Me and Megan 2001, taken by my wife. Note my hair was still black - Canon Powershot S20.
I was so excited about the G1. Before getting it, I fantasized about taking it with me everywhere and take all kinds of pictures. It did go with me everywhere, but it dawned on me pretty quickly that it can not take all kinds of pictures with the fixed lens. I was enamored of the G1, despite the awful focusing, which always seemed to focus somewhere else other than where I intended, especially at close range. I took roughly 5000 pictures with it and most of them were of my kids. I totally did not regret its $1200 price tag. I don't remember how my wife would agree to buying this camera when we were so tight with money and that was the amount we didn't have for a luxury item. But she has always been a good sport when it comes to my hobbies; I have a lifetime to thank her for.
The G1 was a great camera, but with severe limitations. For one thing, it was hard to get shallow depth of field. Another thing is the very noisy image above ISO 100, by today's standards, though DPReview touted this camera as having silky smooth image quality and noiseless at low ISO. Most of my pictures were shot at base ISO of 50. Looking back, it's amazing how much the sensor technology has advanced. Now my cell phone can take much better pictures than what the G1 could, with a smaller sensor, 3 times the resolution, and better image quality to boot, but that does not take away the amazing paradigm shift the G1 created. To this day, the G-series still represents the top of the line Canon Point & Shoot cameras. It's currently at its 13th generation with the latest model being the G1X II.
Megan - Canon Powershot G1. From the very beginning, Canon has mastered the great skin tone. Cick for larger.
Have to agree, I think Canon did much better skin tones than anyone. As long as you were in soft light it was usually perfect. I preferred my Nikons for nature shots. :-)
ReplyDeleteSay, on the point of your wife allowing the decision to buy, what was a roll of 35mm cost to develop back then and how much did you save?
ReplyDeleteI was averaging one roll of Fuji Reala every two weeks. The film cost around $8 for 3 rolls. With processing and printing, the cost for 24 frames was about $11 including film.
DeleteYou started on a Powershot S20? I still have mine. Pity the battery sucked big time. It was a good 3.3Mpxl camera. I killed my first IBM Microdrive in it too. I guess that didn't help battery life. It's funny sticking a 1GB CF card in it and looking at the shots left counter.
ReplyDeleteFunny you mentioned the microdrive. I still have a dead, 1gb microdrive. It was an amazing feat to put a tiny hard drive in a size of a CF card.
DeleteMy first digital camera was a Kodak EasyShare CX6200. We originally bought it for my (at the time) preschool age son - with it he could snap as many pictures of his stuffed animals as he wanted. But we quickly discovered while the photo quality wasn't as good as a 35mm SLR, there were definite advantages to not worrying about taking a bad photo - due to the instant feedback & ability to delete. (Although we had to teach my son he wasn't allowed to delete everything.)
ReplyDeleteThe Kodak eventually died and has been replaced with a FujiFilm FinePix XP20 - smaller than the Kodak and also more rugged and with a zoom. The photo quality still won't compete with an SLR or DSLR, but it's great for hikes and other places I don't want to risk damage to the NEX-6.