Want To Come See Me Flash?? (Canon Powershot G1)

Member Name: jennyholdsworth

Product:	Canon Powershot G1
Date:	07/04/07 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for An Older Camera

Disadvantages: Bit Big

Hi all and welcome to my review this time I would like to talk about my very old but very trusty digital camera which was top of the range when it came out but has now been superseded by many newer models but because of the ease of use and the fact that it stills takes photos as good as the day I bought it 5 years ago I have kept a hold of it and still use it to this day. It operates in much the same way as today's cameras and has a built in LCD screen which you flip out and rotate to view the images and view the scenery ahead of you before taking a photo.


Advertised as a 3.3 mega pixel camera it really doe's provide you with great images from portrait to landscape and I have even got some brilliant action shots of my children playing football when I have fiddled with the many different setting's accessed through the menu on the LCD screen operated by directional buttons located on the back of the camera. You have all the usual modes such as night, action, landscape etc as well as a very good and clear automatic flash which can be turned on and off as required. The anti red eye setting is brilliant for taking photos of people and I have a real problem with the kid's as they all seem to appear red eyed in any photo setting but with this camera I have very few problems.


The camera takes the older version of compact flash I + II and can be set to take different quality photos depending upon the amount of photo graphs you wish to squeeze onto your memory card but fortunately I have a 2GB card making running out of available space a thing of the past. The batteries however are another issue, although it has a built in battery and comes with charger the charge after about a year really started to run out quickly and I am now lucky if I can get 20 minutes use but still after 5 years the batteries have not done badly at all and maybe I should stop being so tight and buy a replacement maybe the money for this review could contribute towards it.


Another really good feature again available on most digital cameras is the ability to record pictures and sound but this does tend to really run the batteries down very even when new and it is not great when using in darkened conditions in fact I would not even try. Pictures are easily transferred from the camera to a PC via a USB cable also supplied with the camera and the memory card can also be taken out and used in either a separate card reader or device fitted with a card reader for compact flash I + II.


On a down side I have to say that the camera is very heavy and quite big weighing in at 17.3 oz or for those who prefer the other then it's 490g and the dimensions are 120 x 77 x 64mm or 4,7 x 3 x 2.5 inches.
However what I will say is this camera has been everywhere including abroad and in the hands of children and has taken a fair few knocks but it has never broken and is still working great. Included when buying this camera was an 16MB memory card but this is purely suitable for testing it will not hold many photos at all.

The camera has a zoom lens which is very good for taking distant pictures and these can go from normal to 4x zoom. I very rarely use this but did when recently away in Malta taking some beautiful photos of the Comino Islands I will have to add these to the review when I get my other laptop back from repair as I stupidly forgot to take them off before sending it away. All the speed settings and replay settings are on dials on the top side of the camera easily selected by just rotating the dial to the relevant setting.


The zoom and photo taking button are together the zoom operated by just pushing a slide button from left to right and the photo taking by simple push button which is very smooth and quick once pressed, there is hardly any delay between pressing and the photo actually being captured unlike friends who have experienced long delays on their more modern cameras this is probably just settings but I am by no means an expert in the field of cameras. I hope I have covered everything you could need to know and if I can help at all please contact me.

Summary: Great value camera even if outdated now

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