I have had this camera for well over a year and have shot 4000 pictures with it. Generally, I'm very happy with it and I believe it is an exceptional value for the money.
Image quality: particularly when shooting outdoors, the camera performs at a high level. I use the highest resolution available and fine mode. Pictures printed up to 11x14 show good color (saturation may be a bit low) and excellent quality.
Ease of use: when shooting in the default mode, it's very easy to use. As long as I don't try to get fancy, I spend no time messing with the camera. Just open it and go.
(Contrary to other comments here, I have found the sliding front cover easy-to-use and more secure against dust/dirt than the Canons, for example).
Battery Life: good. I generally can get 200 pictures or so out of the battery. The charging time is very fast -- around 1 hour.
Overall, this is a great camera for the money. I have used many cameras in this class (Canons, Sonys, Fujis, Olympus, etc), and I think the G600 stands up to any of them. The Canons are probably a little easier to use, but as far as picture quality goes, I have not seen any other compact P&S digicams consistently produce higher-quality pictures.
Of course, this is no DSLR or even a fixed-lens "point and shoot". If you compare it against those cameras, it's probably going to lose in terms of both quality and usability. But if you compare apples to apples, and throw in the G600's incredibly low price, you have a great camera and a great value.
Problems:
- Difficult to set manual shutter speeds
- Generally difficult to make custom settings
- AF does not do well with capturing moving objects
- Long minimum focusing distance makes macro work almost impossible.
Image quality: particularly when shooting outdoors, the camera performs at a high level. I use the highest resolution available and fine mode. Pictures printed up to 11x14 show good color (saturation may be a bit low) and excellent quality.
Ease of use: when shooting in the default mode, it's very easy to use. As long as I don't try to get fancy, I spend no time messing with the camera. Just open it and go.
(Contrary to other comments here, I have found the sliding front cover easy-to-use and more secure against dust/dirt than the Canons, for example).
Battery Life: good. I generally can get 200 pictures or so out of the battery. The charging time is very fast -- around 1 hour.
Overall, this is a great camera for the money. I have used many cameras in this class (Canons, Sonys, Fujis, Olympus, etc), and I think the G600 stands up to any of them. The Canons are probably a little easier to use, but as far as picture quality goes, I have not seen any other compact P&S digicams consistently produce higher-quality pictures.
Of course, this is no DSLR or even a fixed-lens "point and shoot". If you compare it against those cameras, it's probably going to lose in terms of both quality and usability. But if you compare apples to apples, and throw in the G600's incredibly low price, you have a great camera and a great value.
Problems:
- Difficult to set manual shutter speeds
- Generally difficult to make custom settings
- AF does not do well with capturing moving objects
- Long minimum focusing distance makes macro work almost impossible.