G6 seems to have survived its first drop.........

It's inevitable that accidents happen to our toys. This morning, I had the G6 sitting on the PC desk as I was getting ready to attach the USB cable and the strap caught the heel of my shoe and it landed on the office floor, Fortunately, I do have carpet and it landed on the base of the camera, but it was a drop of a good three feet.

It seems to be fine as I snapped a few pics, Sharp images, as usual. No rattles (except for the ever-annoying front lens element wobble). Maybe there is a lingering long-term issue.

Earlier this week, I had the G6 out in two blizzards with snow getting on the LCD and ice forming on the lens shade and the body in some places, going in and outdoors with plenty of condensation. No problems. This little thing seems to be well made and tougher than I would have thought.

Yet another reason to buy a card reader!

I think that I am with you on the card reader - I have about had it hooking the camera up to the PC...........

Do you have a recommendation Scott of a good model to look at?

They're all fairly good - I don't know if there's a fundamental difference in their downloading quality or not. I have one made by Sandisk. It has 4 different slots for the various card types: CF, SD, Memory Stick, xD (because I use so many different cameras, it helps to be able to cover all bases!).

Definately get one that supports USB 2.0 (prolly hard to buy one nowadays without).

Will keep the USB 2.0 in mind - good point..............

Think about getting one of the slim models. Mine is roughly the size of a deck of cards, minus 10 or so cards, and I can easily fit it in my (pretty small) camera bag. That way, I always have a way of transferring images to someone elses computer, if I'm visiting them and take a picture they want a copy of.

Actually, they're so cheap, I've since gotten one for work, and another that fits in a 3.5" bay on my desktop at home. Maybe I need a new signature: "a card reader in every home"?

i have the sandisk imagemate 8 in 1 and it is simply fantastic... also a note, it is usb 2.0 for those wondering. never let me down and has a cradle that you attach it to for use on your desktop and can be pulled out from the cradle if you need to use it elsewhere (another very short approx 6-8 inch usb cable is included for use on the go). small enough to put in my pant pocket.

I really should consider a card reader after my near-disaster......Seems like cheap insurance.

Or wait till you have to upgrade your printer.. then go for a printer with card reading capabilities. Sure cuts down on your used desk space.

I bought the Epson r310.. it has a compact flash, SD, XD reader built into it.

I've personally dropped my G3 about three times on concrete with a lensmate adapter on it. The adapter took the hit and my G3 got a little scuffed. Works fine though. These little cameras have a magnesium alloy inner body with plastic/metal covering. They are tough!

Thanks goodness for that - I guess that's one of the many pluses you get with the higher-priced G-series cams. It's not a good idea to make it a habit, though....I *must* look at the card reader, though.

Lens adapter doesn't offer complete protection for your lens mechanism...
Our group was just heading back from couple hours walk in Mt. Meru, when I lost footing from one foot and fell sitting on the ground. After two years use in hiking trips, etc. that was last straw for G3's lens mechanism (which had been fully extended inside that lens adapter at the time of accident).
When I tried to take next photo, lens mechanism didn't focus, and when I tried to turn it off, lens would not go back into camera. At that time, I thought that our next hotel would be able to fix it or at least they would have some tools that can be used fixing sunglasses etc. and I would be able to take my camera into pieces and put it back together.
Unfortunately they only had one screwdriver in house keeping and it definately was too big. Tip of blade my swiss knife was useful for 8-9 screws, but then I found one screw that was so deep in the camera, that it was beyond my reach. Next day, when we visited local city (Moshi), we couldn't find any camera stores that would have been willing to try repairing it and only digital camera that I saw on stores was one Nikon Coolpix.
At the end, I had two options: trying brute force method for fixing it or to accept that I am not going to get any pictures from this trip. I felt that I don't have anything to lose in brute force method, since camera is cheaper than my trip expenses and I had already ordered 20D and lenses. I tried to feel, which way the lens mechanism was trying to turn, when camera is turned off, I took good grip on the lens and turned little bit with force. After this experiment, I turned power on, took test picture, which seemed OK, turned power off and lens nicely retracted.
So with whole lot of luck, I was able to get it fixed for our hike to Kilimanjaro. Naturally the bad luck followed us to the mountain and we got whole lot of rain, hiking inside the cloud, etc. during next seven days, but thats another story.