Canon PowerShot G2
The PowerShot G2 is a solid choice for flexibility and great image quality.
Nikki Echler McDonald and Carla Thornton
When we first tested Canon's PowerShot G2 last year, it produced some of the best-looking photos we'd seen. This year we pitted the G2 against newer models and it won again, turning in the best photos in our tests, with rich colors and sharp details.
Although solidly packed with features and weighing just over a pound, the G2 manages to keep a fairly small footprint. The numerous buttons that sprinkle its two-tone case take time to learn, but they save trips into the menu. One of the camera's best features is its hinged 1.8-inch LCD, which can swing open like a camcorder display and point up, down, or in the same direction as the lens to allow easy self-portraits. The G2 offers all the control you could want, with an array of picture-quality settings, including a RAW mode (which saves photos without extra processing, so you can uncompress them), settings for creative shots (for producing black-and-white, sepia, and other effects), and a complete range of exposure modes, including aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and full- manual settings. For help with focusing manually, you can press a button that enlarges the center of a picture.
Because it can focus in macro mode at 2.4 inches, the 4-megapixel PowerShot G2 is also a good choice for close-up photography. Canon bundles a roomy 32MB CompactFlash card, Adobe's popular Photoshop LE, and a wireless remote.
Just a couple of gripes with this camera: The mode dial seems difficult to turn, and you have to reenter some picture settings when you switch from manual to some automatic modes. The camera's rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack saw us through 373 photographs-about average for the 16 cameras we tested.
UPSHOT: The $799 PowerShot G2 remains one of the best choices for photographers who value flexibility and top-notch image quality. But you may want to wait for our review of the G3.
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