- P7000 – very comparable to the G12, but cheaper
- G12 – best in class, but overpriced
- Gx200 good, serviceable, low lost alternative
GOOD
- Small size
- EVF – A godsend in bright conditions where the display is washed out, the fact that it tilts is icing on the cake.
- Controls not to cluttered – Kinda minimalist; just 8 control buttons, but they do enough things so you can get what you need done, I found that the P7000 had so many buttons you had to hold it just right when shooting so you did not hit/press something accidentally.
- Auto ISO settings – Awesome setting where you give the range of ISOs the camera will use on auto.
- Low-key look – Nice black matte look, does not shout “I am expensive, take me” and I imagine it would be great for street shots.
- Nice manual mode - A lot of compact cameras' manual mode does not still give you an exposure bar so you can tell when the camera is properly exposed, having that in manual on a compact is a real nice touch.
- Uses AAA batteries in a pinch – Nice, but emergency only to get you to the next charged battery.
- Snap Focusing – Nice for quick shots, fixes the focus distance so there is less travel when focusing.
- No Shutter Priority setting – Weird but true, was not a big issue for me as I rarely use shutter priority, and the GX200’s excellent manual mode makes up for it.
- Short battery life – 350 shot estimate with GX200 battery and 45 (yes, 45) if you use AAAs, normally I always carry a spare but with all my other cameras if I leave the house to shoot 3 hours fully charged I rarely have to swap batteries, with this one I’m on my second battery or dangerously low.
- Oblong Shutter button – I don’t know what this is about, I actual looked for the shutter button a couple seconds before I caught on. I guess it’s to save space, but it just seems…unnatural.
- Short Zoom – 3x is all you get. They have a nice wide of 24mm equivalent, but I would have love at least 5x.
- Cluttered settings menu – Once you want to change a setting that is not a basic shooting setting the menu is pretty poorly laid out, and not having a dedicated button for manual focus still bothers me. On the P7000, you just press the macro button 3 times and you get manual focus. On the GX200, the macro button is just macro on/off
- No button to manual focus – Already whined about that
- Expensive accessories – They have an EVF kit with the camera, but it’s kinda cheap not to throw in the cap and the EVF default. They are kinda pricey otherwise; I mean over $150 for the viewfinder is kinda harsh.
- EVF useful, but poor quality – The EVF is a godsend, but it is not really high quality. Everything looks a little washed out and can make things look over exposed. I thought I would use it more, but because of the quality of it I only use it in bright sun, and at low shutter speeds for stability.
No comments:
Post a Comment