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Working with digital cameras, it's quite natural
to pick favorites among the variety on today's market.
One of my favorites for the past year has been
the Canon Powershot G1, a camera that has that comfort factor
I've discussed in past columns. Two weeks ago, the Canon G2
arrived for testing and it has become a new favorite.
At first glance, the G2 is the nearly the same
camera as its predecessor. But Canon's few styling changes belie
what's under the hood. A CCD with 4.1 megapixels of resolution
and, praise be, a faster and much improved signal processor.
Fast! Like a full resolution shot every 1.6
seconds or five high-quality images at 2.5 fps in continuous
shooting mode.
Detail in this palm front, shot with a tripod at
ISO 50, is incredible, including the cell structure.
Unfortunately, the web pictures doesn't show what the camera
captured.
With eight buttons and a compass rocker panel on
the back, the G2 can be used with the folding, flipping LCD
panel closed. The Menu and Set buttons fall beneath the thumb in
normal operation, often leading to missing a shot because the
Menu is inadvertently turned on. Users must learn to avoid these
buttons.
My other big criticism of the G-series goes to
auxiliary lenses. To use one, a chrome ring must be unscrewed
(and stored somewhere) from around the lens, and adapter ring
screwed on, and then the auxiliary lens screwed in. Big bother
and impossible to do in a hurry. The G2 would benefit from an
ugly but efficient bayonet mount instead of the pretty chrome
ring.
Battery life was excellent with more than 100
shots and several editing sessions with the LCD panel on.
Recharge took about 75 minutes in-camera. Extra batteries and an
option recharger are recommended.
Shooting modes in the "Creative Zone" include
Program, Aperture- and Shutter-preferred and Full Manual. In the
"Image Zone," Auto, Pan Focus, Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene,
Photo Effect, and Stitch Assist (for panoramas) modes are
available as well as two movie formats with sound.
For exposures over 1.6 seconds, the G2 employs
automatic noise correction. Tripod-made exposures revealed some
image noise (grain) but absolutely no 3-color noise in
two-second and four-second exposures.
Image quality is excellent with good shadow and
highlight detail and no edge fringing. The shot of the fuzzy
grass (above) was made at 1/1000 of a second in macro mode. In
Photoshop, I played around with it a bit to set the grass afire.
Second layer, invert, screen blending mode and fade screen.
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