It was a happy day her in Miller land when my new Canon PowerShot G12 arrived. There are several reasons why I chose this camera. First the Canon 7D is a great camera but lugging it around with a 24-70 2.8L all day at the zoo can be a chore. I wanted a camera that I could take with me every where I went. Secondly, I still wanted all the manual control an power to adjust images that I have with my 7D. Finally, I did not really want to learn a new format or set of tools. There is nothing wrong with the other brands but this feels so safe and familiar that it was hard to say no.
A few quick observations about the camera:
- It is not all metal (gasp) the body is mostly plastic (double gasp). All I can say is pick up a Canon 100mm 2.8L Macro and guess what, that’s right plastic. Probably should not be dropping either one down the stairs anyway.
- The front control dial (while taking some time to get used to) rocks. I love not having to enter menus to do things.
- There are a lot of buttons but the layout is intuitive enough and familiar enough that I could find my way around easily.
- The screen is quite nice and clear and bright.
- For some reason I find myself wanting to be able to turn the camera on without the lens extending but that is probably just me.
- It feels great and sturdy in my hands, I like that.
- While it is big, I don’t find it too big. It will still fit in a front shirt pocket. Skinny jeans no, for a lot of reasons though.
- The zoom on the lens is smooth and understandable.
- The image stabilization seems to really work well.
- The view finder is worthless.
Click on the image to get a full res JPG file, feel free to download it if you like to see the quality on your own. Keep in mind these are my totally unscientific test photos and they are to be used for you to form your own opinions.
The Canon G12 is not for everyone. You need a fair bit of technical ability to be able to use the camera to its fullest but it is still simple enough that I can set it on manual and not think at all which is really nice sometimes.
Hopefully you found this somewhat helpful.
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