Say what you will in defense of this G7-G9 dust problem but I have been using an Olympus C4000Z for over 5 years with no evidence of this type problem. The G9 is, or was, at the top of my list as a replacement for my outdated C4000Z. From what I have read so far their seems to be a legitimate complaint with the Canon G9 as well as some of their other models. I don't relish the thought of having to keep the G9 in the underwater housing all the time to prevent this lens dust problem.
This is an e mail I received from a G9 owner after they read this post:
"I read your Canon G9 dust notice on the web.
My Canon G9 is only 6 months old and already shows 4 visible dust particles behind the front lens of which one is located in the center of the lens. The comment of the Canon service center is that this is quite normal and acceptable and I really should not worry about this. My comment that a compact of this quality should be dust proof was directly moved into a dustbin, I just have to accept this 'feature'.
I noticed the dust because the autofocus is hunting when I try to focus a very close object with aperture set to maximal depth of field (f. 8.0). Since the dust is troubling the functionality of the camera (the litteral comment of the service person) I can send the camera to a local repair center to clean the lens.
I am worried is that the dust will enter the lens again very soon and I'm not very amused to send the camera (for a period of some weeks?) to a service center with an interval of 6 months. I think that Canon should solve this problem.
By the way, before the G9 I used a Canon 650 which could not be used in full sunlight, so this is my second Canon problem within about 8 months ..... with my very good experiences with several EOS versions in mind I get a little bit tired".
