G6 or Olympus 8080? pls advise

[auto1]

I come down two options for me after months research: Canon G6 or Olympus 8080? The price for them seems close now. Most reviews gave Olympus 8080 a very high mark.

Anybody has experience for both and provide some thoughts here?
Appreciated,

[pradeep1]

This thread might be useful for you think about the current crop of 8 MP cameras. This was before the G6 was released though.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31203

My personal pick would be the G6...mainly because its sensor is noise-prone.

[Raj]

Alright, I am a dedicated canon user & own a G3 + 20D. However I would rather go for 8080WZ if I am you.

Reasons ? Oly 8080's optics is much better, it has probably the best lens in any prosumer 8 MP camera. Has a great wide angle + reasonable telephoto (easy to attach teleconverter if you need more zoom) + manual focussing is much more easy/pleasent, huge range of formats you can record image in - this is a big plus. faster auto focus than G6 & on top of all, images & colors are really good. I am not sure but my guess will be that battery indicator will also be more precise than G6. Plus 8080 has very good noise performance, to me its best of all prosumer 8 MP cameras.

Check out the 8080 review & also G6 on dpreview.com & see what you feel like.

I hope other users will not curse me for recommending a non-canon product, its just my 2 cents :-)

Cheers

[Raj]

To add - 8080's sensor is bigger than g6, this alone will make a diference in noise profile of two camera's with 8080 on superior side...

[auto1]

Thanks for your comments!

I spent hours in a store to get a feel on Oly 8080 and G6. I like both of them. Though a bit complicated setup and buttons, Oly 8080 is very nice on my hand. With simliar price, I'd get wider lens, more powerful flash, 2 memory cards slots, bigger CCD, sound appealing! But I'm not sure about the picture quality. Seems I need more time to find out which provides consistant better image quality.

[berto]

auto by the time you decide on which camera to buy. a new crop will come up that will confuse you even more. you can't have everything with every camera.
the G6 and the 8080 both take great pictures. when it comes down to it. you look at the color renditions. which is usually what separates it from each other. they have all the options you could need for a LONG while.
go get yourself whichever one you like and SHOOOT!!
as an alternative, how bout a 300d? since the price is dropping and takes better pictures than either the g6 or 8080.

bert

[4nR]

i've noticed that the resolutions for the g6 is at 180, while the 8080 takes pics at 72. does that make a difference?

[Jon]

That's pretty much meaningless - when you go to make an actual print, you'll change that setting to correspond to your printer and print size requirements. 72 PPI corresponds to a "standard" monitor, while 180 PPI is an ordinary dot-matrix printer.

[Raj]

Thanks for your comments!

I spent hours in a store to get a feel on Oly 8080 and G6. I like both of them. Though a bit complicated setup and buttons, Oly 8080 is very nice on my hand. With simliar price, I'd get wider lens, more powerful flash, 2 memory cards slots, bigger CCD, sound appealing! But I'm not sure about the picture quality. Seems I need more time to find out which provides consistant better image quality.

Check out 8080's review on dpreview.com to see its pictures compared to competetors. Also check eos 20D's review. Phil Askey compared 8080 with it & 8080 did quite a good job although it strictly is not a candidate for comparison with a big gun like 20D

[Nabil-A]

I think that since the price difference between the G6 and the pro1 is relatively competitive (now..) you should really look at the pro1..however the bulb feature on the 8080 is something i wish the G6 had.

[pradeep1]

If I were going for a non-Canon product, the Minolta A2 would be my pick for a 8MP digicam: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/konicaminoltaa2/

I was very impressed with the capabilities of this camera. Even though it uses the noisy Sony-made 8MP that all current 8MP digicams use (Minolta A2, Olympus 8080, Nikon 8700?, Canon Pro1, etc.), the A2 has a lot of features and touches that make it an excellent user. The Olympus 8080 is a bit more awkward for me to use, but still a great camera.

[Woodstudio]

I have used both cameras and prefer the G6, but you'll not go wrong with either one.

The 8080 is larger and heavier. It is also much harder to operate. Buttons all over the place. Normal auto mode was okay but doing other fucntions I had to hunt around. On the positive side, the Olympus looks better, starts up very fast, and has wider zoom lens. Picture quality was similiar between the two even though the 8080 is 8 megapixels and the G6 is 7 megapixels.

I wanted a camera that I didn't have to stuggle through the menus to use when I did something off-beat. I also wanted a smaller, easier to carry camera.

It all depends what features are important to you.

[auto1]

Thanks all for your comments.

I gave up Oly 8080 since its big size. I got G6 for few weeks and not happy with the focus (all soft focus for my street shot in bright weather, no matter what settings and focus I used), I ordered Pro 1, and return G6 soon,

Peter

[Nabil-A]

The softness you refer to is common to most Canon digitals. In going through Dpreview reviews on varying dsLR and prosumer cameras a common statement is "Canon softness", note its nothing that post sharpening cant fix, but if your getting the pro1 on this account only expect the same as the G6 and in certain situations more noise in your image due to the squeezing in of 8mp on a small ccd.


In any case enjoy the built in fantastic zoom and wide angle features.