We have a new RAWsumer: Canon announces the new Canon Powershot G9!

Press release and details at dpreview

dpreview had this camera for a few days and they will be uploading a small gallery from it soon!

More on this announcement at 1001 noisy cameras

The G-series returns to its RAW roots. While not perfect, this is a step in the right direction for sure! But a 240 CIPA battery is certainly a disappointment, especially when the A650-IS (very similarly spec'ed) is 500 CIPA using 4 AA batteries. Even the A720-IS gets to 400 with just 2 AA batteries.

The G9 uses the latest 12mp 1/1.7" (what did you expect?), but remains at 35-210mm with an 6x optically stabilized optical zoom lens. It does get a big 3" LCD, accepts converter lenses and is compatible with the new ST-E2 (Canon wireless transmitter). It will ship around October for $500 in the USA

More coverage on this camera tomorrow!


Updates

Another one of the new Canon digital cameras announced yesterday that could have made a great RAWsumer was the Canon A650-IS. With a nice boost in specs, the A650-IS is like a G9-Lite, except it has twice the battery life (500 CIPA with 4 AA NiMH vs 240 of the G9 with a LiIon). While not as sleek or pretty as the G9, the A650-IS would have made a great bargain-priced RAWsumer. But of course we all know the reason why they didn't do it (and we didn't expect them to do it): Silly marketing people who come up with arbitrary restrictions on cameras that inhibit sales and frustrate potential buyers! They were probably worried that an A650-IS with RAW would cannibilize sales of the G9. So perhaps if enough people request RAW from Canon, just like they did with the Canon G7, then perhaps the next new model (eg A660-IS) would have RAW. Even better, they should make RAW available to the A650-IS and the G7 via a firmware update! They could even charge a small fee to make their accountants happy. I'm sure people would pay $20 to add RAW features to the A650-IS or G7! I know I would and I am cheap :) Of course FREE along with an apology for not including RAW in the first place would have been ideal!