Richard Polhill observed
wrote:
I am still slowly considering for my next digital cameras. It was
still either the high end point and shot camera, or a low end DSLR
(which they are basically on the same price range). As some readers in
these newsgroup suggested, I went to the photo shop and try the
cameras in my hand. The following are my impressions. I welcome the
comments from others.
[snips]
I have come to the same conclusions myself, having some seriously well
built film kit (Canon T-90) and unable to afford any sort of dSLR with
event 20% of the sturdiness. The EOS-350/400 are flimsy little toys
that are too small for comfort yet far too big to fit in a pocket.

I ended up choosing the G7 as it is a seriously well built camera with
myriads of manual options, good controls and, particularly good for me
as I have a Speedlight 420EX, a Canon system flash hotshoe.

The only 3 minus points are 1: the small compact-camera sensor is
rather noisy at high ISO settings, but it does offer a lower resolution
ISO 3200 mode that'll get a picture that most can't. Desaturate it and
the noise becomes grain...

2: It is a little bulky, especially when in a case. It will fit in a
pocket however, which is more than can be said for any dSLR I've seen.

3: It does not capture in RAW; you're stuck with JPEG. You may not
care; for what I use this camera for I don't.

I recently got an FZ50 after very satisfactory three years with the
smaller FZ3 & 5. (I'm keeping the FZ5 for its lower weight when
backpacking.)

The lens is gorgeous! I've just started playing with RAW, and the
quality blows me over. (I am reminded of the quality I used to get from
an Elmar 135mm f4 with my M3, which I used with bellows for infinity
down to 1:1).

But the noise problem is there, but with RAW one is free from the
pre-programmed in camera processing. I haven't explored that yet.

Mike

[The reply-to address is valid for 30 days from this posting]
--
Michael J Davis

Some newsgroup contributors appear to have confused
the meaning of "discussion" with "digression".