(*Extensive*) First Look review posted for Canon PowerShot G3!
By
Dave Etchells
(Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:01 EDT)
Canon was a day or two late getting a prototype to me, but we still managed to put together a pretty extensive "First Look" at it, including a detailed comparison table showing changes since the G2 (and G1, for the sake of history).
The Canon PowerShot G3 is an incremental upgrade from the G2, staying with the same 4MP (3.87 MP effective) sensor, but adding a 4x zoom lens and myriad control changes and feature enhancements. The result may not be enough to tempt current G2 owners to trade in their cameras, but I think the G3 is going to compete very strongly in the high end of the consumer digicam space. I expect there's going to be some foofraw on the 'net over Canon's decision to stay with a 4 megapixel sensor, when much of their competition is forging ahead into 5MP territory, but I also expect that much of it will die down once people look closely at sample photos from it. (Sorry, no sample photos yet, we were asked not to show any photos from the unit we have, as it's still a prototype model.)
While I haven't done any extensive photo testing with it yet, at a first glance, the G3's lens looks to be quite sharp, to the extent that I think it will hold up very well against the 5MP competition, just as did the G2. Also, while I didn't get up on my soapbox about it in the review, I really (really) like the newly redesigned user interface on the G3 - the tabbed sub-menus off the FUNC button make it one of the fastest-navigating digicams I've played with. Very straightforward and intuitive to operate, IMHO.
Tons of other tweaks and feature enhancements as well - read the review for all the details!
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