Here we go again. Everytime I turn around I find myself trading in my current digital camera for half what I paid for it because the next generation improvements are so compelling. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen so frequently. Every six months to a year this happens to me. Its getting to be worse than computers. After reading the highlights of the G2 review, however, I'm already scheming how to come up with the money.

Imagine - aperture priority external flash with my 550EX and the ability to use more that one aperture at medium-high shutter speeds. Now if only they had rearranged some of the buttons on the back of the camera so I could hold the camera comfortably without accidentally pressing one of the buttons. Oh yeah, and as stingy as the G1 is with it's battery, how did they manage to improve that as much as they did?? And color fidelity? Improved? I was just reading an article in a recent photo magazine which stated that the color accuracy of the G1 was the best they had ever tested, and that was not only for digital cameras, but for film as well. Anyone want to buy a gently used G1, a couple of Pentax Spotmatics and a Canon Pellix, a couple of old lenses, an Agfa T1200 scanner? Think I'll hold on to my firstborn, but I sure do want this new camera. Of course Canon could do the right thing and incorporate some of the fixes into a firmware update for the G1 or a trade-up policy or some such thing..

I second Dan's post. Nasty little ideas fly in my head to come up with a way of going G1-> G2. hmmmm... By the way, the review at dpreview is excellent. I've had a G1 for 4 months, and though a great camera, some of it's faults are actually quite serious: .

Focusing .

The focusing algorithm was designed by an idiot, period. The camera does a full-scene contrast analysis, with no way of isolating an area. I can't count the number of ruined shots b/c there was a high-contrast element on the side of an image whose main subject was lower contrast. Hard to imagine how a company that puts 5 auto-focus points in it's el-cheapo Rebel2000 slr will put it's "prosumer" digicam (MSRP~$900) out with such a boneheaded focusing system. And this is really a disaster, b/c of the lack of a manual override of any kind for focus area, and the essentially useless manual focusing system. G2: they seem to have fully addressed this one.

This alone makes the upgrade worth it.

Purple fringing .

This is a combination of lens chromatic aberration, CCD infrared sensitivity and blooming (pixel leak). In the G1 for strongly backlit images it can actually be strong enough to ruin a shot. G2: this can't be fully eliminated (some of it is the physics of glass and ccds) but they seem to have done a very good job of controlling it via image processing. Kudos to Canon.

These two are my *major* gripes with the G1, the focusing issue being bad enough to consider ditching the camera. Some minor ones: .

Grip .

The G1 has really bad ergonomics. Again, for a company like canon I just can't figure out how such a flat box came out of their design department. G2: fixed.

Histogram (lack thereof) .

Fixed in the G2 Program shift mode Sometimes you want to use flash with flash compensation and a given aperture. Well, you can't do that with the G1. If you choose Av, you get fill flash with slow shutter speeds. If you use full manual, you can't control the flash output. Maybe I'm missing something here. G2: apparently they fixed it with a shiftable P mode, ideal in my book.



Plus, they improved the battery life (which was already very good in the G1) and keept everything that was good about the G1 (actually a lot). If everything works the way the reviewers say it does, it's going to be painful to think about that camera until I can trade....

I would have liked to see an improvement on the video capture, I own the canon s300 and at 20 frames a second it is the leader in the industry, most of the other digital stills at best are 15 frames a second, why didn,t Canon add the 25% more frames per second on the G2? This just gives me a reason to wait until the real new "G" camera comes out.

I used the G1 from Nov 2000 through March 2001, when I got the Pro90. The G1 has the best image quality I've ever seen, and I'm sure the G2 won't disappoint. So a few weeks ago, I sold my Pro90 to get the Sony S85 (4 megapixel MSRP $799). But here's the best part: I got it for $739 right when it was released to the U.S. market. With that in mind, and remember, I've owned 4 Canon digital cameras, why doesn't Canon get it with their pricing points? Why anyone would pay an EXTRA $200 for the G2 (MSRP $999) over the Sony S85 (MSRP $799) is beyond me.

Canon needs to recognize that their stuff is overpriced compared to competitors. Please visit my "Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography" site at www.digicaminfo.com if you're new to digital photography! Thanks..

Speaking of Pro 90, what would be really great is a 4 MP version of this with their 10x stabalized optical zoom. Jim.

Purple fringing is probably not a consequence of chromatic aberration and bloom. Rather, it appears to be linked to the lenticular array that frame-transfer CCDs use in order to achieve better sensitivity while still providing preview mode. The solution? Canon could offer a full frame CCD with shutter but no live preview, or they could redesign the lenticular array (some CCDs do not seem to suffer from this problem). I'd gladly give up live preview on the CCD for better image quality. Trying to fix this problem with image processing is a losing battle, and it's just not the right thing to do..

One big thing that's doing it for me (I've decided on the Canon G2 over the Sony S85) is the storage - I really want to be able use a MicroDrive. Memory Sticks just can't compete, price- or size-wise..

Quoting: "Purple fringing is probably not a consequence of chromatic aberration and bloom". I'd be happy to be corrected, but this is the issue as I uderstand it: 1) Chromatic aberration: the frequency dependence of the index of refraction causes this, nothing new. Even if compensating elements are used in the lens construction, they typically only can compensate well in the visible range. This is enough for film based photograpy, whose IR sensitivity is very low. By the way, this is the reason why older lenses have a separate IR scale on them, in case you want to do IR film photography. 2) Now, replace the film with a ccd.

So the chromatic aberrations of the IR part of your incoming light are now easier to see. 3) Finally, throw in an area with fully saturated pixels next to black ones. The chromatic aberrations from the saturated area will now appear in the neighboring black areas as stray fringes.

I agree that thinking more carefully about it blooming shouldn't be the issue, just chromatic aberrations+ IR sensitivity, in areas of very strong contrast. Feel free to correct my reasoning or add information, I'd like to fully understand this issue..

Can't say I blame you, Jim. But remember, you can get Memory Stick for a buck a meg (or less) now, and they are coming out with a 256 Mb MS soon. Although it's possible that the extra cost of MS *might* make up the price difference between the G2 and the S85, you'll still pay much more for a bounce flash that does TTL. On the Canon, the minimum would be the 380EX (discontinued) or the 420EX, over $200. With the Sony, you can get a TTL bounce flash for $99 and the thing works great (I'm using one with my S85). Finally, let's not forget the new F707 from Sony, for all you Pro90 fans out there who might be thinking of defection....