Help...A70 or G3?

I've really decided and have focused (bad pun) on a new Canon digicam. (I currently have only an HP 1MP 2x zoom). I'm having a tough time deciding between the A70 and G3. Obviously, the G3 is more expensive. They both have many of the same features I'm seeking like manual aperture and shutter speed, good zoom, high pixels, etc. I like the A70 for its size, AA batteries and lower price...really like the LCD screen on the G3 and its sturdiness and more features. I'm a well beyond amateur/hobby photographer, but not really a pro. Any thoughts to help me decide between the two? Is the G3 worth the extra money? Thanks!!!

Lee Bowman said:

I've really decided and have focused (bad pun) on a new Canon
digicam. (I currently have only an HP 1MP 2x zoom). I'm having a
tough time deciding between the A70 and G3. Obviously, the G3 is
more expensive. They both have many of the same features I'm
seeking like manual aperture and shutter speed, good zoom, high
pixels, etc. I like the A70 for its size, AA batteries and lower
price...really like the LCD screen on the G3 and its sturdiness and
more features. I'm a well beyond amateur/hobby photographer, but
not really a pro. Any thoughts to help me decide between the two?
Is the G3 worth the extra money? Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

How about a G2? You can still get a new one. As to features, The G series have tilt and swivel LCD screens, which is a great feature. Just like on a video camera. G cameras also have a hot shoe, if you want the option of an external flash. the G2 and A70 both have 3x optical zoom, and the G3 has 4x.

In addition to a G2 I have an S230 and just got an A70 for a relative as a gift. I like the build quality on the G series better than the A70 (especially the LCD screen), but for many pictures I like the smaller size of the A70 and my S230. The A70 seems like a real nice setup -- fits the hands much better IMHO than the Nikon 3400, and your nose does not get in the way of the viewfinder or the shutter button if you use your left eye.

Another plus for a G2 or G3 -- the proprietary LiIon battery lasts a long time and can be charged in the camera. The A70 requires that you remove all four AA batteries to recharge. That is a lot of wear and tear on the battery compartment door. But a minus for the G series -- they are fairly bulky. My own setup is to use my G2 for portraits and shots where I want the best quality (4 MP being better than 3 MP), and I have room to carry it around. But for mobile shots where I want to keep the camera handy in a small case, my S230 (and of course the A70) are a good choice.

Hope some of this helps in making your choice. If I had only $300 I'd buy the A70 and be very happy about the great improvement over your current camera. If I had maybe $400-450 I'd get a G2. The G3 is something like $600. Any way you go, you will see a big improvement in photo quality and software.
--
Steve
Canon G2 & S230, Mac OS X 10.2.6, Epson 785EPX, Epson 2450,
pbase supporter

I had a G3... took it back because of a misaligned CCD problem with it that we found in a lot of other units around here (long story).

I have a couple of cameras, but I do have an A70 which I use for casual shots. "For the price", it's a nice little camera. Flimsy memory card door, and the LCD isn't the best, but it's ok again, "for the price" and takes nice shots. I use a 10D for anything I know I'm going to frame or do serious work with. Of course, if you can afford or squeeze funds for a 10D + lens, the quality is much better than any of the consumer-level digital cameras, and you can grow with the camera as you learn more.

Greg

Lee Bowman said:

I've really decided and have focused (bad pun) on a new Canon
digicam. (I currently have only an HP 1MP 2x zoom). I'm having a
tough time deciding between the A70 and G3. Obviously, the G3 is
more expensive. They both have many of the same features I'm
seeking like manual aperture and shutter speed, good zoom, high
pixels, etc. I like the A70 for its size, AA batteries and lower
price...really like the LCD screen on the G3 and its sturdiness and
more features. I'm a well beyond amateur/hobby photographer, but
not really a pro. Any thoughts to help me decide between the two?
Is the G3 worth the extra money? Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

Greg Henry said:

I had a G3... took it back because of a misaligned CCD problem with
it that we found in a lot of other units around here (long story).

I have a couple of cameras, but I do have an A70 which I use for
casual shots. "For the price", it's a nice little camera. Flimsy
memory card door, and the LCD isn't the best, but it's ok again,
"for the price" and takes nice shots. I use a 10D for anything I
know I'm going to frame or do serious work with. Of course, if you
can afford or squeeze funds for a 10D + lens, the quality is much
better than any of the consumer-level digital cameras, and you can
grow with the camera as you learn more.

Greg

Click to expand...

The memory card door really does look like it is just going to fall off, doesn't it. I haven't heard of a lot of people having problems though. If you snaged it on something while it was open it wouldn't take much to rip it off but as far as opening and closing it I think it will do fine. The one on my a40 is just as flimsy and has survived many openings and closings without even geting loose. I have heard others (on the powershot forum) say the same. For an inexpensive camera my a40 served quite well and first impression is that my a70 will de even better. Not bad for a camera to be considered against the g3 for under 300$.

Unless you need a stop gap camera I would suggest the G series. The extra abilities are well worth the money. The only two reasons I would get the A70 over the G series would be cost and form factor preference.

Lee Bowman said:

I've really decided and have focused (bad pun) on a new Canon
digicam. (I currently have only an HP 1MP 2x zoom). I'm having a
tough time deciding between the A70 and G3. Obviously, the G3 is
more expensive. They both have many of the same features I'm
seeking like manual aperture and shutter speed, good zoom, high
pixels, etc. I like the A70 for its size, AA batteries and lower
price...really like the LCD screen on the G3 and its sturdiness and
more features. I'm a well beyond amateur/hobby photographer, but
not really a pro. Any thoughts to help me decide between the two?
Is the G3 worth the extra money? Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

In addition to earlier replies by others and me, you may want to check out the digital camera review article in the special "digitalHUB" edition of Macworld. While the A70 is not reviewed (probably too new), it does review a number of good cameras and has some valuable discussions of features, pros and cons.
--
Steve
Canon G2 & S230, Mac OS X 10.2.6, Epson 785EPX, Epson 2450,
pbase supporter

Hi Steve

I had this dude in a few moment, because i liked the A70 because i had only 300· for the camera, but now i have many more $$ and i think is woryj for extra money the G3. I thing the G3 cost this money because is a semi-pro digical Camera.
And i had too, a HP but is was a HP Photosmart 215.
I suposed that will be a great change between the Hp 215 and the g3. JA JA JA.
Thanks

Steve Macaulay said:

Lee Bowman said:

I've really decided and have focused (bad pun) on a new Canon
digicam. (I currently have only an HP 1MP 2x zoom). I'm having a
tough time deciding between the A70 and G3. Obviously, the G3 is
more expensive. They both have many of the same features I'm
seeking like manual aperture and shutter speed, good zoom, high
pixels, etc. I like the A70 for its size, AA batteries and lower
price...really like the LCD screen on the G3 and its sturdiness and
more features. I'm a well beyond amateur/hobby photographer, but
not really a pro. Any thoughts to help me decide between the two?
Is the G3 worth the extra money? Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

In addition to earlier replies by others and me, you may want to
check out the digital camera review article in the special
"digitalHUB" edition of Macworld. While the A70 is not reviewed
(probably too new), it does review a number of good cameras and has
some valuable discussions of features, pros and cons.
--
Steve
Canon G2 & S230, Mac OS X 10.2.6, Epson 785EPX, Epson 2450,
pbase supporter

Click to expand...

I figure the mechanism that pops the cf card in and out can go bad, too!

Not just the door!

OTOH, the flap that covers the USB slot isn't all that much better (though probably because it's rubberized a snag wouldn't hurt it as much). Plus, there's no spring mechanism to go bad--such as could happen if someone uses a card reader and keeps taking the card in and out of the camera.

Constructionwise, I think the only thing you should be concerned with on A70 is the battery door. The camera will still function without the CF card door and scratched up LCD. But the flimsy spring loaded battery door, if broken, will make the camera inoperative.
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lorenzo said:

I figure the mechanism that pops the cf card in and out can go bad,
too!

Not just the door!

OTOH, the flap that covers the USB slot isn't all that much better
(though probably because it's rubberized a snag wouldn't hurt it as
much). Plus, there's no spring mechanism to go bad--such as could
happen if someone uses a card reader and keeps taking the card in
and out of the camera.

Click to expand...

Mehdie said:

Constructionwise, I think the only thing you should be concerned
with on A70 is the battery door. The camera will still function
without the CF card door and scratched up LCD. But the flimsy
spring loaded battery door, if broken, will make the camera
inoperative.

Click to expand...

To tell you the truth, as flimsy as they look, I am not really worried about it. I have had my a40 for a while now and they are intact with no sign of wear. I occationally go to the powershot forum (lots of a40 users and this topic came up once or twice. The general concensus was that as flimsy as they look, no one had had a problem with them even after a lot of use over a long period of time.

Mehdie said:

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lorenzo said:

I figure the mechanism that pops the cf card in and out can go bad,
too!

Not just the door!

OTOH, the flap that covers the USB slot isn't all that much better
(though probably because it's rubberized a snag wouldn't hurt it as
much). Plus, there's no spring mechanism to go bad--such as could
happen if someone uses a card reader and keeps taking the card in
and out of the camera.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I bought an A-70. It takes such good photos that it reawakened my interest in photography, and I just purchased a 5 MP camera.

Image quality is most important. Nothing beats the A-70 at 3 MP. I even saw comparison shots between the A-70 and G-3. They looked the same. But the G-3 ultimately has the edge just because it has 4 MP.

I think the A-70 is well made for a mid-priced small camera. I think the G3 is too plastic for a high-end camera. It should be made out of metal. But it has more of the features of a professional camera than the A-70.

The new 5 MP cameras are close to 35 mm film. Most say 5 or 6 MP duplicates 35 mm. If you don't want to spend the money now for a 5 MP, the A-70 is a good choice to tide you over for two years until 5 MP cameras come down in price.

To really make digital photogaphy work well, you need a copy of Photoshop. It's the $500,000 color darkroom that we never had.

--
Joesph T. Sinclair, Author, eBay the Smart Way and eBay Business the Smart Way

See first pics with A-70 at:

http://search.dpreview.com/forums/search.asp?query=A-70+photos&forum=1010

--
Joesph T. Sinclair, Author, eBay the Smart Way and eBay Business the Smart Way

Let's try that a different way:

http://sinclair.com/photos/CanonA-70

--
Joesph T. Sinclair, Author, eBay the Smart Way and eBay Business the Smart Way

I am really not that worried about any of the pieces to break on me. I just noticed people are worried about the pieces such as the CF card door breaking and my thoughts were that those would be insignificant relative to what they would have to be careful with when handling the camera - that being the battery door in my opinion. The technology might be obsolete anyway by the time there is enough wear and tear on the camera to cause physical damage. I would actually use the breakage as a convenient excuse to buy a newer toy!
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that

Richard Homeyer said:

Mehdie said:

Constructionwise, I think the only thing you should be concerned
with on A70 is the battery door. The camera will still function
without the CF card door and scratched up LCD. But the flimsy
spring loaded battery door, if broken, will make the camera
inoperative.

Click to expand...

To tell you the truth, as flimsy as they look, I am not really
worried about it. I have had my a40 for a while now and they are
intact with no sign of wear. I occationally go to the powershot
forum (lots of a40 users and this topic came up once or twice. The
general concensus was that as flimsy as they look, no one had had a
problem with them even after a lot of use over a long period of
time.

Richard Homeyer said:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

lorenzo said:

I figure the mechanism that pops the cf card in and out can go bad,
too!

Not just the door!

Click to expand...

I have been using CF cameras since 1997 and have yet to have any problem with the doors 'popping off' or breaking or the CF eject mechanism breaking! I've also never heard of anyone having such a problem with any CF camera. I have taken CF cards in and out of my cameras sometimes as much as several times a day.

So I think the concerns about that are unfounded.



Sincerely, Bob the Printer

Mehdie said:

Constructionwise, I think the only thing you should be concerned
with on A70 is the battery door. The camera will still function
without the CF card door and scratched up LCD. But the flimsy
spring loaded battery door, if broken, will make the camera
inoperative.

Click to expand...

Man, you guys are either worry warts or nitpickers!

There is NO DIGICAM made that has 'bullet proof' battery doors or CF doors! Any of them can be broken off given the wrong circumstances.

And the A70 will NOT function without the CF door (unless you put something in to work the little microswitch which the door activates when closed.



Sincerely, Bob the Printer

John P. Van Smith said:

Unless you need a stop gap camera I would suggest the G series. The
extra abilities are well worth the money. The only two reasons I
would get the A70 over the G series would be cost and form factor
preference.

Click to expand...

Which is not an insignificant consideration!



Sincerely, Bob the Printer

Bob Dolson said:

Mehdie said:

Constructionwise, I think the only thing you should be concerned
with on A70 is the battery door. The camera will still function
without the CF card door and scratched up LCD. But the flimsy
spring loaded battery door, if broken, will make the camera
inoperative.

Click to expand...

Man, you guys are either worry warts or nitpickers!

There is NO DIGICAM made that has 'bullet proof' battery doors or
CF doors! Any of them can be broken off given the wrong
circumstances.

And the A70 will NOT function without the CF door (unless you put
something in to work the little microswitch which the door
activates when closed.

Click to expand...

You are right, Bob. It won't operate with the door open. On the surface it did not seem the door was operating a switch. I agree none of the items are worth losing sleep over. These are just observations to most people. In fact I am not even bothering with the LCD getting scratched - not worth spending $15 to get protective sheath.

Bob the Printer88467 said:

Sincerely, Bob the Printer

Click to expand...