G9 up and died in less than a year

[idenford]

My G9 went into the shop, fortunately I got it at the end of January this year so still under warranty.
The camera just won't power up. I charged the battery, tried to boot it up many times. No power. I googled the problem and it seems I am not alone.
Anyone else? I may trade it in when it comes back as it will have to be fixed. Thinking of the G10 or the Panasonic.

[dstefan]

My G9 went into the shop, fortunately I got it at the end of January this year so still under warranty.
The camera just won't power up. I charged the battery, tried to boot it up many times. No power. I googled the problem and it seems I am not alone.
Anyone else? I may trade it in when it comes back as it will have to be fixed. Thinking of the G10 or the Panasonic.

Got a G9 for my wife, just before we went to Alaska in Aug, where it performed admirably.  Just took it again to Vermillion Cliffs and Grand Staircase/Escalante before Thanksgiving and while it still works, the LCD view when shooting now won't come on at all.  

Camera has less than 1000 shots, never dropped, etc. Needless to say it's headed back to Canon.

David in Phoenix

[JohnKoerner]

I've taken over 4000 shots with my G9, since buying it in October of last year ... and I live in a humid, rainy area (Florida).

I've dropped it, it's gotten rainfall on it, etc., and yet it has never once failed to power-up or deliver. LCD is still very nice.

[DarkPenguin]

I dropped mine.  Snapped the little piece of plastic that holds the battery down.  Still works fine.

[SteveBlack]

Thankfully my G9 hasn't had any issues - though the shutter on my 40D failed after 11 months.  Thankfully I was able to get it replaced under warranty.  Went down during a vacation (the last day at least!), and the G9 stepped in well as a backup.

[dalethorn]

I've gotten the impression after a few years that Panasonic's quality control or build quality/reliability is much better than Canon's, although their product lines are much different, so there often isn't a good choice between brands.  If I were buying a DSLR I'd bite the bullet and get a Nikon.

J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile used to say "Who cares how reliable it is if it doesn't sound good."  And I always said "Who cares how good the photos are if it breaks down all the time."

[idenford]

I've gotten the impression after a few years that Panasonic's quality control or build quality/reliability is much better than Canon's, although their product lines are much different, so there often isn't a good choice between brands.  If I were buying a DSLR I'd bite the bullet and get a Nikon.

J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile used to say "Who cares how reliable it is if it doesn't sound good."  And I always said "Who cares how good the photos are if it breaks down all the time."

Thanks, I use the G9 as a walk around camera, I own A Nikon D3 and D300 with all the appropriate lenses. But when I don't want to schlep a lot of gear around, the G9 has been wonderful.
Once it's fixed I am likely to trade it for the G10, but this time I shall get an extended warranty.

[dalethorn]

Thanks, I use the G9 as a walk around camera, I own A Nikon D3 and D300 with all the appropriate lenses. But when I don't want to schlep a lot of gear around, the G9 has been wonderful.
Once it's fixed I am likely to trade it for the G10, but this time I shall get an extended warranty.

It might be a good idea to read the small print of the extended warranty, since I've gotten stiffed on a couple of those.  One example is where you have a defect and an instant exchange privilege.  Some of those extended warranties allow only ONE exchange, even if the product goes defective two or more times.  Then the second time, off it goes and doesn't come back for a month, and when it does, it fails right away.  I've had the no-repair or bad-repair shuffle happen to me with Sony and Toshiba equipment, nightmares with HP equipment going back to 1981, and on it goes.

[Gordon Buck]

10200+ on my G9 -- still works fine.

[Mark F]

I bought my wife a G9 last year about this time and it failed within a few months. Not heavy usage.  The lens would not retract when powered down. Canon fixed it under warranty and it is still working, but again, only occasional use.

[dstefan]

Got a G9 for my wife, just before we went to Alaska in Aug, where it performed admirably.  Just took it again to Vermillion Cliffs and Grand Staircase/Escalante before Thanksgiving and while it still works, the LCD view when shooting now won't come on at all.  

Camera has less than 1000 shots, never dropped, etc. Needless to say it's headed back to Canon.

David in Phoenix

I've got to fess up that after I posted this and I was getting ready to box the camera to go back to Canon, I tried it one more time and figured out what we were doing wrong.  Pure user error. So, no, haven't had any problems with this camera except stupidity!  

David in Phoenix

[idenford]

I now have my G9 fixed within three weeks of the warranty expiring. It was one of the "boards", not sure which one but they said it was a major repair.
Anway, I decided to trade the fixed G9 for a new G10 once I got it back.
I had one week left to trade it in at Henrys so I decided to get the newer version which now has a one year warranty and was on sale.