Canon G2 Jan. 2002 [G2 vs. C-3030] [My photo gears] [Back to Photo Page]

After owned Olympus C-3030Z for more than one year, I decided to upgrade to Canon G2.

Why do I want to have a digital camera?

• I don't waste too much film.
• These digital point&shoot cameras are compact enough for me to bring anywhere when my Canon EOS SLR is too obstrusive.
• Instant feedback of digital cameras is never met by film cameras.
• With 3 to 4 MPix, I can print beautiful 8x10 photos already.
• So I can have new toys :-)

Why do I want to upgrade to Canon G2?

• G2 has a hotshoe for external flash and I have a Canon Speedlite 380EX.
• G2 uses Compact Flash II including 1-GB mircodrive. C-3030 can only use SmartMedia card which has capacity only up to 128 MB today.
• My C-3030 (a defective unit?) has some problem to focus at infinite when zoomed to the long end. This makes it impossible for any landscape photos. See my [G2 vs C-3030] page for details.
• G2 has higher image resolution (2272x1704) than C-3030 (2048x1536).
• Current digital SLRs are still limited and expensive (Canon D30 3MPix, Canon 1D $5,500, etc.) --- update: I upgraded to Canon D60 in 11/2002.

There are so many reviews available for both cameras (for example, Steve's Digicam, Imaging Resources, DP review, etc.). However, I still need to do some testing myself to see how the camera performs, how it fits to my shooting style, and what its limits are, but I don't care many details shown on those reviews (like GUI control buttons, etc.). I'll use my test results as a guideline for my future use of Canon G2.

Image Quality vs ISO setting

G2 has 4 ISO setting: 50, 100, 200, and 400. The next few 1:1 croped images show the difference between ISO settings. ISO 100 is very closed to ISO 50 in image noise levels. ISO 400 has very obvious noise especially in the shadow areas. I'll avoid ISO400 at any time.

ISO 50	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 400

ISO 50	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 400

ISO 50	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 400

ISO 50	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 400

Image Quality vs Aperture

I use Av mode most of the time, so I need to know what the "sweet sopt" is for this G2 lens (f2.0/2.5 -- f8.0). The next pair of images clearly show that f4 is sharper than f8 (due to diffraction? Both images were taken with tripod and my usual care). Since the DOF of the small lenses on digital cameras is already large (good for landscape, bad for portrait), I don't have to stop down so much now.

ISO50 @ f8, 1/160sec	ISO 50 @ f4, 1/640sec

Image File Size

I shoot all the images in Superfine JPEG (2272x1704) mode. The image file size directly effects the capacity of the memory cards.

ISO 50: 1321KB	1475KB	2001KB
ISO100: 1431KB	1621KB	2102KB
ISO200: 1626KB	1861KB	2293KB
ISO400: 1850KB	2162KB	2524KB

Strength and Weakness

What do I like about the G2 (compared with C-3030)?

• Image quality is my first priority, and I am happy with the output from G2.
• G2's E-TTL flash is good.
• Battery life is good.
• Microdrive 1-GB capacity.

What do I not like about the G2?

• The auto focus is slow compared with EOS SLRs.
• The shutter lag is significant.
• Power-up time is too long.
• 30 sec in move mode is a little bit short (compared with 75 sec in C-3030).

Bottom Line

I have printed a few images at 8x10 on my Epson 1270, and I am extremely satisfied with the image quality. G2 cannot replace my EOS SLR, but it can certainly be my all-around camera for various subjects (especially for snapshots of my kids).

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