Opinions on older Canon G12 and other G series cameras

[mmagliaro]

So...
I've been shooting with a rather ancient point-and-shoot Canon A-630 for years.  As primitive as it may seem, it has enough megapixels to do the job, and it has full manual shooting controls, so I've been able to get magazine-quality photos out of it.

From time to time, I toy with the idea of buying a nicer camera.   These days, the older Canon G12 can be had for about $200 bucks or even less.    And I like the control style.  It would get me a better lens and a step up in photo quality from what I'm using.   I don't have a burning desire to go all the way to a full-on DSLR  (even though back in my film days, all I used was a 35mm SLR).

What do folks think of the G12 and other G series cameras?   The important things, of course, are good macro focus, good depth of field and sharp lens quality.  I'm a little worried that it has a larger sensor than my point-and-shoot, so I won't get as much depth of field at the same aperture setting, and it still only goes up to f/8 (same as my old A630).

Thanks.

[wazzou]

I have an old Canon G6 I used for years.  I still have it.  It takes terrific photos but I went the DSLR route years ago.

[tom mann]

I don't know if a 1/2.3" sensor vs a 1/1.7" sensor would be that much of a difference.

The rest of the camera would be an upgrade from what you have, for sure.

[nscaleSPF2]

Here's a comparison of the different sensor sizes.

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[basementcalling]

I have an old Canon G6 I used for years.  I still have it.  It takes terrific photos but I went the DSLR route years ago.

Max, there ya go.

[robert3985]

Digital cameras that are only a few years old are considered "ancient".  There's a lot more to "good" photographs than pixel count, although for publication in a magazine, pixel count IS important because of the publishers' requirements.

So, any mid-range digital camera that's a couple of years old, that incorporates a fully manual mode would be a big improvement over what you're using now.

Canon is an excellent brand, but so are a few others including Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Panasonic which is all I can think of off the top of my head and are probably the brands I would stick with.

Some of the things you should look at other than DoF and pixel count are the camera's sensitivity (how it performs in low light), noise level, sharpness and if you can manually adjust sharpness (a lot of default sharpening usually induces noise).  Also, being able to manually adjust color temperature is a big plus. 

If you're going to get into focus stacking, being able to manually choose your focusing points is also essential.  Remember, that in close-up model railroad photography, a camera/lens combination that allows you to stop down to f/22 or more, will increase your DoF a lot, but the closer you get, the less DoF you get, even with minuscule f-stop openings...which is why focus stacking capability is necessary IMO, which can be easily done with your lens wide open if that's your lens's sweet spot.

Anyways...good luck!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[mmagliaro]

Believe it or not, the simple point-and-shoot thing I have (the Canon A630) has full manual controls.
Exposure time, f/stop, iso, white balance, and even full manual focus if I choose to use it.

They don't typically pack all that manual control into relatively low-cost point-and-shoot cameras anymore.

I wasn't the least bit interested in more megapixels.   I was able to focus this old camera as close as 1 cm and get 8MP,
so I always had plenty to get an 8x10 at 300 dpi.

I've used Sony a few times - not a fan.  The user interface is different enough from what I'm used to that it's not worth it to me.
Nikons are excellent cameras and I like the ones I've used (a couple of DSLR models).

Mostly what I'm after is a bigger, better lens and body that will get me better clarity and sharpness and better low-light sensitivity
(which was lousy on the A630).  I think both of those will improve dramatically with the G12.  A good deal came along on one so I snapped it up.  I actually paid about the same price that I did for the A630 8 years ago! (around 200 bucks).