Would you buy a G10?

Background: I have a 7D and a good set of lenses, but I'm in the market for a decent smaller camera for those times when I don't want to carry the DSLR setup (family snapshots mostly). I've tried an Elph 300 but am not blown away; my daughter, however, loves it, and it's going to be her birthday gift. So I'm still looking. Budget is limited: under $300. I was considering the SX240, but I now have an opportunity to buy a used G10 for just over $200. It seems like a pretty good camera. I'd have liked a bit more zoom, but otherwise it fits the bill. Any downsides to buying a slightly older model like this? Would the SX240 be a better purchase? Or is there something else I should be considering? Thanks for your help.

You might want to compare images at various ISOs for both cameras using I-Rs Comparometer. Use the SX260 camera option, since they do not list the SX240. They are the same camera, but with GPS added for the SX260;

http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/CO​MPS01.HTM

The SX240/SX260 use a newer sensor and JPEG engine, and appear to perform better than the G10 at high ISO. The G10 was good in it's day, and does offer features not available in the SX240/SX260. If you want to buy a small flash like the 270EX or new 270EX II, then you can stick to lower ISOs with the G10. You also have native RAW, and a built-in ND filter, and other manual controls like AEB and AFB, etc. in the G series.

You might also want to read this before deciding.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/​kidding.shtml

and this;

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …accessories/mon​opod.shtml

Dennis

ceegee wrote in post #14482920
Background: I have a 7D and a good set of lenses, but I'm in the market for a decent smaller camera for those times when I don't want to carry the DSLR setup (family snapshots mostly). I've tried an Elph 300 but am not blown away; my daughter, however, loves it, and it's going to be her birthday gift. So I'm still looking. Budget is limited: under $300. I was considering the SX240, but I now have an opportunity to buy a used G10 for just over $200. It seems like a pretty good camera. I'd have liked a bit more zoom, but otherwise it fits the bill. Any downsides to buying a slightly older model like this? Would the SX240 be a better purchase? Or is there something else I should be considering? Thanks for your help.

I still have my G10 and I love it. Its rock solid construction and the pics are great in good light but it can struggle in low lit rooms or snapping kids. Its adjustable enough to really milk the best out of it if you know what you ar doing. Loads of second hand ones around.

The G12 shows up in the classified ads here fairly often, often in your $300 range.

I'd also put a plug in for a used G11. I think the only difference between it and the G12 is HD video.

I picked mine up on Ebay about four months ago for $208 and it's been well worth every penny I spent.

Actually, when you downsample the 15MP images of the G10 to the same level as the G11 or G12, you get very similar results noise-wise. IOW, not really a showstopper.

The main difference, IMO, are the added features th eG10 doesn't have.

BTW, as to high is, you can use the noise to your benefit too. Just convert to B&W. Here is an example, exposed for the highlights and pushed two stops as well, IOW, extreme noise, something like a 25600 iso image when properly exposed:

HTTP response: 401 | MIME changed to 'text/html'

I personally went with the g12 because of the reduced noise.

tmcman wrote in post #14490057
I personally went with the g12 because of the reduced noise.

seconded. G10 was in peak of the megapixel war. I had G9 and noise became untreatable very fast when going higher ISO's.