Not sure what camera to get...

[Canay]

I have a Canon G2. Although I have taken a couple of online photography classes, I do not retain the information. When I am out taking pictures, I don't remember anything at all and consequently keep it on auto or one of the program modes. Once in a while I will use macro for a flower. I have realized that I will never be a great photographer and told my hubby not to even consider getting me a Rebel. I have come to the understanding that putting a Rebel in my hands won't make me a better photographer anymore than giving me a fabulous paint brush will enable me to paint like Picasso.

So...there is nothing wrong with the G2 as far as the pictures it takes. It takes wonderful pics and I do alot of digital scrapbooking so good pictures are important to me. I do like to print out my layouts and usually print out at 8 x 8. The prints are great. But I find the G2 cumbersome to carry around and what I really want is a small camera that will fit in my purse. Something I can whiz out, take a quick picture, and pop back in my purse without drawing attention to myself. And since my family hates for me to take their pictures, a good "optical" zoom is desired.

I went to the Canon site and can't believe how many choices there are. It is all too confusing. I just bought my daughter the SD500 last night. My husband casually asked me if that was something I would like. I don't know!!! I was reading a previous thread and I couldn't believe all the camera's that got mentioned. SD550, S80, A610, A620...

How in the world does one decide? I will appreciate any thoughts any of you might have.

Thanks,

Mary

[Robert_Lay]

Dear G2 Mary,

I have a G5, so I have to quickly buzz through the G3 manual to see what I can recommend - not to buy, but to do!

I think you should free your mind of those restraints you are putting around your abilities. One way to do that is to start experimenting. You may not appreciate this, but for an old film guy, the fact that you can do so much without the time and expense of film and darkroom processing is good reason for playing around just to get more familiar with what you can do with what you have in the G2. Remember, that the Rebel XT at 8 MP may be twice as many MP as your G2, but the linear dimensions of the image are only 40% bigger in the Rebel. So, there's not as much difference in the quality of an image from your camera in relation to the Rebel as you might think.

Here's a thought. Maybe you're just tired of stills - You can take movies with your G2 - see how much it takes to fill up your memory card with movies.

When it comes to still photographs, have you figured out what your most annoying shortcoming is in regard to the technical issues? Is it exposure, or composition? If it's exposure, you may want to experiment with the tradeoffs between exposure time and lens opening. Since it costs nothing to take pictures - just keep shooting away until you've mastered exposure and composition and you may find out that you can do more than you thought.

[Canay]

Thank you for your response, yes I should experiment more with my G2 and I will do exactly that. But I'm still thinking a small purse size camera would be good for some occasions.

[ronmuller]

Hi Mary,

I went from a Canon G1 to a Canon 20D. The different is amazing, the quality of the pictures is night and day. The speed of the new camera from the time you turn it on until you can snap a picture is virtually zero. The other poster claims that the picture quality between the G2 and Rebel XT will not be that different, I'll have to disagree with that (no flame wars please, just my opinion). Under perfect conditions the G2 will take some very nice pictures but the larger size of the pixels on the Rebel XT sensor will blow you away. Anyway you stated the desire for a small pocket camera. I'm looking for a smaller pocket camera to take when I don't want to haul around my 25 lbs of DSLR camera gear. You never stated what you budget is for the camera but you mentioned that your hubby was going to buy you a rebel xt so I assume money isn't the primary concern. Here are my favorite picks:

FujiFilm FinePix F10
Canon SD550
Canon A620

To compare the canon cameras head over to www.powershot.com (http://www.powershot.com).
In no particular order, websites that review cameras:
http://www.dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com/)
http://www.megapixel.net/html/reviews.php
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.dcviews.com/cameras.htm
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com (http://www.imaging-resource.com/)

Good Luck,
Ron.

PS. The G2 is a great camera don't toss it just because it is old :). Have you ever tried an external flash on it? It can make quite a difference for some picture taking, but then again it isn't exactly purse-portable.

[spencer87]

the links ronmuller provided are all great (esp. dpreview). you might also want to check out cnet.com, I've always found their reviews to be very accurate. I just bought my parents a Canon A520 based on cnet reviews.