Need help with G9

Hi, I bought my wife a G9 some time back but unfortunately she did not like it because she thought it was too complicated to use and preferred to use her IXUS. So I bought her the latest IXSUS and kept the G9 for me and bought it the Canon underwater housing so I can use it for underwater photography. I am going to the Maldives in 2 days and so I started taking some practice photos with it in my home pool for preparation. But I have a few questions.

1. How do you zoom in and out when you are in video mode? I can zoom in and out only if I stop video then zoom and then start video again. There must be a way to zoom in and out once in video ... no?

2. When underwater I have not been able to use Manual mode because I can't figure out how to rotate the ring. The Auto results are actually very good but I would like to be able to have the option of Manual. Is there another function that does the same thing as rotate the ring by pressing other combination of buttons? I would like to be able to take pictures in RAW format so I can do my own processing to correct for color aberrations or noise and would like to have full control of ISO, but to do that I need control over speed and aperature and I can't do that at the moment. I took some photos in the pool in daylight and night and even on auto the pictures came out quite nice but I am sure I can get more flexibility in Manual. The flash attachment that comes with the Canon housing is really a fantastic idea and works great even out of water!

The more I use the camera the more I like it and I am even thinking of not even bothering to bring my brand new 5DII along. It has so many great features that I had no clue a P&S camera would have. I just read that the G11 has now a 2 stop advantage in ISO due to larger pixels better suited to smaller sensor and that just might be a must have. High ISO is a HUGE advantage in underwater photography as low light is very common. I wonder if I would need a new housing for the G11 ... I just bought the housing for the G9 !!!

Take a look at this thread that talks about using the buttons to bypass the wheel functions:
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=745086

The G9/G10/G11 will not optically zoom during a video shoot, they will however digitally zoom. You should select the Video mode, then use the Menu to set Digital Zoom to Standard. This will allow you to digitally zoom during video recording, but only in the Standard recording pixels setting (see pages 102 - 106 in the User Guide).

If you don't have the User Guide, then download the PDF from Canon at this Link.

The G9 underwater housing will not work with the G10 or G11. In fact, all three use different housing model numbers/sizes, due to the different camera dimensions. I purchased my G9 housing this summer when Canon had a big sale, and paid only $64 for it.

Dennis

Thanks for the information. I am in the Maldives and yesterday took it out and got some amazing pictures. I guess the only thing I hate is that the flash light seems to show too many particles that seem caught in the water. RAW is definetely much more superior to AUTO as you can control the colors and compensate somewhat for blueish tint of photos. God I wish I brought along a good strobe as the built in flash is only good for very close ups when you are around 50 or 60 feet things get very dark.

One bad thing though is the damned video. I went out into deep water this morning and got the guts to go right at a large black tipped shark and took video. I then saw a huge turtle and also swam along with it while videoing. Then a manta ray, then some HUGE goupers and a very large red snapper. When I got back to the hotel I was very disappointed with the video only to find out that I had taken the video in low resolution. NOW I know what the little envelope on the video was for ... I guess it helps to read the manual thoroughly. I just hope I can see the same stuff again. Maldives is amazing, I just swim around 100 yards from the water villa I am in and the water goes from 4 feet to 120 feet! Hopefully tomorrow's video will be ok. Thanks again everyone for all the info.