Is a G10 too much?

[Jada Eastwood]

Just wanted to say that I highly recommend the G10. Miss a longer reach, but the photos are razor-sharp and it's an excellent camera for landscapes and portraits. It reminds me of the Sony R1 - without the weight.

I'm not a huge fan of mp's, but as long as they are usable mp's, that's great.

Other pluses: can fit in your pocket, batteries last a very long while, very nice LCD and the capability to take movies.

--
Just Jada

Let's do it! Let's move to Mars. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall

 

[GeraldW]

Jeff,

A few points as a follow up on your post.

To some extent, the filter/lens adapters defeat the purpose of the P&S, making it bigger and heavier. Because of the combination of the wide angle, and the lens extension in tele, the LensMate adapter for the G10, when used for filters, extends pretty far out and requires a 72 mm filter to avoid vignetting at 28 mm - so the camera suddenly gets a lot bigger and heavier. For use with tele extenders, however, only a 58 mm tube is needed as the camera is not then used in WA.

For the G7 and G9, the LensMate is smaller and uses a 58 mm filter, which keeps the size pretty reasonable.

Use of the Canon or LensMate adapters with just a clear filter (multicoated, and of high quality, of course) provides good protection against dust, mist or spray entering the camera through the lens. As the lens extends and retracts on zooming and at start up and shut down, it acts like a bellows and alternatly sucks in and blows out air from inside the body, bringing dust and moisture with it. However, if a LensMate (or Canon equivalent) is fitted with a filter on it, the lens is in a closed chamber, and the air from inside the LensMate is exchanged within the body and vice versa as the lens extends and retracts - no outside air is introduced under this condition, and so no dust is sucked in.

The LensMate on my G7 is also nice for a place to grip to help balance a large shoe mounted flash.

Several non-Canon tele extender lenses work very well on the G series cameras. Among these are the Olympus TCON 17 (1.7x, 55 mm threads), the Sony DH1758 (1.7x, 58 mm threads and requires a 58 to 58 mm spacer), and the Raynox 1540 Pro (1.54x, 52 mm threads). When an adapter ring for thread sizes is used, the thickness of the ring is critical to the sharpness of the lens/camera combination. For example, the 58 to 58 mm spacer, needed to prevent the lens from hitting the rear of the Sony DH1758 lens, needs to be quite thin to avoid soft corners in the image. A change of 1.5 mm (0.059") made a noticeable difference in sharpness on my G7.
--
Jerry

 

[GeraldW]

Something I forgot to add: Whichever camera you choose, consider setting it to Program instead of Auto. It's still very Point and Shoot, but now you can choose a number of settings to improve picture quality such as sharpness, contrast, and saturation. On travel, I shoot in Program with either Vivid set or increased sharpness and contrast or saturation to get more postcard-like images in JPEG.

On my wife's A710IS, to keep it as simple as possible for her, (she doesn't want to learn about it, but she managed to understand her programmable sewing machine just fine) I set up Program for all non-flash shots and she just switches to Auto when she wants flash. It works like a charm.
--
Jerry

 

[jpmalohesr]

Currently I have a Nikon D70 with a few lenses - I'm heading over to
London this summer with the family and would really like a more
compact camera to take with me - I've searched and really like the
Canon G10 - used Canon P&S cameras before and really like them. But I
wonder if the G10 is going to be just too much.

What I like about it:
Great reviews
IQ
I'm already familiar with the Canon Menu system
28mm Wide Angle
Manual Controls

But - if I'm honest I'm probably going to end up keeping it in Auto a
majority of the time.

This is wise anyhow, especially if you are traveling with someone who doesn't share your passion for photography. Not so much time messing with camera controls. You could consider P mode with ISO at 200 or 400

Would I be better served with a Sd880 (I'm sold on the 28mm wide
angle) or even a Panasonic TZ5.

Any advice?

Cheers,

David

 

[nolten]

I agree about the size of the 72mm adaptor. Lensmate also suggests using just the 58mm base piece and two 5 mm thick extender rings (by Cokin from B&H) prior to the filter. This limits the zoom range to about 28-100 mm equiv before the lens hits the filter. This is the solution I use. I simply remove the adaptor if I want to zoom further out. It is no larger than my previous Gs and adds only 3 oz to the camera's weight.

For my use, I consider a polarizer an essential and any camera that can't take one too little.

 

[peterreebok]

--

I know almost nothing about photography, but have planned the 'trip of a lifetime' riding old enfields around the Himalayas in July this year.

Did some research, deciding between a DSLR and a high end P&S, and was about to buy the G9, when the G10 started to surface. Waited a bit, bought it, and am spending the time between now and July to learn how to take reasonable pictures. Spent some time agonising over whether the G10 was too much or not. In the end, the fact that the wife was more than happy to take a photo with it sealed the deal. Otherwise it would have been underused.

You will hear a lot about RAW vs JPG, but it came crashingly clear to me yesterday when editing xmas photos. Nieces and nephews are only young once! When working with Jpegs, it is easy to get sucked into the crop this, adjust that cycle, that ends up compressing a 'good' 5mb image down to180kb rubbish.

But the photos I took in RAW, I could take my time editing, knowing that the end image would be servicable quality.

The Auto functions are good, but I would counsel you to play with the camera for a while to make sure you take advantage of exposure compensation, and take many shots of the same scene with different settings to understand the results.

The G10 is a far better camera than I am a photographer. But I am learning that the answer is in the subtle parts of a photo. You dont have to drift too far from the auto modes to take 'technically good' shots, with only minor adjustments.

The wife is shaking her head, as I am taking, now, a few hundred shots of the same scene, and learning what changes happen when you adjust this and that.

The G10 gets my vote. It has sparked an interest in an area that I had no interest in, simply because it lets me use the menus to improve.

And in August, I will have 'my' scenes of the Himalayas that I will treasure.
Apologies for the ramble.
I urge you to buy the G10, and take it with you.

 

[jpmalohesr]

Regards

jim

 

[Snappy Happy]

Considering you already have a dSLR for your fine photography, and you want something small that you can carry around in your pocket when you don't want to lug your serious camera, I wouldn't even consider the G10... no matter how much its owners like it. Remember why you wanted a compact to begin with: Size.