Bought a Canon G2 this spring, and have taken several hundred shots of everything from my fast-moving-kids to landscapes. Recently swaped it for a friend's Nikon D100 for a few months, and have taken a few hundred photos with that camera, using some pro-grade Nikkor lenses. Significant findings:
1. The resolution of the G2 images is at least as good as the D100, overall.
2. Both the tonal range and exposure accuracy of the G2 images seem to be significantly better, capturing more detail in both highlights and shodows. The D100 often either underexposes the photos, or clips the highlights.
3. Flash exposes with the G2 (using built-in flash, or a Nikon SB-28) are vastly superior to those of the D100. The G2 seems to get pleasing results almost every time; the D100 requires excruciating effort to get results that are inconsistent at best. With flash, the D100's expossure and highlight-clipping problems seem to be exacerbated with either the built-in or external flash.
4. Fine JPEG images with the G2 seem to capture about as much colour and detail as in raw mode, whereas the D100's fine JPEG's seem to lack a fair bit of the detail and colour info available from that camera's raw images.
5. The G2 is a pig to handle, compared with the D100. The G2 is anything but "point and shoot": you have to remove the lens cap BEFORE you turn the camera on; turn the camera on; flip out the LCD screen (the viewfinder is pretty cheesy); wait for the thing's brain come to wake up; push the zoom lever one way or the other; wait for the lens to start zooming, and wait for it to zoom to what you want; depress the shutter release part way to focus; wait, while it tries to focus (sometimes unsuccessfully); and finally, when you see a green square, press the shutter release to capture the image. If you really to be able to pull a camera out of a bag and instantly capture a fast-changing scene, or if you want to continuously focus on fast-moving people and things, to capture them at just the right moment - forget about the G2, or any of the other so-called point-and-shoot cameras. You'll drive yourself nuts. This is where the D100 excels - pull it out of the bag and turn it on while removing the cap; quickly zoom in and out with a big lens collar while autocusing, and snap the shot. Right now. And again and again, until the buffer's full. (Just don't expect the D100 to handle nearly as well as a pro 35 mm SLR - the viewfinder is dark and puny compered with my F100, and autofocus performance is somewhat inferior. And once the D100's buffer's full, expect to wait many seconds before you can start shooting again.)
6. A D100 with a decent lens is anything but compact and inconspicuous. Frankly, I'm looking forward to getting my G2 back from my friend, in exchange for his D100, for use in polite company, so to speak. And for the action shots, and for my "serious" photography in general, I'm going to keep using my F100 and those big lenses designed to cover a full 35mm frame, for a long time to come. (Scanning of slides and negatives still gives wonderful control, and wonderful results.)
If you're an amateur and you're determined to go digital right now and you can't afford a truly professional SLR (and who can, when they're depreciating so quickly?), buy a G2, while you can. You'll be delighted with some really gorgeous images. Even images cropped to about 1/2 frame produce wonderfully sharp 8x10 prints with my aging Epson 1270 photo printer.
Problems:
1. Can't zoom images on screen after taking them, to detect image blur (from hand-held low-speed available light shooting ). Consequently, I frequently end up wasting storage space on the card, instead of deleting blurred images to make room for more.
2. Frustratingly slow to start up, focus, and shoot, compared with 35mm or digital SLR's.
1. The resolution of the G2 images is at least as good as the D100, overall.
2. Both the tonal range and exposure accuracy of the G2 images seem to be significantly better, capturing more detail in both highlights and shodows. The D100 often either underexposes the photos, or clips the highlights.
3. Flash exposes with the G2 (using built-in flash, or a Nikon SB-28) are vastly superior to those of the D100. The G2 seems to get pleasing results almost every time; the D100 requires excruciating effort to get results that are inconsistent at best. With flash, the D100's expossure and highlight-clipping problems seem to be exacerbated with either the built-in or external flash.
4. Fine JPEG images with the G2 seem to capture about as much colour and detail as in raw mode, whereas the D100's fine JPEG's seem to lack a fair bit of the detail and colour info available from that camera's raw images.
5. The G2 is a pig to handle, compared with the D100. The G2 is anything but "point and shoot": you have to remove the lens cap BEFORE you turn the camera on; turn the camera on; flip out the LCD screen (the viewfinder is pretty cheesy); wait for the thing's brain come to wake up; push the zoom lever one way or the other; wait for the lens to start zooming, and wait for it to zoom to what you want; depress the shutter release part way to focus; wait, while it tries to focus (sometimes unsuccessfully); and finally, when you see a green square, press the shutter release to capture the image. If you really to be able to pull a camera out of a bag and instantly capture a fast-changing scene, or if you want to continuously focus on fast-moving people and things, to capture them at just the right moment - forget about the G2, or any of the other so-called point-and-shoot cameras. You'll drive yourself nuts. This is where the D100 excels - pull it out of the bag and turn it on while removing the cap; quickly zoom in and out with a big lens collar while autocusing, and snap the shot. Right now. And again and again, until the buffer's full. (Just don't expect the D100 to handle nearly as well as a pro 35 mm SLR - the viewfinder is dark and puny compered with my F100, and autofocus performance is somewhat inferior. And once the D100's buffer's full, expect to wait many seconds before you can start shooting again.)
6. A D100 with a decent lens is anything but compact and inconspicuous. Frankly, I'm looking forward to getting my G2 back from my friend, in exchange for his D100, for use in polite company, so to speak. And for the action shots, and for my "serious" photography in general, I'm going to keep using my F100 and those big lenses designed to cover a full 35mm frame, for a long time to come. (Scanning of slides and negatives still gives wonderful control, and wonderful results.)
If you're an amateur and you're determined to go digital right now and you can't afford a truly professional SLR (and who can, when they're depreciating so quickly?), buy a G2, while you can. You'll be delighted with some really gorgeous images. Even images cropped to about 1/2 frame produce wonderfully sharp 8x10 prints with my aging Epson 1270 photo printer.
Problems:
1. Can't zoom images on screen after taking them, to detect image blur (from hand-held low-speed available light shooting ). Consequently, I frequently end up wasting storage space on the card, instead of deleting blurred images to make room for more.
2. Frustratingly slow to start up, focus, and shoot, compared with 35mm or digital SLR's.