would you want to evaluate an E-20 when you own a D60?
Exactly.
In any event, I have owned a 'half price Sony' and agree with you
that the images are more 'vibrant' and 'saturated' out of the
camera (DSC-F505V) - that is the very point - they are TOO
processed for serious work, especialy with the Sony in the reds,
they are also very prone to color casts. I believe that the
F707/717 are improved in this respect. I can't speak for the
Canon's.
There's a very easy way to compare - go to PhotoSig.com click on
Photos and Browse by Camera. That can be very telling. You'll find
that the E10 photos cover a broader spectrum of types of shots
(landscape, portraits, etc.) where you'll find a zillion landscapes
with the G2 - but very few people shots and practically zilch
studio shots. I haven't ever looked at the Sony stuff because I
won't consider a digicam and I'm not into a bunch of proprietary
stuff (stick and battery). I rambled through the E10 section for a
few days and decided that the camera will give me more of what I
want, better tonality, and a picture right of the camera I can show
to the client.
I am afraid you are making the mistake of comparing consumer grade
cameras with professional equipment - with the former the
assumption is made that the user will want to do little or no
post-processing, with the latter dynamic range and colour accuracy
is everything and 'darkroom' work is part of the process, albeit
digitally.
Being able to actually see through the lens to me is a big, big,
big, BIG deal. I was taking hundreds of shots with an EVF to make
sure I got 5 good ones because of OOF, etc. You can clog up a 40
gig hard drive very quickly with a pile of 5 megapixel pictures and
get bogged down in post. The client short circuits too when you
send the 300 proofs on a web site to look at. I found with 35mm, I
was shooting 2 shots and moving on to the next pose because I was
more confident I was getting what I wanted. If I find I
consistently want to bump saturation, I can batch it.
The E-10/E20's are among the most colour accurate cameras on the
market (E-10 is actually slightly better IMHO), perhaps you either
have a faulty unit or your monitor and/or print combination has a
problem.
I downloaded Phil's E10 samples before I bought my E10 (only got it
today) to print and the color saturation on them coming off my
S9000 was much better than my Dimage. I think you might want to
produce a print rather than judge just what you see on the screen.
Clay