Canon G2/G3 Digital Cameras

[chris h]

Anybody using one of these digital models, any problems, observations? Was on the verge of buying the Olympus 5050 but am having a last minute assessment.

[Schwartzie]

All the cameras out now have good quality. A thing to consider is what kind of batteries they use and what kind of media. Because you will probably then want to stick with the same if you get another camera. Also if you are going to want to use telephoto or wideangle does it have lens threads. Check out www.dpreview.com for tests and reviews on all digital cameras.

[gland]

I just bought a G2. Should be here Monday. I'll let you know how I like it...

[chris h]

Thanks all, i've just sold on an Olympus 3040 to a friend and was ready to buy its later successor the 5050. I'm familiar with DP review and Steves Digicams but thought I'd trawl for views on the Canon equivalents. I know theres a lot of discussion of cameras in the mentioned sites forums but a lot of these posts are from camera buffs who are more interested in the machinery than its product.

Gland I'd be obliged for any observations when your G2 appears. I'm still leaning towards the 5050 because of its multi memory card capability, I'm knee deep in smartmedia and of course this would be useless if I went the Canon route.

[jerry]

Hi Chris
I have been using a G2 fr over a year..I was used to using a Canon A1 SLR and wanted a digital camera with similar capabilties. (I am strictly an amature by the way and digital photograpy is just a hobby).. I have found the G2 to be very intuative and forgivng.. I usually shoot at the highest jpeg quality and get great results..The camera also hasRAW capabilities.

If you have specific questions, I will try to answer. If I can.
I am using a 192 meg card and can get approx 88 photos at the high jpeg setting..The only problem I had with the camera was with the auto focus..It was too sensitive and kept refocusing..I set it to single focus and have no problems now..

Good Luck in your search

Jerry

[chris h]

Jerry,

Thanks for your comments, its the raw/tiff file saving facilities that interested me having always saved files in tiff form with the previous Olympus. I recently bought a Canon Ixus V3 (240 in the US?) as a snap camera but it only saves files in various jpeg qualities.

When you shoot in .raw format can you then drop the raw files straight into Photoshop or isnt it quite that simple. I noted on both DP Review and Steves Digicams that both the Canon and Olympus had supplied software for use with .raw files, is some further processing required before you can handle the files in PS Jerry ?

[jerry]

Chris
I rarely have shot RAW files due to there size. However, when I did shoot some, I had to load them into the provided software and save them in tiff format before loading them into photoshop..It was not a big deal to do this..However if you are handling great numbers of pics., I can see where this would take more time to do..From what I am reading, this question applies to all RAW formats produced by major camera companies..This exact question was asked this morning at dpreview. Here is the thread. There are not a lot of replies yet, but you may want to follow the thread.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=4261024

Hope this helps
Jerry

Fire back more questions if you have any..

[jerry]

Chuck
Can you bring RAW files right into Photoshop or must you convert them to tiff first in other software.

Jerry

[chris h]

Interesting stuff and I'll follow that thread concerning the .raw files. I always had assumed that .raw were larger than tiff but this obviously isnt the case. I have the Zoombrowser software it came with the Ixus, I dont usually install supplied software just load via a card reader but I'll have a look at the Zoombrowser suite.

[clare]

My camera produces just .raw files. I use a card reader to read the images and then use the program that came with the camera to read these images. If I down load the images from the camera it takes twice as long as it has to read them twice. I have no experience of the program ZoomBrowser but the software that came with my new camera is much better than the one with my old digital camera.

The Raw format files that my camera produces can not be loaded straight into photoshop

Hope this helps

Clare

[gland]

My copy of Photoshop 6.01 will open .raw files. At least it's one of the formats listed. Guess I'll see how it works when I get my camera.

[clare]

PS7 will also open .raw files but it does not see the images caputed by my camera??????? I have no idea why

[chris h]

Your using a Canon Clare?

[clare]

Nope - I am using the Sigma SD9, I don't know about the Cannon range but you might beable to contact them directly and ask them what whether the images can be accessed directly from PS or whether they need to go through a different program to?

As regards other specs of a camera I would find out if it is possible to go fully manual as this is very important at times.

Clare

[chris h]

This thread has generated most of the information I was looking for, specs are easily found on manufacturers websites but its the users who provide the hard info on various cameras. However I dont think there are many dud cameras about these days.