Canon G15, G16: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Birma
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Just checked the UK camera price buster site and the G15 is down to £329 in the UK, and in fact £279 if you are happy to go with Digital Rev from Hong Kong. This is the lowest price it has been in the UK since launch.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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It's a good price, pays to wait a bit with these cameras you get much better bang per buck buying late.
Maybe they have a new model coming out in a few months.
I quite like the G series cameras they are one of the better models in this price bracket. Never had a lot of interest in the LX and S models
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bakubo
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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bfitzgerald wrote:It's a good price, pays to wait a bit with these cameras you get much better bang per buck buying late.
Maybe they have a new model coming out in a few months.
I quite like the G series cameras they are one of the better models in this price bracket. Never had a lot of interest in the LX and S models
In the case of the G15 in the U.S. the price has risen quite a lot in the last 2.5 months, not gone down. It was $429 and now it is $499. Strange. In Japan it was a really good price 2.5 months ago and now it is a bit less.

I have the S95 too and it is pretty good. I like the small size that you can almost forget you have in your pocket, but there is no VF. The G15 is much nicer to use, but it is bigger and heavier. I think I will keep the S95 since there are a few times when having something much smaller is handy (going out to dinner with friends, etc.).
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bakubo
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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I took this photo while in the toilet at Ochanomizu train station in Tokyo. Directly in front of you while standing at the urinals is this window that allows you to take a leak while looking down at the train platform and train tracks. What I want to know is what these guys are looking at????

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I took this one yesterday:

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This one was yesterday too. This is the old Meiji era street car station at Dogo Onsen:

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bakubo
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Birma wrote:I like the food growing shots :)

Rice fields are very photogenic with all of the graphic lines. I like the rain soaked leaves as well. We are just entering our rainy season here in the UK. It's called the summer :( .
I have some more rice fields, etc. shots in the Japan/Japan 13 album, but they were taken with the E-M5 so I won't post them in this G15 thread. They are further down near the bottom. I should get out and get some more. This area right now is so green and lush. First time I have been here on Shikoku at this time of year. Usually it is fall, spring, or winter. The bamboo forests, mountains, farms, etc. look fantastic. Yesterday afternoon it rained lightly on and off so everything was wet and there were wispy clouds low on the mountains. I regret not going out with an umbrella to shoot some. Really looked great. I went out in the morning for a mountain walk over the mountain to Dogo Onsen, but it was not raining then and the light wasn't as good. This morning the sun is shining so it doesn't look like yesterday afternoon. It is still tsuyu though so probably I will get another chance. :lol:

http://www.bakubo.com/Galleries%202/index.html

When is the UK dry season? In the summer 2001 when we were there for a few weeks we didn't see much rain. Actually, I don't recall any. I do recall part of the time we were there that the news reports were saying that it was unusually hot because of a heat wave though.
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Birma
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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We're supposed to be in our driest season now Henry, but for the last few years we have had cooler, wetter summers. The Meteorologists here had a conference earlier in the year and decided that we are going through a cyclic phenomenon where warmer water in the North Atlantic causes cool wet summers here for 10-16 years! :shock: We might be 6 years in to this cycle which last happened in the 1950-60s and before that 1880s. Umbrellas and rain coats are required at all times of year :) .
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Birma wrote:We're supposed to be in our driest season now Henry, but for the last few years we have had cooler, wetter summers. The Meteorologists here had a conference earlier in the year and decided that we are going through a cyclic phenomenon where warmer water in the North Atlantic causes cool wet summers here for 10-16 years! :shock: We might be 6 years in to this cycle which last happened in the 1950-60s and before that 1880s. Umbrellas and rain coats are required at all times of year :) .
Okay, just another decade then. :lol: How is fall, winter, and spring? Rain also?
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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It has been awhile since I have updated this thread with new observations about the G15. This afternoon a few things that I discovered early on though came to mind so I will add comments about them.

With this camera I usually have it set to Program mode since generally I don't care a whole lot about the particular aperture (unlike with larger sensor cameras which I always choose the aperture) since the DOF is rather deep even wide open and the lens is good wide open. I also usually use Auto ISO. The G15's Auto ISO is pretty good. You can set the maximum ISO that it can use up to ISO 1600 (minimum ISO is always 80). When not using Auto ISO you can go up to ISO 12,800. With Auto ISO you can also set the Rate of Change (Slow, Standard, Fast). I generally use Standard, but sometimes use Fast. When using Fast the camera will often bump the ISO up a bit more which gives a faster shutter speed. That comes in handy sometimes when doing street photography because otherwise the camera sometimes will choose a lower ISO (for better quality), hence a slower shutter speed and sometimes you might have a better chance to getting subject blur. It is nice to be able to adjust these things. I have thought about in these situations using Av mode and just setting the widest aperture to ensure the fastest shutter speed, but generally that isn't necessary.

You can configure the front and rear control wheels to various functions and they can be different for P, Av, Tv, M modes. I have the front control wheel configured to zoom to specific focal lengths (28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 140mm) with each click. You can still use the zoom control which zooms continuously. While on the street I use it a lot. Before bringing the camera to my eye, which announces to the world that I am about to take a photo, I very quickly use the front dial to get to my guesstimate of the approximate focal length I want. At the same time I often quickly dial in a bit of exposure comp based on the scene and my guesstimate of how the meter will react. When necessary I do both of these things pretty fast while the camera is still down. Also, if you use the front control wheel to set the focal length the camera remembers it when you turn the camera off. When you turn the camera on it returns to that focal length. Nice touch. When you adjust the zoom using the regular control the focal length is reset to 28mm whenever you turn on the camera.

Besides the ability to configure the front and rear control dials you can configure the rear button. I have it set to switch between raw and jpeg.

There are 2 custom settings on the mode dial. I have mine set exactly the same except that one uses Auto ISO Standard and one uses Auto ISO Fast. It is much easier and faster to quickly move the mode dial than go into the Func menu.

The G15 raw files are a bit large. My understanding is that both my E-M5 and G15 produce raw files with lossless compression, but even though the E-M5 has 1/3 more megapixels and the embedded jpeg has significantly more megapixels the G15 usually has larger raw files:

E-M5: 16.1mp, 12-bit, 4640x3472 with embedded 3200x2400 jpeg -- ~13-15mb
G15: 12.1mp, 12-bit, 4048x3048 with embedded 1600x1200 jpeg -- ~12-18.5mb

Taking a nap downtown today:

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Birma
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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bakubo wrote:Okay, just another decade then. :lol: How is fall, winter, and spring? Rain also?
There is a chance of rain all year around. Typically the Late Spring, Summer and Early Fall (Autumn) are drier, but this has changed in the last few years. Last year was one of the wettest on record in the south of the UK. I think one of the reasons that people in the UK talk about the weather all of the time is that it is so unpredictable and changeable.


It is interesting to read your ongoing review of the G15. Canon certainly seemed to have thought out solutions for a lot of photographers requirements.
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bakubo
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Birma wrote:There is a chance of rain all year around. Typically the Late Spring, Summer and Early Fall (Autumn) are drier, but this has changed in the last few years. Last year was one of the wettest on record in the south of the UK. I think one of the reasons that people in the UK talk about the weather all of the time is that it is so unpredictable and changeable.
A few years ago I lived part-time in Vancouver, British Columbia for several years. Generally, they get about 9 months of almost daily rain. Summer is beautiful, but the summer is sometimes as short as 2 months. I think it was 2003 when we had a 4 month summer! The TV news and newspapers kept remarking that summer about how amazing that it was lasting so long. I think it was in 2005 when we had a summer that was only 2 months or slightly less. I also remember that Tim Horton's (donut and coffee chain) had a funny TV ad one year late in the summer that ran often. A young woman was walking along the sidewalk and suddenly she lets out this blood curdling scream and has this look of total horror on her face. The camera then looks down at the sidewalk and there is a single red and yellow leaf. :lol: It made her realize that the short summer was ending. Anyway, Canadians often would comment about their poor weather, but I would always tell them that all that rain made everything so lush and green. I assume it is the same where you are. :)
Birma wrote: It is interesting to read your ongoing review of the G15. Canon certainly seemed to have thought out solutions for a lot of photographers requirements.
When I think of something else I will try to remember to come here to make an update.
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Birma
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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bakubo wrote:A few years ago I lived part-time in Vancouver, British Columbia for several years. Generally, they get about 9 months of almost daily rain. Summer is beautiful, but the summer is sometimes as short as 2 months. I think it was 2003 when we had a 4 month summer! The TV news and newspapers kept remarking that summer about how amazing that it was lasting so long. I think it was in 2005 when we had a summer that was only 2 months or slightly less. I also remember that Tim Horton's (donut and coffee chain) had a funny TV ad one year late in the summer that ran often. A young woman was walking along the sidewalk and suddenly she lets out this blood curdling scream and has this look of total horror on her face. The camera then looks down at the sidewalk and there is a single red and yellow leaf. :lol: It made her realize that the short summer was ending. Anyway, Canadians often would comment about their poor weather, but I would always tell them that all that rain made everything so lush and green. I assume it is the same where you are. :)
Back in the early 80s my elder brother did a coast to coast and back again tour through Canada and back through the USA. He brought me back a t-shirt from Vancouver that said "In Vancouver you don't tan, you rust!" :D . This now makes sense! The t-shirt has long gone. He also brought me a CAT diesel baseball cap before either baseball caps or CAT were the fashion icons they now are in the UK. That lasted a bit longer, and I wore it often until it fell apart :) . Funnily enough, my older brother still gives me his old clothes now.
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bakubo
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Yeah, that is right. :lol: In British Columbia people learn to live with wet and rust.

Here are a few more from Tokyo.

In Kabukicho, Shinjuku:

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Young love among the crowds at night outside Ikebukuro station:

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Greg Beetham
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

I’m enjoying the G15 thread, it seems like a very handy camera; although probably not a deal breaker I wonder if the next model will see the return of the movable rear screen?
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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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Greg Beetham wrote:I’m enjoying the G15 thread, it seems like a very handy camera; although probably not a deal breaker I wonder if the next model will see the return of the movable rear screen?
Yeah, who knows? Personally, I hope not. The G12 camera was bigger/heavier than the G15 and the LCD was smaller (2.8" vs. 3"), but it had the articulating LCD. I am quite happy that they made the LCD fixed, made it bigger, and made the camera smaller/lighter. I wrote this earlier:
bakubo wrote:The G12 had an articulating LCD, but the G15 does not. I am rather happy about this change because I rarely use the tilt/swivel LCD of my other cameras and for a carry everywhere camera I value the size/weight savings much more than the tilt/swivel convenience for the rare times I would use it on this sort of camera.

For a carry everywhere camera when I am out and about going through normal life I want something that is all self-contained (lens, flash, lens cover) and that is small and flat enough that I can put it in a jacket pocket or cargo shorts pocket.
Drowned centipede on a rainy day:

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Re: Canon G15: Some thoughts on my new camera

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bakubo wrote:I took this photo while in the toilet at Ochanomizu train station in Tokyo. Directly in front of you while standing at the urinals is this window that allows you to take a leak while looking down at the train platform and train tracks. What I want to know is what these guys are looking at????
My Japanese is rusty (ok, non-existent!), but I think it says what the one over our urinal says: Stand Close, it's shorter than you think!

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