Rating: 
Summary: A great camera with some minor (but liveable) quirks
Review: I recently purchased a PRO1 after trying a Minolta A2, which I liked a lot but in the end couldn't live with the soft images it took. The Minolta A2 has rightly been praised for having great ergonomics so I was a little concerned as to whether I had been spoiled too much. But actually I have been pleasantly surprised by the PRO1. The buttons are in logical places and it is very quick and easy to shift between play and record modes. The EVF is much better than I thought it would be and seems just as good as the A2 (to my eye at least). The zoom is also good -- again, I thought I would miss the manual zoom on the A2, but with a little practice the PRO1's zoom seems just as responsive. There's even a way to get the zoom to rapidly move, a bit like the express option on a car window. I had also seen some criticism of start up time, but it seems fine to me (and faster than my old G2). Similarly, some people seem irritated that the LCD/Viewfinder blacks out momentarily after taking a picture, but to me this seems OK and something I can easily live with (hardly even notice after a while).Of course the camera is bit on the small side compared with the other 8MP offersings so that takes some getting used to and I could see the camera being a little cumbersome for larger hands. But I like the fact that the camera is fairly diminutive and not too obvious. There are a couple of annoyances -- the lens cap seems flimsy and cheap, but as I intend to permanently mount a UV filter on the camera I'll be buying a 58mm lens cap anyway. Unfortunately though it appears that the sun-shade cannot be mounted when the filter adapter is attached. The LCD is fantastic -- a little larger than previous Canon models. The articulation also seems a bit stiffer than my G2 which is actually a good thing and is less prone to be accidentally moved (and subsequently misaligning a shot). Probably the biggest thing to get used to is the AF. Some have complained that it is slow, and I can see if you are taking action shots it could be. I'm primarily going to be taking portraits & landscapes so it's fine for me and seems responsive enough, and more importantingly appears to be accurate. The biggest challenge I've had with the AF is trying to get a lock in low light. I eventually realized by perusing a few forums that the AF doesn't work well at focal lengths > 50mm in low light. This is a shame and probably the main reason why I give this 4 stars instead of 5, but it is certainly not a showstopper. I also found it a little difficult to use in macro mode (at least taking flowers) when it tends to hunt more than I would expect. But the best thing about the camera is resolution -- it really delivers. Pictures taken in 8MP are crisp and contain an amazing amount of detail. I specifically wanted a camera with large resolution so I could take pictures of buildings or landscapes and crop. I can tell already that it's going to be possible to make a lot of prints with no or minimal post-processing. Like a lot of people I don't want to spend hours after a vacation processing pictures in Photoshop so it's important to me to be able to print directly out of the camera. The PRO1 seems very suited for this. The one thing I do miss about the A2 is the anti-shake. Also noise on the PRO1 is noticeable above ISO 100 so that means you'll need to shoot at ISO50 or 100. I went out to my local park tonight and took some pictures about 15-30 mins before sunset and discovered that many of my pictures were blurred even with camera speeds at 1/80 or so. As I shot with ISO 200 & 400 I also found the pictures just too noisy to be of much use without PPing them. But that could just be me getting used to the camera, as I've certainly got very sharp pictures in brighter conditions, but if I have use a tripod more often it would probably be worth it. As with everything there is no perfect product, but this camera, despite a few AF deficiencies and quirks, really comes closer to what I was hoping to find in an 8MP camera and most importantingly, creates large crisp and pleasing images.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth every penny
Review: I spent weeks comparing cameras in this class and was even "convinced" by my local Wolf Camera manager that I needed a Digital SLR. This camera is extremely versitile; ranging from a point & shoot to completely adjustable settings. No interchangable lenses? Never really used them on my old SLR, anyway. One important note for those of you considering a digital SLR: you can only use viewfinder (not the display) when taking photos. Display can only be used to review the photo after it has been shot. Maybe not a big issue for some, but once you've become used to this feature with digital cameras, it will be hard to go back exclusively to a viewfinder.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent quality, portability and feel
Review: I upgraded from a G3, an excellent camera, and looked carefully at the other 8Mpix cameras before choosing the Pro1.
The Pro1 has, for me, the best overall quality, versatility and ease of use of all the 8Mpix offerings. I have not found any trouble with the "lack" of an autofocus light due to the hybrid system, though focusing at long zoom lengths is troublesome in nearly all cameras.
Flash performance is fantastic, and the Pro1 has ETTL and zoom support with affordable Canon external flashes. The Nikon and Sony can't do this and the Olympus flash is horrendously expensive. I've found that adding an external flash to bounce the light has made a dramatic improvement in my indoor photography, so Canon's external flash support makes a huge difference.
Rating: 
Summary: Canon Pro1, it is absolute rubbish.
Review: I was eager to buy this one, I read so many wonderful reviews on the internet, I saw the beautiful shots in the sample galleries, I was so thrilled, but then I went to the store to try the Canon Pro1 myself and the whole experience was a disaster. If the camera had been made by Kodak or Sony or Minolta, then I would not have been surprised at its akwardness and lack of quality. This is a cheapo piece of garbish, I would not pay more than $100 dollars for it, despite the 8 megapixels advantage. The lens is useless, you can not focus with it. The buton placement does not make any sense, it is not ergonomic either, it feels unconmfortable on your hand. The telefoto lens is too heavy and throws the camera forward. It vibrates when you take a picture. It was a mess. Do yourself a favor and buy any other Canon model, they are all excelent except for this one. I am going to guess that the Pro1 was neither built nor designed in Japan. This is the most "non-Canon" camera you will ever see.
Rating:
Summary: Not *quite* as good as I expected...
Review: I'm a fairly inexperienced camera user, and this is my second digital. My previous camera was a Canon Powershot A80, which did everything exactly as expected, and is great for the money. I waited excitedly for months to get my hands on this camera, and, as a whole, the camera is exceptional. Image quality is great. It's also very responsive, and super easy to use (for a manual cam). You just can't beat the swivel LCD screen, (super) macro mode, and 8mp resolution. There are, however, some things which should be mentioned: -High noise at ISO over 200 (camera does 50/100/200/400)
-Autofocus very sluggish, making it hard to catch action shots
-Made to hold with right hand, in which it fits nicely. On the left side, however, there is no "comfortable" spot to hold the camera. Not ergonomically correct. Even bizarre. I usually just "rest" it on my hand.
-No AF assist light for focusing in low light/night time situations. This is truely bizarre, as my A80 ($300 camera) has one built in, and it works great! Seems like a ridiculous oversight...
-Alot of buttons on a small camera. Fingers may cramp. By no means is the camera "junk", and I've enjoyed it thus far, but felt it necessary to mention these problems for others to consider.
Rating:
Summary: the camera of my dreams
Review: I'm an amateur and all I can say about this camera is that "I love it", couldn't ask for a better piece of equipment. Intuitive and easy to operate. I bought filters and love the results of my images even more. True high noise at ISO 200/400, tough to get quick response on the action shots, but that's about it, this camera delivers alot of performance and quality photos. Worth every penny paid! I'm glad I waited for this one!
Rating:
Summary: The reasons why Powershot Pro 1>Nikon Coolpix 8700
Review: I'm very picky about the detail of the camera so this review becomes very long, sorry about that in the first place.
At the first I ordered Nikon Coolpix 8700 because of the price (at that time there was a rebate of $200). However, when I had the Nikon in my hand it feels not comfortable because on the right hand side, there's a pin sticking out for the shoulder strap, and on the left side you have to be careful not to touch the control panel when you place on your hand. So I ordered Canon Powershot Pro1 to compare whether I should spend about $200 more or not, and the answer was ABSOLUTELY!!!! These are a few reasons I choose Canon over Nikon. since all of the technical issue such as the quality of the picture, and all other technical stuff are already answered by other people, I will just talk about something detail or you might call it picky. Some people might find this is weird.
The 2" LCD of Canon and brighter and sharper than Nikon 1.8", I can clearly see the different between the two. However, on the EVF, I think Nikon did the better job on that one. It's not the big different like they have on the LCD, just noticeable.
Another option that I like about canon is it got the focus beep and the square in the EVF turn green when the camera got the focus, Nikon doesn't have this option, but it just shows in the screen with the green dot when it got the focus.
The manual focus in Canon is way better than Nikon because when you're using canon your right hand thumb is holding the MF button and your left hand is turning the focus ring. This make canon feel like a real SLR.
On the charger, I think I like canon charger better than Nikon's because canon charger tells you how far the battery has been charging 1 blink for empty, 2 blinks for 50%, 3 blinks for 75% and become solid when it fully charged.
Don't waste money on buying a flash shoe because I will disable the internal flash automatically. I did that when I first got the camera because I thought I would help protect it from dust and etc.
You get extra accessories with canon such as remote control, lens hood, and 64MB high speed CF (but no one worry about this one).
On the USB issue, both Nikon and Canon got USB1.1 unlike Sony F828. But I just order the firewire CF reader from amazon it's called Delkin Devices READER-24 FireWire Reader and Writer for CompactFlash (...) It transfer my 512mb very fast. I would recommend it over any USB 2.0 reader because they're usually failed.
I think overall Canon look more professional than Nikon Coolpix 8700. Moreover, Nikon 8700 and 5700 are identical except the red and grey rubber grip, so some people might think Coolpix 8700 is 5700 which mean people might think that you have 5700 instead of 8700. But if you're carrying Canon Powershot pro 1, for some people, they might know for sure that it's the top of the line digital camera for Canon.
For the response on the other member on the small flakes that he has on his camera's lens, I checked out my camera for the flake as soon as I got my camera from amazon.com and found no flake. However, after camera going through after zoom cycle like Tim said, now there's some flakes appear in the lens. I was worried about it quite a bit, but like Tim said the flakes do not affect the quality of the pictures. By the way, I first use this camera when I had my vacation, so the camera went through a lot of zoom cycle and on/off operation. Now there's interesting thing happened, I always checked for the flakes in the lens, but about 2nd day after I first found out about the flakes, all the flakes are gone now!!! I don't know how this happened, but assume the following actions might be the reason:
„X I did tap the side of the lens after I found out the flakes, hoping it might fall out to the side of the lens, but I was not.
„X The way I placed my camera in the camera bag was a bit awkward. I have case logic bag which is a quite bigger than the camera, I place the camera when it's not being use by having the left side of the camera(from the EVF view) on the bottom of the bag, which made the right side of the camera(the battery compartment) facing up ward. I didn't mean to place the camera in this position but I just thought which position would be convenient for me to have the camera store in the bag, so that it would be easier to take it out from the bag with my right hand.
Hope this is helping clearing out some question about the flakes.
Rating: 
Summary: filter
Review: If you attached the filter adapter to the lens, and take a picture set to 28mm with the flash, there would be a darkened area cize of half a quarter at the mid lower edge of the picture. The adapter gets in the way of the flash at 28mm.
This is poor design for an expensive camera like the Pro1.
Rating:
Summary: Nikon vs. Minolta vs. Canon vs. Olympus, or d-SLR?
Review: Ok, this isn't one of my usual hands-on reviews. I ain't got the kind of money to buy all these cameras and test them. But I wanted to give potential buyers some help...
Should you consider an SLR-type EVF (electronic viewfinder) digital camera or an interchangeable-lens digital SLR for serious photography? I faced this question and agonized over it for months. I wish I had come across this brief and very helpful article by Popular Photography Magazine (I'm not affiliated with them in any way):
[...]
The article compares five current-model EVF cameras: Canon PowerShot Pro 1, Konica-Minolta Dimage A2, Nikon Coolpix 8700, Olympus Camedia C-8080, and Sony Cybershot DSC-F828. It's a very easy read, and at the end the writers give you a helpful checklist for the EVF vs. d-SLR decision.
As for myself, I'm going with a d-SLR since I want 1) high-quality lens, 2) lens choices, 3) little to no shutter lag, and 4) accessory choices. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: My two bits about how this is a great camera
Review: Santa brought me this camera for Christmas and he must have liked how I behaved the past year, because this camera is an utter delight. Other reviewers went to great lengths to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Canon Pro1. For the most part, they are right, especially regarding some of the slightly odd ergonomics. (I tend to wrap my right thumb around - and activate - a couple of buttons.) Chalk it up to old habits and unfamiliarity. Chalk it up to electronic gadgetry.
Basically, in my opinion:
* photos come out unbelievably sharp, in some very adverse conditions
* the camera's macro capabilities are outstanding, with exceptional results
* the flash works quite well within a twenty foot range; tacking on my Speedlite from my old T90 solves more challenging situations
* altering aperture and shutter settings, along with the numerous other camera settings, allows for some nice creativity and flexibility
* Canon's PC software and connecting cable works great
* It focuses rapidly and triggers quickly
* Auto-bracketing and exposure compensation work wonderfully
* With my 2 gig Hitachi microdrive, I can take loads of fairly decent quality video with audio. Amazing.
I frankly do not see how you can go wrong with this camera. It's not too large and the construction is top-notch. Buy with confidence.
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