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Canon Powershot G1 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Canon Powershot G1 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $699.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost perfect
Review: My first digital camera has been excellent but people reading reviews want to know about limitations. 1. Flash is pretty poor- certainly not on par with the rest of the camera. I need to try the speed lite (nice that you can do that). 2. Limited accessories. I would like to mount the camera to other devices but have found this almost impossible. 3. Slow on the draw due to the need to have the lens protrude and retract. These quibbles are pretty minor. For the price, this is a great device. I would give it 4.5 stars if that were an option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best pics in decades
Review: All the power of my old Nikon SLR, PLUS the darkroom now travels in a brief case. I am getting the best, most consistent pics in 20 years. It takes time to get true professional results with this camera, but its the user that has to step up, not the camera. Overexposed flash pics on auto are simple to fix on the exposure menu. Problem has been reported, but really not much of a problem. Software setup with Photoshop or equivalent and good printer a must. Clear, detailed, natural-looking images with sufficient depth to allow lots of manipulation afterwards.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this camera!
Review: I researched digital cameras for about 6 months before deciding on this one. I have a bit of experience with photography, so I wanted one that had a lot of flexibility. Eventually, the decision came down to this camera and the Nikon CoolPix 990. I decided on the Canon because I prefered its traditional design over the Nikon's weird swivel thing. Also the canon uses Compact Flash, which is cheaper than SmartMedia.

If you get this camera, buy a big memory card like one of the Viking 256MB CF cards. You'll like the high resolution images it takes, but they eat up memory like crazy.

Oh, another thing: this camera works with Linux! Actually, that's only half-true. You can use Gphoto...to download images, but you need the RS-232 serial cable ... The smart thing to do, however, is to buy a USB Compact Flash reader, like the SanDisk ImageMate.

All-in-all, I couldn't be happier with this camera, and I don't think I'd be as happy with any other camera out there right now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent results, easy to use, no problems
Review: I bought this camera recently along with a 340MB microdrive. Quality of the photos exceeded my expectations . Performance wise this camera is very good. The battery seems to last forever - I took several hundred pics over a three day period and did not need to recharge. Software works well. Downloads to PC were very easy as was the use of the Canon zoom browser.

The Canon people need to re-think the design though. The camera looks and feels clunky. On-off switch is inconvenient as is the lens cap. At this price Canon should aslo consider providing a camera case.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Experience with the G1
Review: I have had the G1 for 6 months now. Like most of the reviewers, I have been extremely pleased with the camera. The pictures are incredibly sharp. The printout using HP Photosmart printer on photographic papers are incredible -- much better than what I can get from a film camera at Wolf Camera.

But instead of just adding more raving comments that you don't need, I like to share some of my experiences with it.

(1) Like one of the previous reviewer had said, the color saturation is not perfect. I don't know whether this is a problem unique to the G1, or it is a problem for all digicams. I recommend using high saturation setting instead of the default neutral setting. This helps a little, but the pictures are still under saturated. However, correcting this problem is easy with any of the softwares.

(2) While the default setting at ISO 50 is great for outdoor shooting during the day, it is not good for indoor shooting even during the day, or under artificial lighting. The on camera flash is simply not adequate. The best solution is often to set the ISO at 400, but the pictures will be VERY noisy. The median filter by Photoshop will not be of much help in denoising. However, some of the newer wavelet based denoising schemes work quite well.

(3) Don't overlook the manual setting option. I found it to be the best way to shoot night scenes or in low lighting situations. Set the ISO to 200 or 400, and experiment. Using the flash outdoor at night will give you a very blue tone. It can be nice but it is not realistic.

(4) The battery life is one of the strongest reasons to buy the G1. However, don't automatically assume you can get 700-800 pictures on a single charge. You won't! My experiements suggest that you get about 120-150 pictures if you use the LCD AND you use the flash for about 40% of your shots. Also, when the warning of low battery comes, the battery is gone within 3-5 shots.

(5) I had trouble getting the camera to work in cold weather. I use the 340 MB Microdrive. But after I warmed the camera using my hand for a couple of minutes it works properly.

(6) One of the most troubling problem with G1 is the optical distortion of the pictures. If you shoot wide angle you will see rather pronounced distortions at the two upper corners. Vertical lines of a far away building will appear tilted. I haven seen distortions this bad in cheap lens for 35mm cameras, but never in a decent lens. The problem disappears as one increases the focal length. This means the photostitching for wide angle shots is not a good idea. If you do plan to stitch photos, make sure you shoot them using medium to long focal length.

(7) The remote control in my package doesn't work. I don't really care about it, but you may want to make sure it works.

Despite of these minor problems I love the G1.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great camera
Review: I've owned this camera for a few months now. Instead of taking the 35mm to Ireland, this camera was my choice.

The picture quality is terrific, battery life is unbelievable.

I'd buy it all over again. As always I early adopt, but even better value now. The video snippets are super also.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Photo revolution is here
Review: I received my G1 two days ago, made several sample prints on my Epson 870 yesterday, and still can't recover from the shock. The quality is unbelievable, I haven't had better pictures in my life, though I am close to 50 and have been a photography amateur since I was ten. My film photography equipment contains two outfits: 35mm Nikon N70 and medium Mamiya Universal. Neither gives me the sharpness or tonal richness of the G1. I am not in any way related to Canon and I believe that other digital cameras of the same class would impress me in a similar way. It just happens that my first digital camera is this. And impressed I am.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High Quality, but flash metering is off
Review: My experience with the G1 has been positive except for flash metering: Superb lens and image quality; splendid battery longevity with charger included; good creative control; and RAW image option for large, super-fine images. However, when using fill-flash the camera consistently overexposes 1 to 2 stops. To compensate, I have to manually set the flash exposure to underexpose by 1-2 stops. I find this overexposure occurs when using both the built in flash and my (highly recommended) shoe-mounted Canon Speedlight 380EX. Canon's Web site has new firmware that Canon claims fixes flash-related issues, but even after installing the new firmware, the flash exposure was inaccurate for me. Hopefully the good folks at Canon will fix this problem with a future firmware release.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of them all
Review: I recently bought a G1 for my trips to Europe and China. I looked at the G1, Nikon 950 and Olympus 3020. This was by far the best because of all the features. I particularly like the LCD screen as it rotates to allow you to take pictures at different angles. The only two things I dislike are the hand-grip which is non-existent and the cheap plastic piece that covers the charging bay. If you want a digital camera, then this is the one to get.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love at first Byte
Review: I took a long time deciding to purchase a digital camera, and finally bought my Canon G1 in Anguilla (duty-free). The pictures I took on the island were magnificant, and brought many raves and inquiries on our extended family web-site (MyFamiy.com). Based on that experience, I left my trusty old Canon Rebel 35mm behind for a recent trip to Buenos Aires, and loved it. I carried the G1 slung over my shoulder and tucked into my sports jacket pocket for easy access when I needed it spontaneously. Example: A colorful Gypsy woman and child was begging along a street, and for pocket change I got a great shot of them.

I especially want to relate two instances where I found the "flipping" LCD invaluable. I wanted to take a picture looking down through a beautiful marble spiral staircase, to get the "nautilus" effect. With a standard camera I would have had to risk my life to stretch out over the ten-story space for the shot, or just hold the camera out over the space and hope for the best. With the G1's LCD, I simply flipped out the LCD and adjusted it to my direction while holding the camera out over the space, focused and shot a perfect picture.

The second instance was in a rather crowded building where I wanted to shoot a muraled dome overhead. Rather than crane my neck upward while framing and shooting, I simply held the camera at waist level pointing upwards, with the LCD this time flipped around to the front of the camera so I was actually looking downward to shoot an overhead picture. Worked perfectly. Great camera!!


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