Conclusion - Pros
- Great image quality, resolution, sharpness, on-par or better than
the 990
- Good colours, stronger and more accurate than most, slightly cool
skintones
- ISO 50 produces less noise than the 3 megapixel competition
- Exellent strong blues (something digicams are normally weak at)
- Good solid build quality
- Excellent whitebalance, easy to use preset manual white balance
- Flip-out & twist LCD with anti-reflective coating
- RAW file format (superb!)
- Super-Fine JPEG mode as-good-as TIFF quality
- Noise reduction algorithm
- AF focus assist lamp
- Compact Flash Type II and official Microdrive support
- Flash hot-shoe
- Lots of manual features, full range of scene modes, all controls on
outside of camera
- Control over internal algorithms: contrast, sharpening, saturation
- Fast processing, very fast shutter lag, good internal buffer
- Can be used as a point-and-shoot and equally satisfying for shutterbugs
- Battery life - Canon's Li-Ion battery pack lasts ages!
- AC Adapter / Charger included
- Infrared remote control included
Conclusion - Cons
- Very slow startup time
- Visible chromatic aberrations
- Average macro performance (needs close-up lens accessory to really
shine)
- Tendancy to over-expose dark scenes
- Pale skintones when using onboard flash
- Barrel distortion at wide angle
- No flexible program AE
- No histogram in record review or playback mode
- No sharpening / zoomed image in manual focus (and no distance readout,
only blocks)
- Flimsy rubber door covering AC in connector (how long will that last?)
- No zoom / sharpening in manual focus makes it difficult to be sure
about the focus point
- Odd F8 problem (camera locks to F8 at shutter speeds > 1/500s)
Overall conclusion
Here's my rating of the Canon Powershot G1: (3 megapixel compact prosumer)
| Detail |
Rating (out of 10) |
| Construction |
8 |
| Features |
9.5 |
| Image quality |
9 |
| Lens / CCD combination |
8 |
| Ease of use |
8 |
| Value for money |
10 |
Canon knew what they had to do, they knew of the 990
when they were developing the G1 and they knew what users wanted, they've
ensured that lots of the things we've complained were missing from the
990 (and other 3 megapixel prosumer digital cameras) are here in the G1,
there's the excellent flip-out and twist LCD to compete with the 990's
twisting body, there's ISO 50 to kill some of the noise in good light,
there's RAW, Microdrive support, AF assist lamp, a flash hot-shoe, supplied
Lithium-Ion batteries, supplied AC adapter, the list goes on.
When you take the whole package and the fact that image
quality is at least on par with the 990 (some colours are certainly more
saturated) then it's easy to see why the G1 now looks like the choice
digital camera for the prosumer looking for a 3 megapixel digital camera.
Ok, so Canon are about 6 months late to market and we're all expecting
new cameras at PMA next year but, just in time for Christmas. Canon's
built an excellent prosumer digital camera and I'm sure it'll become first
choice for many people.
Highly Recommended
So which one should I buy? A question I
get asked several times a day, and I wouldn't like to say. In a new addition
to my reviews (after the amount of feedback I normally get) I've added
a link to a specific forum in which you can discuss the review or ask
me specific questions which I've not answered in these pages.
Order
the Canon G1 online from our
approved affiliate retailer State Street Direct
and help support this site and future reviews!
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Sep 29, 2003
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Sep 17, 2003
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Sep 17, 2003
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Oct 2, 2000
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The venerable Canon PowerShot G1 was announced seventeen years ago this week, marking the start of a line of enthusiast-focused compacts that's still alive and kicking.
Every two years, all eyes in the photography world are focused on Cologne, Germany for the biennial Photokina tradeshow. DPReview has been attending the show since 2000. Join us as we look back
|
Dave
over at Imaging-Resource has been busy with Canon's latest prosumer digital
camera, the PowerShot G1. "...the Canon PowerShot G1 a great option
for novice consumers who want a camera with room to grow, and the RAW
data file format and RemoteCapture computer-control capabilities should
also entice more advanced digicam consumers..." | |
Jeff
Keller at DC Resource has just posted his Canon G1 review, he said "...I
will say that the PowerShot G1 takes care of a lot of issues that I had
with the Coolpix 990, such as sound with movies, CompactFlash Type II
support, and a hot shoe. Plus it adds the very handy swiveling LCD! This
one definitely be one of the finalists if I was camera shopping, and its
very much worth your time to consider it!" | |
Pre-Photokina
2000: Today Canon unveil their latest digital camera, the G1. Aimed
squarely at the "prosumer" marketplace the G1 enters the arena
as a direct competitor to the Coolpix 990, Sony F505V and Olympus C-3030Z.
Canon have listened, the G1 supports CF Type II (for IBM Microdrive) has
a flash hotshoe and (Pro 70 users will love this) and flip out and twist
LCD screen for viewing at any angle, and there's RAW mode images too..
There's lots more goodies in store, so come on in for the full story.
(We have exclusive images, menus and other details). UPDATE:
Sample Images online.
Vitals: 3.14 megapixels effective (2048
x 1536), 3 x optical zoom lens (F2.0 - F2.5), flip-out and twist coated
LCD screen, flash hot-shoe, Compact Flash Type II, ISO 50 - 400, JPEG
/ RAW image format, InfraRed remote control. Front-on just a little bigger
than a S10/S20. |
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