My G15 review after using it for ~6 weeks

I had about $1K two months ago to upgrade my photography gear.  Some of the primary requirements included good video for family/kids, competitive autofocus, capable of taking fast shots, and durability so that I could pass it on to my kids when I grew tired of it.  I quickly decided the purchase would be a canon: either an entry DLSR (rebel) or a G15/G1X.  The G15 won out, primarily due to its value and allowing me use the rest of the budget for accessories such as a new tripod, case, additional batteries/chargers, intervalometer, grey/color cards, and neat image noise reduction software.

As soon as I saw the quality of the jpgs, the G15 produced - I knew I wasn't going to be too unhappy with that decision.

The only times I might possibly wince and wish I had gotten the DSLR are:

* When I reach the limit of the 5X optical zoom (The G15 is good indoors, but the zoom limitation is frustrating for some outdoor shots).

* When I select aspect ratio and realize that I suddenly lost 1 megapixel just because I want to shoot in 3:2.   Shooting 16:9 is -3 Megapixel if I remember correctly.  Yes, I could aspect-crop in PP, but this might be painful when combining several hundred shots into a timelapse video/etc.

* When I try to take very low light shots, and have to go up higher in ISO.  The G15 still makes great photos, but the jpgs have more noise than I'm happy with.  The warning rang seems closer to 800-2000 iso for me. I try to keep all my shots at 400 iso or less when possible. The faster lens helps with this.  Also, thankfully, neat image does a good job of automatically clearing up most of the noise w/o impacting sharpness.

* When I try to do anything with RAW.  One apparently needs a raw processor that will read the embedded processing commands in the raw file (like DPP) to have any chance of surpassing the quality of the native g15 jpgs.  Linux doesn't seem to have many software options that do this.  Although, it's possible that digikam/etc is getting this feature if I read one of the recent 3.0+ release notes properly.

* When I accidentally turn camera on/off.  One of the first habits I learned was to keep my fingers away from the power button.

* When I see dust/dirt/scruff marks on the camera controls despite being very careful about keeping the camera clean.  The G15, much more than the much older G-Series cameras, seems to need to be cleaned at least once/week when being used significantly.

* When I make action video and realize that 30 frames/second is much better than 24 frames/second and thus end up recording at 720p.  Not even thinking of 60 frames/second.

Still, the G15 makes a great camera and I'm glad I purchased it.  The manual focus capabilities, jpeg processing quality, quick lens, snappy overall response, easy to use controls, completeness of the camera feature set, and many video capture methods are the real highlights.  The size of the camera isn't so much an advantage as much as it reduces how heavy the camera feels after several hours of carrying it.

Example of a video I took over easter weekend while taking kids to park (combines timelapse via continual Tv mode shots, movie digest, and photo slideshow  over just 3 minutes - mostly assembled itself):

http://vimeo.com/deploylinux/review/63085406/a446fdeeee

Going forward, I hope to be able to add an external flash (speedlight 320?) when the budget affords.