The Light Touch
•Equipment
Touch the Light.....
John MacPherson
Landscape and Environmental Photography from Scotland
I have watched the development of digital and wondered when I should jump in. I was not really wanting to spend a fortune on a camera but still needing something capable of decent results for printing up to A4 and pocketable so I can always have it with me. The Canon G2 is perfect. It has a sharp zoom lens which covers wideangle to medium telephoto, shoots various resolutions, but also outputs images as compressed RAW data in a < > 3MB file. When decompressed this is about an 11MB tiff file which prints out exceptionally well to Epson or similar inkjets. A professional colleague uses one of these for some of his work and the results are excellent. The camera has many features that, for me, puts it ahead of the competition. The excellent zoom len has a very wide aperture (F2), and there are many built-in features that allow great flexibility. It comes with all software, cabling, and an infra-red remote control unit. The swing-out/tilt LCD monitor is an absolute gem and allows very flexible usage of the camera. There are a few criticisms - some are handling problems, one is the apparent flimsiness of the extended zoom lens (which retracts into the body when switched off). The latter is easily remedied with a Lensmate - a screw on protector which matches the body perfectly, allows filters to be fitted in front, and offers full protection to the lens. It also makes the camera easier to handle. Lens quality is excellent, with a few minor niggles that are well documented in sites such as this one by Phil Askey. For a good look at the quality of results this camera is capable of have a look at Pekka Saarinen's site (using the G1 - the G2's earlier incarnation).In conclusion this camera offers good quality, neat features and amazing battery life in a small package that is built extremely well - the kind of build quality that Canon are renowned for.
•Digital G2
