The Canon PowerShot G1

Last Updated 23 Jan 02
Copyright 2001 by Stephen Vermeulen

The Canon PowerShot G1 is my first (of three so far) digital camera.  Here is why I chose it over other 3M pixel digicams. Here are some more comments on it. I find that it is a nice "point and shoot" type camera, great for family photos yet with lots of optional controls so that if you need to do something special you can. This page is an index to various resources relating to the G1 that I have either found useful or thought I might like to revisit some time in the future.  As well, there are some articles I have written about the G1 and some photos I have taken with it.

My general page on Digital Photography is here.
 

General G1 Related Sites

  • Digital Photography Review  has a good Canon G1 discussion forum that's quite active
  • Canon G1 on the web has some tips on using regular flashes with the G1
  • Canon G1 FAQ
  • G1 information by Pekka Saarinen

    • Software

    I have found the following pieces of the software useful with the photos that the G1 produces:
  • ThumbsPlus, I use this package for storing my photographs, maintaining a searchable database of them and building web pages of them
  • PhotoGenetics, this is a useful package for working out colour corrections and other image enhancements
  • ViewPrint, this is a nice, fast, slide show and image conversion program
  • QImagePro, this a a handy package for printing multiple images on single sheets of paper, great for when family want to take some pictures home
  • Here are some software utilities for use with the G1
    • Canon has released some firmware updates to the G1, this is the current (as of 19-Jun-01) update. On 25-Jun-01 I got the following email from a visitor to my web site who had encountered difficulties with the update:
     
    Hello stephen,

      I upgraded my G1 firmware from 1.0.0.1 to 1.0.0.2. I followed the
      update instructions to the letter and it took. The problem was that
      once I updated the firmware the G1 refused to zoom properly any
      longer. It zooms in on an object and then zooms right back out! It
      refuses to zoom in and stay zoomed so I can take the picture.

      I called Canon and they told me they didn't know why it was doing
      that and to send it in to them which I have done. I will be 2 weeks
      for me to get it back. :-(

      Have you heard of anything like this happening to anyone else whom
      update their G1 firmware?

    l8er
    Jorge

    In January 2002 Canon released another update to the G1's firmware. I am happy to report that I was able to update my G1 successfully, I used the 16MB CF card that came with the camera. These are the steps I followed (for more exact details see Canon's instructions):
    1. I installed the update software on Windows 2000 Pro
    2. I checked the list of files
    3. I plugged in the AC adapter and connected it to the camera and made sure the charge light was on
    4. I put the camera in replay mode and formatted the CF card
    5. I turned the camera off, and attached the USB cable to the camera and computer, and then put the camera into PC-connect mode
    6. when the USB drivers on the computer detected the camera I canceled out of the download program launcher
    7. I then ran the uploadfirmware utility on the PC
    8. when this completed, I turned off the camera and unplugged the USB cable
    9. I then turned the camera on, and put it in replay mode
    10. pressing the menu button I saw the new "Firm Update" menu item, I selected this, the message asking if I wanted to update the firmware from 1.0.0.0 (yes its never been updated) to 1.0.0.3 appeared
    11. I selected OK and started counting
    12. the status LED did various long and short flashes for about the next 70 seconds and then the camera rebooted and the usual "no image" message was displayed.
    13. I then tested out the camera, with both the 16MB and 1GB micro drives. I tried zooming. I also confirmed that the underexposure bug that occurs when the 420EX Speedlite is attached but not turned on (or ready to flash) has been fixed.
    14. All worked fine. Whew!
    As far as I saw Canon's documentation on the update process was error-free.

    Hardware

    There are some vendors of add on hardware that can be used with the G1:
  • The LensMate adapter for the G1 and some other cameras
  • First Firmware update for the Canon G1
  • New Drivers for the Canon G1
  • New add on lenses from Raynox
  • The Canon Speedlite 420EX is the flash I bought for my G1 after deciding that the internal flash was too limited.
  • ikelite now makes an underwater case for the G1, good to 200 feet.

    • G1 Photographs

  • G1 Photos by Pekka Saarinen, which are really very nice
  • Some closeups I took of a pair of orchids that actually bloomed (Canon G1).
  • Some closeups of a pair of tulips, these were taken (Canon G1) with the simple lighting setup shown in the last photograph. This was following a suggestion by someone on one of the message boards at Steve's Digicams. The lights are about 25W quartz halogens, the only other illumination came from a compact flourescent bulb (15W) which has the light output of about a 60W tungsten bulb. I was going to turn off the overhead light to improve the contrast with the backdrop, but in the LCD view finder it did not appear necessary so I forgot about it. I set the white balance manually to the tungsten setting as this seemed to give the best colour in the view finder.
  • Digital Fan, this fellow is using an Olympus B-300 teleconverter on a Canon G1 with good results, he uses the Canon adapter LA-DC58 with step down-adapter from 58 mm to 55 mm.
  • Infra-red photographs taken with the G1 and a hoya R72 filter


    • back to vermeulen.ca home