Becoming a dinosaur...

Over the years with my Canon G2, there have been new launching of new powershot models.... G3..... G5..... and this year, G6 !!!!

Technology sure moves fast. Manufacturers are greedy as ever, always upgrading little by little, expecting consumers to grab whatever that comes next. Would this be my next jump? Actually, I'm in the market looking for a super compact digicam.... but am at loss of choosing after being pampered with the G2. My key features are small, light and good picture quality for low light situations. Nice to have features are big zoom ability, anti-shake and upgradeability (eg. lens, flash, etc.). So far, have narrowed down to .... Canon Powershot S70 (7mp 3.6x) Canon PowerShot S1 IS (3mp 10x) Panasonic DMC-FX1 (3mp 3x) Panasonic DMC-FZ10 (4mp 12x) Sony DSC-V1 (5mp 4x) Sony DSC-T1 Casio Exilim EX-Z4 Updates: 7th November 2004 Ok... fast forward a few months of browsing and demo-ing super compact cameras, have finally filtered down to a few choices ..... Sony DSC-U50 - the smallest of all. Sony DSC-L1 - the 2nd smallest but bulky. 3x optical zoom. RM1,300. Canon PowerShot SD10 (Digital IXUS i) - the 2nd smallest of all. RM1,100. Canon PowerShot SD300 (Digital IXUS 40) - RM1,400 Casio Exilim EX-Z4 - the slimmest. RM1,400. Panasonic DMC-FX7 - has optical stabilizer. RM1,500. Overall conclusion, think I will get the Canon IXUS i. Reasons are picture quality which seems to be the most natural and photo worthy. However, the focus is a little lagging and there is no optical zoom. Flash is negligible. Still, I think this will prove to be a worthy super-compact digicam, without the neat features as optical stabilizer (from Panasonic), big LCD (from Casio or Panasonic) or optical zoom (Sony, Panasonic and Casio). The Canon IXUS 40 is a worthy option, with equally great pictures and big LCD as well optical zoom. However, I have to keep my priority and that is a super compact digicam (size matters). As for Sony, picture quality is non-natural... metallic looking and lacks in brightness/contrast. Side by side comparison on the same subject with the canon, shows clearly the superiority of the canon from just the LCD display. Needless to say, the downloaded pictures will show even more flaws. Same problems for the panasonic and casio, the colours are overexagerrated and non-natural. Take note, all these observations are from the same place and time, with the same photo subjects as demos.