G10 the best route?

Hello everyone,

I received a lot of really good information from people on this site who helped me decide which set up would be best for me. In the end, I was talked into saving to house my 5d II. Now my brother is in the hunt for a good digital camera that he can take on our dives as well. He is new to photography but plans to get a lot of use out of the camera. He also plans to make photography a hobby so I want him to get a camera that he can continue to use as he learns and not have to upgrade right away. He has pretty much decided that he wants to get a canon G10 after reading many reviews. However, seeing as I have never used any of Canon G series, I wanted to get some opinions from others on this site. He was able to find the camera+housing for less than $1000 on ebay and that is pretty much his target price (or below) Any advice or recommendations would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

-Jim

g10 is about $250 on ebay, the casing is $178 at B&H.

I've had the g10 for three years now. It's pretty good except in low light. You'll have to keep it at ISO 80 and use strobes. If you want to do natural light you'll be better off with the g11 or g12.

If I had to go for a new camera, I'd go for a larger sensor without mirror like the Panasonic GF1-2-3 or the Olympus Pen. You can find the EP1 with original Olympus casing for around 1200$.

g10 is about $250 on ebay, the casing is $178 at B&H.

 

I've had the g10 for three years now. It's pretty good except in low light. You'll have to keep it at ISO 80 and use strobes. If you want to do natural light you'll be better off with the g11 or g12.

 

If I had to go for a new camera, I'd go for a larger sensor without mirror like the Panasonic GF1-2-3 or the Olympus Pen. You can find the EP1 with original Olympus casing for around 1200$.

Thank you very much. We actually met another diver using the g10 who said pretty much the same thing you did. He also said that the focus speed was very slow. He is not looking into the panasonic gf series. Thank you again for your help.

If you want a lot of frustration, missed shots, and triggering right after the fish has left the scene, go for canon G, Nikon P&S, or older oly P&S.

Canon G's have never been competitive with the industry, like panasonic or sony, for autofocus speed.

The same used to be true of oly, but the last generations of pens, and the xz1 are very competent at autofocus, and low lag times.

The best compact camera today is the pany lx5. Ikelite, 10bar, nauticam and others make housings for it.

The lx5 is on sale now, at samy's camera, for $350, free shipping! This is $50 cheaper than anywhere else!

Ryan, over at reefphoto has a nice report on what they consider the top 3 compact cameras today:

http://www.reefphoto.com/kb.php?id=28

For the mirrorless market, the pany gf and gh cameras are great, and the very latest oly ep3 and epl3 are looking great too.

The lenses for the micro 4/3 are still more expensive than the equivalent lens would be for canon or nikon, and there are no 3rd party lenses yet. But they are coming down, all the time.