go for macro or normal photopgraphy...because there’s no lens (I hope there’s one....) that can take macro pictures (doris, shrimps,...) and normal pictures (manta, shark,...) at same time (i mean same dive of course).
I attached a macro photography so you can see what you can do with the G9 without a macro lens.....
If you want some other sample just mail me.... or if you need more info....

Greetzzz

Bgfspeedy

fishonfilm - 19 May 2008 12:51 AM

Jeff:  a short port can be purchased for the Ikelite housing that allows wide angle adapters to be used.  It does however limit the maximum zoom range (telephoto end) that can be used.

Can anybody tell me - what exactly happens if you use that “short port”? As I understand the port restricts lens movement - does that mean that if you accidentally try a full zoom, the lens will hit the port’s front element? How G9 reacts to this situation?

att - 08 July 2008 01:09 PM

Can anybody tell me - what exactly happens if you use that “short port”? As I understand the port restricts lens movement - does that mean that if you accidentally try a full zoom, the lens will hit the port’s front element? How G9 reacts to this situation?

If you zoom too far an error message comes up saying “Lens error”, then the lens retracts and the camera turns itself off. Just hit on again and you ready to go. I set one of the custom modes up so the lens is zoomed as far as it’ll go and just switch to that when I need it.