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[Midnight Rider]

One great new Canon that has just come out is the G10 (it took the place of the G9).  It's a step up from the shirt pocket sized cameras....more like a jacket pocket camera.  It has a fantastic display on the back, plus a viewfinder.  Most viewfinders on the non DSLR cameras only show about 75% of what is actually going to end up in the photograph, but it does help with stabilization.  The G10 has a lot of features of a DSLR, but without the bulk.  Plus, it has image stabilization to help in low light situations.  It's got some dials on top where you don't have to dig through a bunch of menus to make quick changes to ISO, program, auto, scenes, etc.  Just turn a dial.  It's a 14+ MP camera and will take RAW images as well....if you've never used RAW, the difference in quality and capturing more detail in the shadows and highlights is significant over a standard jpeg file.  However, you do have to import the image into some kind of post processing software.  I like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2...this program is great for cataloging and doing basic "tweaks" to your photos, plus it makes the images easier to find if you take a bunch of photos over the years.  The G10 Canon is capable of taking photos that are as good as any DSLR DX format, in most cases.  High capacity battery, able to use the newer high speed memory cards as well, so there is no "lag" time in writing large images to the card.  Built like a tank too.  It's in the 4-5 hundred dollar range though, but still cheaper than most DSLR cameras.

[Twolanerider]

One great new Canon that has just come out is the G10

I had one of these in hand for a week considering making it a camera to take in the field rather than the old 40D.  Played with it indoors for a couple days and thought it was going to be great.  Easy to use.  Intuitive.  No problems.  Then took it outdoors and became quickly disappointed using it in variable conditions. 

Low ISO it was fine.  As ISO went up it got noisy.  ISO 800 or so was poor.  Anything above that was pointless.  Also wasn't too impressed with the lens.  It was slow.  Not bad, the "promise" of its feel and suggested by its gadgetry isn't met by its imagery.  Too bad too, because it makes you really want to like it when you start playing with it.

[Midnight Rider]

I had one of these in hand for a week considering making it a camera to take in the field rather than the old 40D.  Played with it indoors for a couple days and thought it was going to be great.  Easy to use.  Intuitive.  No problems.  Then took it outdoors and became quickly disappointed using it in variable conditions. 

Low ISO it was fine.  As ISO went up it got noisy.  ISO 800 or so was poor.  Anything above that was pointless.  Also wasn't too impressed with the lens.  It was slow.  Not bad, the "promise" of its feel and suggested by its gadgetry isn't met by its imagery.  Too bad too, because it makes you really want to like it when you start playing with it.

Don...totally agree with you above 400 ISO, but below that, it does fine.  Used this as a primary camera in Sante Fe, NM...as a walking around town camera, plus a few other shots.  The one of the gorge is not as sharp as I'd like, but it was windy as hell that day, plus Suzanne was taking this photo.

[Midnight Rider]

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[Midnight Rider]

It snowed the last day...took this right outside our room at a nice B&B.  They've been tweaked a bit in Lightroom 2, but just for saturation and contrast.

[Midnight Rider]

This is the gorge.  It was windy and cold as a titche's witty, so Suzanne as probably shaking a bit.  Still not bad at ISO 200 and 1/160th.  If I could show you the original jpegs, the building details are sharp as a tack from edge to edge.

[porthole]

If I was looking at these two pictures when considering the purchase of this camera I would scratch it off my list.

They somehow look unnatural. kind of what digital pics looked like when they first came out.

[Midnight Rider]

Duane...when I shot film, my preference was Fuji Velvia shot at ISO 40, as I found it best represented what I was actually seeing rather than the more neutral/yellow/cool blue color of the Kodak films of the time.  Certainly, if taking pics of people, I did not use Velvia as it produced an unatural skin tone (too red).  For landscapes, I set my digitals to vivid, with plus 3-5 sharpening and plus 2-3 saturation, if those settings are available, each model of camera being a bit different in that respect.  In post processing, I will also sometimes play with the White Balance settings until I get what I remember in my head the scene actually looked like.  Sometimes the camera nails it in auto WB, but other times it's off just a bit, and it's easier to grab the shot and tweak it later than to mess around for 10 minutes with in camera WB settings.  With film, I had to use 82A filters on the Velvia to "warm" the colors a bit.  It depends on the scene, and personal preferences....plus how each person "sees" color and how an individual's monitor displays any given photograph.  Mine is calibrated once a month and represents, to me, what comes out of my Epson 2200 printer more closely.   Here are the same two photos as shot:

[Midnight Rider]

And the second one...more neutral as shot.  Perhaps more how you like to see your photos?  One is not better than the other, depending on what a person likes or remembers the actual scene and how it looked to them when shot.

At any rate, there are a lot of great digital cameras out there right now.  There are also a lot of free reviews on the web comparing one against the other.  The G10 did well in comparison with some of the others, so I picked it because I like the way it operates in my hands and it has exposure compensation on a dial rather than digging through menus, and I use that a lot on any camera I own.  But, it's not a shirt pocket camera either, as mentioned.

[porthole]

When i shot film it was usually kodachrome most of the time and fuji for anything on the water (due to the added "blueness").

Didn't play with the V film much but I kind of got the impression is was geared a little towards the kodak stuff with regards to temperature.

Most of my outdoors stuff I also have the saturation turned up, but I have gotten in the habit of switching modes with scenes I really like to limit the post processing.

Also using the D300.

My comment was based on your posting those pics assuming they were "as shot" with the G10. Is that not so?

[Midnight Rider]

See the above shots for as shot...

The D300 is a great camera.  I generally have two modes set up in the "my menu" settings.  I call one "Bold" which has the colors bumped up more akin to Velvia and the other I call "Peeps", for more natural skin tones and a tiny bit more color saturation (+1).  Both have sharpness set to +5.  Here's a shot of a woman, Erin Mitchell of The Erin Mitchell Band....I shot her debut CD release in my "peeps" settings.  Janis Joplin, Etta James, and Bonnie Raitt all rolled into one powerful voice.  Keep in mind there was a green stage light behind her and to her left, with a red and blue in front and to her left.  Hand held 18-200 VR at 1/10th...not totally sharp, but she loved it and that's all that matters to me.

If you like the blues, R&B, and rock all rolled into one powerful little package, check out this young lady...best voice I've heard in a very long time.  Local to B'ham, but not for long.

[LarryB]

just bought a canon EOS Rebel XS for a walking around camera. use a sony cybershot for riding. or one of them throw aways.

[canucktm]

Yeah I've been a die hard Nikon. I just went on a major trip on the bike in fact just got home today so this the first time back on this site in three weeks. anyway for the trip  I wanted something a bit smaller put not a little pocket job . I settled on the Canon G10 that Midnight Rider mentioned earlier.  Really happy with it. Took about 750 shots with it on this trip. Did over 6,000 miles in 19 days. Bike also worked flawlessly ( 09 CVO Ultra) no leaks only thing that happened was had to replace tail light bulb in tour pack.