Landscape: 4.12MB, Program, 1/640, f4, ISO 80, 7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm (equivalent to 35mm)   This landscape shot was taken with the PowerShot G7 in Program mode and despite bright conditions, the camera’s selected what sounds like a relatively large aperture of f4 – as our results pages show though, this is close to the G7’s lens sweetspot. This is similar to the approach of the PowerShot A640. The G7’s lens delivers sharp results across the frame, and as you’d hope at the lowest 80 ISO sensitivity, the crops are bereft of noise.       Portrait: 3.89MB, Aperture Priority , 1/1600, f4, ISO 200, 7.4-44.4mm at 29mm (equivalent to 137mm)     This portrait shot was taken with the G7’s lens zoomed-into just beyond the halfway point. Even with the aperture wide open to throw the background out of focus, there’s no optical worries to report. While not strictly necessary with the available light, we set the sensitivity to 200 ISO, and worryingly some noise speckles are already visible in the crops. Nothing you’d see on most prints, but a concern none-the-less.                     Macro: 4.18MB, Program, 1/800, f4, ISO 100, 7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm (equivalent to 35mm)   The PowerShot G7’s closest focusing distance of just 1cm allows for some excellent macro results. This was taken from about 5cm away and the crops reveal very sharp details without any optical issues to report. Locking the sensitivity dial to 100 ISO has also ensured there’s no noise to worry about. An excellent result for the G7 here.       Indoor: 4.63MB, Program, 1/125, f3.5, ISO 400, 7.4-44.4mm at 22mm (equivalent to 104mm)     This sheep-shearing demonstration was taken from a covered, but open barn with the G7 zoomed-in to about 3x. The combination of image stabilisation and a slightly higher sensitivity of 400 ISO prevented any camera shake and subject motion. The crops are again very detailed, although noise levels and artefacts from noise reduction are becoming quite clear when viewed at 100%.                     Indoor: 5.23MB, Program, 1/160, f4, ISO 800, 7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm (equivalent to 35mm)   For this indoor shot we manually increased the G7’s sensitivity further to 800 ISO. As before the crops reveal sharp details right up to the edges, but noise and noise reduction artefacts are now obvious. If you have to use 800 ISO on the G7, stick to smaller print sizes and avoid looking too closely on-screen.       Indoor: 6.04MB, Program, 1/800, f4, ISO 1600, 7.4-44.4mm at 9mm (equivalent to 43mm)     Here we manually set the PowerShot G7 to 1600 ISO, the highest sensitivity offered on its dial. Noise levels have dramatically increased over the 800 ISO result, and this really is for emergency use only. To be fair though, most compacts look pretty nasty at 1600 ISO. The G7 also offers an ambitious 3200 ISO scene preset, although at a reduced resolution of 2 Megapixels. You can see the results here.

The following images were taken with the Canon PowerShot G7. The G7 was set Large SuperFine quality, Auto White Balance, Evaluative Metering and with ‘My Colours’ switched off (the default setting for contrast, saturation and sharpening).

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.