The PowerShot G9 from Canon is a trash camera by today's standards.
But recently I tried experimenting with the JPEG Picture Profile settings to get
a Fujifilm aesthetic straight out of camera.
And long story short, it worked. The PowerShot
lineup of compact cameras from Canon are actually more of the pro end of
compact cameras that Canon offer. They're not to be confused like the
IXUS lineup or their other lower consumer level models, but awkwardly within the
pro-ness of the PowerShot lineup, they actually kind of shot themselves in the
foot in terms of having more of an appeal for people who want a
quick, usable camera. The Raw photos that you get from
this 12 megapixel sensor are fantastic, which I've talked about in a
video before, but I wanted to see if I could get like, a film
simulation vibe from the custom picture profile you can bake into the JPEG.
And somehow, on the first attempt, I've managed to find something that I think
is definitely worth trying. This is the PowerShot G9.
And this is the Fujifilm X Pro 1.
And this is the spectrum of filmlike imagery.
The Fuji lives close to filmlike, while I previously thought the G9 lived
way over here, over in Digicam Digital land.
Since experimenting with these straight out of camera JPEGs, I've discovered that
the G9 actually belongs much further along this line than I first thought.
I've taken the liberty of shooting a bunch of side by side shots with
the G9 and my X Pro 1 using my Fuji JPEG Picture Profile.
So I made this profile copying the settings on my X pro 1, which I
got from Fuji X weekly. So shout out to them.
It was the Superia Xtra 400 profile. And if I don't say so myself,
for a G9, I've got the picture profile pretty damn close.
So a compact camera plus a Fuji aesthetic equals compact Fuji.
Oh, my God. I think we've done.
It time to claim that Nobel Prize. I first used the Raw files from
this camera, which are amazing and very flexible, and you can edit them pretty
much however you want. And for each of these tests, I
have shot all these images in both Raw and JPEG simultaneously.
So I can show you some Raw unedited files alongside the JPEG with
this picture profile enabled. The Raws out of camera are very
good and very flexible from this CCD sensor.
But the JPEG with this profile actually, for me is good enough to post
in some lighting situations. It doesn't shine in every lighting
situation, but I think overall it is something that I would happily share
alongside photos from Fuji or from film cameras.
There's a lot of you right now who are probably thinking you should just
shoot Raw and edit the photos to look like this later.
But sometimes a photo doesn't need an extra 30 minutes of editing, for example,
or even five minutes. Raw is great for maintaining flexibility
in edits. However, if you're looking for pleasing
images in camera, it can definitely be overkill with a simple camera like this.
To me, this camera does three things. One, it's compact, two, it's easy to
use for most people and three, it's pretty affordable.
So these three things together that we have here, these kind of contradict the
whole Raw photo editing process. In my opinion, this camera kind of
encourages the idea of just pulling out some JPEGs from the SD card and
chucking them into a massive Facebook photo album.
So for those who just want nice shots out of camera with no editing,
these settings are it most serious. Shooters would say that maintaining
flexibility with Raw files is always the way to go.
But to be honest, how serious of a shooter are you if you're using
a 2009 compact camera? To me today, a camera like this
for the amount of money it goes for, yeah, you can edit roles and
stuff from it, but it's more of a fun camera and I prefer having
this kind of out of camera ready to go, aesthetically pleasing JPEG, which
is a subjective opinion. Obviously having a nice JPEG out of
camera just to share willynilly is kind of what this camera feels like it
was made for. While it's not a super basic compact
camera, it does have the flexibility we need to treat it a bit more
seriously. Manual aperture, manual shutter speed,
manual ISO so you have a nice amount of creative flexibility but also
having a nice image straight out of camera if you're dead set on shooting
Raw with this camera. However, I do also have a free
Fujifilm Preset you can pick up from my website that will make even the
Raw photos out of this camera into a Fuji aesthetic, or Raw photos from
any camera for that matter. So you can try it with your
current camera and then consider it for your new compact cameras.
I realise I have not given the settings yet.
Get on with it. Yes, get on with it.
So what are the settings? Let me go in and find them
for you. I essentially copied the settings from my
X Pro One Superior Extra 400 that I got from Fuji X Weekly.
Shout out to Fuji X Weekly. So the custom colour I have set
to contrast minus two, sharpness minus one, saturation zero
red plus one, green minus one and blue plus two,
skin tone plus one. And lastly, the white balance I have
set to cloudy. So there's not many settings for us
to actually change, but it's a little bit of that colour shift, that skin
tone, that sharpness, that contrast to be able to get us close to the
Superior Extra 400 that I have in the X Pro 1.
And while testing these cameras side by side with these profiles to sort of
balance these settings a little bit, a few of these images, the contrast is
different. A couple of them, the red shift
was different at one point. I had the red at plus two
for a while. And actually, once I was looking at
the results in camera, I thought just to reduce that a little bit.
The main drawback of using this camera in terms of straight out of camera
JPEGs is we only actually get one custom picture profile.
So we have other profiles, like neutral, and they have a positive film effect
in this one. But for your own custom settings, you
only get one, and you can't change names or anything like that.
So it's important to make a note of different profiles you're trying, so
you can then refer back to them to swap between.
But you'll have to do it manually for each setting, each time.
But for me, I'm probably going to continue using this sort of fake superior
extra 400 for the foreseeable future. It's very nice.
Looks good. Fits in with Fuji shots.
Fits in with film shots. What's not to like?
This may be your first time hearing about the G9, but I've actually
done a whole video talking about all the other details of this camera over
here today. We're just talking about the straight out
of camera JPEGs, but all the other details you need to know are in
this video.