G7 upgrade ...

veroman wrote: Haven't posed here in ages.

That's because I haven't owned a PowerShot since my old G7, which turned out some really excellent imagery. Many thousands of pictures were taken with that camera. I just reviewed some of them in Lightroom and remain impressed with the IQ. I sold it quite a few years ago.

I'm looking to purchase another PowerShot and have been considering a used G11 or going for a new G15. The G15's are going at some very attractive prices right now. But is it worth the additional cost over the G11? And what about just getting another G7? Are the cameras released since the G7 all that much better at base ISO up to ISO 400?

Thank you for your input.

veromon... I was in the same boat as you with a G12 I wanted to upgrade because IQ at ISO 400 or above was just not that good, even at base ISO, was not that sharp. I looked at the G1X2 and IMHO, the lens is flawed, the senor is old and obsolete and the handling was not as good as the older G series cameras. I also looked at the G15/16 and they looked interesting, but IQ and handling was just not what I wanted. I finally got an Olympus XZ-2 and IQ, handling, etc... is exactly what I wanted and needed. If you compare IQ on the DPR Studio Shot Comparison Tool, with the G11,12/15/16, you will see for yourself that the IQ of the XZ-2 at any ISO will look much better and sharper. Since it also cost much less, to me it was a very easy decision. I hope the Canon G17 has a 1" very efficient sensor with a 24-120 mm f2-4.0 lens, but I just don't think they are capable of doing something like that, innovation is not what Canon is good at  

veroman wrote:

I'm looking to purchase another PowerShot and have been considering a used G11 or going for a new G15. The G15's are going at some very attractive prices right now. But is it worth the additional cost over the G11?

The faster lens and faster autofous of the G15 is well worth it. As are full HD video including optical zoom during video.  I know someone with a G10 and recently got photos from him taken at ISO 400.  I had originally thought they were photos from his cell phone.  They were shot JPG but the noise smearing and lack of detail were truly eye opening.  When shooting RAW, the G15 does pretty good up to ISO 1600 for snapshots - family gatherings, etc.  I'm not talking for gallery quality images.  The faster lens and faster autofocus do very well indoors.

The G16 is to have about 40% faster autofocus than even the G15.

tron555 wrote:

veroman wrote: Haven't posed here in ages.

That's because I haven't owned a PowerShot since my old G7, which turned out some really excellent imagery. Many thousands of pictures were taken with that camera. I just reviewed some of them in Lightroom and remain impressed with the IQ. I sold it quite a few years ago.

I'm looking to purchase another PowerShot and have been considering a used G11 or going for a new G15. The G15's are going at some very attractive prices right now. But is it worth the additional cost over the G11? And what about just getting another G7? Are the cameras released since the G7 all that much better at base ISO up to ISO 400?

Thank you for your input.

veromon... I was in the same boat as you with a G12 I wanted to upgrade because IQ at ISO 400 or above was just not that good, even at base ISO, was not that sharp. I looked at the G1X2 and IMHO, the lens is flawed, the senor is old and obsolete and the handling was not as good as the older G series cameras.

Dude, what the hell is a G1X2?  If you are referring to the G1 X mark II it hasn't been shipped yet so you have absolutely no idea about the quality of the lens.

I also looked at the G15/16 and they looked interesting, but IQ and handling was just not what I wanted. I finally got an Olympus XZ-2 and IQ, handling, etc... is exactly what I wanted and needed. If you compare IQ on the DPR Studio Shot Comparison Tool, with the G11,12/15/16, you will see for yourself that the IQ of the XZ-2 at any ISO will look much better and sharper. Since it also cost much less, to me it was a very easy decision. I hope the Canon G17 has a 1" very efficient sensor with a 24-120 mm f2-4.0 lens, but I just don't think they are capable of doing something like that, innovation is not what Canon is good at

Go troll elsewhere.  Reported.

veroman wrote:

tron555 wrote:

The Olympus XZ-2 has some very good features and qualities. But the one area where it falls down is the LCD. It's hard to see in bright light (daylight), like most rear LCDs on point and shoots!

I agree with you. I'm going to pickup the first VF-3 I find that costs less than $100, even if it's used. Since I live in sunny south Florida, it will come in very useful when shooting in bright sunlight.

It never fails to amaze me how otherwise good cameras are simply lousy when it comes to this really crucial component. The LCD is practically central to composition and other aspects of taking a picture when the camera has no viewfinder. And yet the LCD they provide is poor. Makes no sense.

Again, great point, I also agreed. I guess for less than $300, it's not easy including the best LCD and built-in EVF, I guess they concentrated on great IQ, lens, touch screen, processor, etc... to keep the price down.

One of the big attractions for me of the G15 and G16 is the quality of the rear LCD. It's absolutely superb in even the brightest sun ... better than most DSLRs in this respect.

What a shame, because otherwise the Olympus appears to be a very good camera.

The XZ-2 is big enough to have included a small built-in EVF, even it is was only similar to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1, with at least twice the resolution, or more. I would have gladly paid $50 (or more) extra if it was included. All cameras have their compromises. It's up to us to chose the one that has most of what we want, since we can never have everything we want included. Good luck with your search and let us know what you finally decide on and why.

veroman wrote:

tron555 wrote:

Again, great point, I also agreed. I guess for less than $300, it's not easy including the best LCD and built-in EVF, I guess they concentrated on great IQ, lens, touch screen, processor, etc... to keep the price down.

Thanks for the reply. The hardest part of my search is keeping the cost down! That's one reason the G15 is attractive. Only $350 right now. The XZ-2 w/optional viewfinder brings things close to SLR territory ... or the EOS M, which is also selling right now at very low pricing. Right now I'm heading in the direction of something used or refurbished to see what I might find. A new G15 still remains a good option.

Yeah, if keeping the price down is a concern, that ARE many good package prices out there, like: This one, you get about $50-60 worth of free accessories for that price, not too bad. Something to think about if you don't have or need many of those free accessories and like that camera 

Me, I am very satisfied with my G12 to XZ-2 upgrade, I'm really liking the handling and extremely sharp images I'm getting. I got 4 free accessories in a package deal that I needed and Adorama bought my G12, so my total upgrade cost was only $110 when factoring in the free accessories