Taking Better Pictures Cheaply With Canon G7

If you are like me you frequently scour eBay and Facebook Marketplace for great deals.  Or to pick up collectibles or hobby items.  You know as well as I do that there are ads out there with HORRIBLE pictures in them.   Maybe you are guilty of this as well.   I know I have put up some for sale ads before with substandard photos.   This blog may seemingly take a backwards approach to solve the problem.  Most of us think that we need new and better equipment to improve our photos.  That simply isn’t the case.   We can vastly improve our images with a camera that is nearly 20 years old.  I’m going to use the venerable Canon G7.

The G7 was released in late 2006 and unless I miss my guess it was released first in Japan.  I was living in Japan at that time and I was positively giddy at getting my hands on one.

The G7 was a gem however, I had a bad case of upgrade-itis and sold mine and got a G9.  My first thoughts were that I should have never gotten rid of the G7.

And then one day I stumbled across one at a super great price that was in pristine condition and I decided to see if the magic was still there.

The principle allure of using this old camera is that it can be tethered to a computer which is a feature that you just won’t find in non-DSLR cameras these days.  There are a couple of caveats though.

Gotchas

1. Drivers for these old cameras are no longer supported in Windows 11.  But they still work fine under Windows 10.  The G7 still works fine under Linux.
2. There was one hunk of software out there called PSRemote from Breeze Systems that supported tethering.  PSRemote is abandonware, but still works if you have a licensed copy.  Fortunately, I still do.
3. In lieu of PSRemote you can still tether the Canon G7 with Open Source software such as Darktable or Entangle.  And both of those programs are FREE to download.

Entangle is a bit of an odd duck and seems a tad buggy.  Once you get past its idiosyncrasies, of which there are a few, it is quite capable.  I’d recommend Darktable for the beginner.

Detail

I took this pic with the G7 mounted on a tripod and connected to a small Windows 10 laptop using PSRemote.

Canon G7 Tethered Photo (click pic to enlarge)

That shot nearly rivals some of the macro work I have done with my Nikon DSLR and 105mm micro lens.  On technical merits my DSLR rig is almost always going to win but when you do a cost benefit analysis, there is no comparison.  I got my G7 for way less than $100 and then factor in the cost of a long USB cable.  That adds another whopping $5 to the total cost.

Benefits Of Tethering

• Instant Feedback
• Change camera settings on a computer screen instead of fumbling through button pushes on the camera.
• Once your shot is configured to your satisfaction you can then just drag and drop the photo into your eBay, or Facebook Marketplace ad.

Simplistic Setup

You don’t need a fancy studio.  Just any old space and some kind of backdrop.  I may have been better off with a white or black sheet but I just used what was available on the quick.  As I’m writing this I am as sick as a dog.  I didn’t have the wherewithall to get too elaborate.

Here’s the shot I took.  Is it perfect?  No.  there are some odd reflections and light play on the LCD.   I could have adjusted my lighting or shooting angle to compensate.  Again, this can all be done on the fly.

Is it better than most shots you see on eBay or Marketplace?  You betcha!

Tethered Shot Canon G7 (click pic to enlarge)

Pretty easy actually.  Did we achieve the perfect shot?  Nope.  Would it have been better with some crazy light rings?  Yep.   Perfection was not the goal.  The goal was to take a BETTER PIC.  We want to capture detail such as material condition and make sure things like Model numbers are LEGIBLE.  Better photos make it easier to sell things.

Taking an old Powershot camera and tethering it to a computer is relatively inexpensive, and makes it a lot easier to get a good shot.