Canon G10 Performance

Slow to good speed for a consumer camera.

About average startup and shutdown times here, but pretty fast buffer clearing.

Mode switching times are about average, though displaying a previously recorded image is a bit sluggish.

Full AF shutter response is about average at wide angle and slightly better than average at telephoto, at 0.57s and 0.67s respectively. Enabling the flash increases lag to 0.92s. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of only 0.068 second, which while quite fast, isn't as fast as some. Times for continuous and manual focus are also about average.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are a bit on the slow side, at about 2.15 seconds for large/superfine JPEGs, but the camera does capture frames continuously at this rate. (That is, given a fast enough memory card, it doesn't have to pause every few frames to wait for the card to catch up.)  When shooting RAW, this slows to 2.53 seconds per frame, and RAW + large/fine JPEG is 2.66 seconds. The G10's continuous shooting modes were also on the slow side, capturing large/superfine JPEGs at about 1.37 frames per second. This rate slows to 0.80 frames per second with RAW, and 0.71 frames per second with RAW + large/fine JPEG. Buffer sizes were good though, at over 20 frames in any quality. The flash takes 10.2 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, which is rather slow, but not surprising given how powerful it is.

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are very good.

Bottom line, the Canon G10 won't be a good choice for any fast-paced action, especially if shooting RAW, but should handle most typical shooting situations fairly well.

Battery
Excellent battery life for a lithium-ion design.

The Canon PowerShot G10 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Although battery life is excellent, especially when using the optical viewfinder instead of the LCD to frame, we recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Canon PowerShot G10 accepts SDHC/SD/MMC memory cards, and does not include any built-in memory or a starter card.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SDHC or SD memory card at least a 2GB card, preferably a 4GB or 8GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings, RAW files or video. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)