The G5 is merely an interim model until Canon releases their next
major upgrade, which I believe will be released within the next 2
months. I think it's premature to write off Canon or to look at the
G5 as THE Canon camera for 2003.
The Fuji certainly sounds interesting, and its resolution does seem
quite amazing. But as has been pointed out time and time again, you
should not base your camera selection on price and megapixels.
There is a lot more to consider.
For starters, the Fuji has an f2.8 lens. For anyone who frequently
struggles to capture natural light photos in dimly lit situations,
f2.8 is hardly what could be considered a fast lens. To be fair, at
telephoto, the Fuji maintains a very respectable f3.1 max aperture.
If telephoto is a high priority, this is certainly a camera worth
looking into, but if you shoot a large percentage of the time at
normal zoom and in low light, this is not the best choice of camera.
On a related note, The Fuji's long zoom lens requires an electronic
viewfinder. The lack of an optical viewfinder can be an annoying
limitation, as EVFs generally produce a very small, very dim image
which is unsuitable in low light or for tracking moving subjects. I
imagine that using this camera's highest focal length settings will
be a significant challenge unless you're using a very sturdy tripod
and aiming at a relatively motionless subject.
One inexplicable fault: no AF assist lamp. Combined witht he
slowlens and lack of a bright optical viewfinder, this camera seems
way out of place in low light - period.
I AM very curious to hear more about the "twin AF" system. If
they've developed anything to improve the poor autofocus
performance common with all non-SLR digital cameras, that would
certainly be noteworthy. But again, with a slow lens and no AF
assist lamp, it seems to me that AF will continue to be problematic
in low light.
Another unfortunate ommisssion, the Fuji lacks an articulated LCD
viewfinder, one of the more popular features in digital cameras
today.
I have a G2 and of course am thinking about upgrading all the time
to get a better camera ....
G3 and G5 were quickly ruled out. Now i see the s7000 release and
it looks like the price is very similar to the G5 but the s7000
seems to be a lot better, also doent seem to be too much bigger...
The s7000 as a better alternative? opinons?
Matt
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