Digicams: the Almighty Canon PowerShot G2 (Patreon)

Welcome back to another instalment of the Digicams series !

This is the Canon PowerShot G2 from 2001!

With it's very useful tilty flippy tiny but not very clear lcd screen!

I have been waiting for this one, patiently though, and I finally found one in Quebec, so I got it shipped here, all for a modest price. Why this camera you say? Well apparently it's the one to own if you listen to the internet, there is a buzz about this model in particular. 

https://fstoppers.com/reviews/20-year-old-camera-will-surprise-618093

This puts the G2 in a category of its own. The resurgence of vintage digital cameras has blurred the lines between analog and digital and made it possible to yield results that not only look filmic but can also provide a film shooting sort of experience. Pair this with the high prices of film, a global recession, and an ever-increasing societal obsession with nostalgia, and you’ve got a pretty solid reason to get involved in the vintage digicam trend.

Yes it is slow, I concur, it is also quite bulky. 

Released in 2001 and marketed as a prosumer compact camera, the G2 featured a 4-megapixel CCD sensor and a surprisingly fast zoom lens, ranging from f/2 - f/2.5, which even today would be decent on a compact camera. A fellow photographer told me they remember paying nearly $1,000 for this camera when it was first released, which is pretty crazy to think when you look at it now in 2022. The fact that it holds up today justifies that price point back then, and following some buzz online in certain communities, this camera is now increasing in value on eBay. "How the world turns," is maybe what some of the mature readers are saying to themselves.

So, a big 4.0 megapixels, alright, lens from f/2-f/2.5, now that is cool. I was surprised how it handled low light:

I just love the low light colors from these old digicams, very filmic I have to say.

However this version as lots of dead pixels apparent in low light, but let's pretend it's film dust :)

Also, manual mode thank you, even manual range focusing, nice! 

As you can see I tried it under different circumstances here, night, street, evening, name it. Did I say it was slow? Yeah it's slow, so for street photography it is not the best, but landscape is good. Seriously it's awesome to see JPG images straight from these cameras, CCD fever I tell you. 

Yes, I do post-process these images, I can't help myself. However, for the most part it was subtle adjustments, but it's nice to start from a good base.

Images are surprisingly good for a camera from 2001, must have been a beast back then. 

Since the beginning of this series I have acquired a lot of digicams, (about 15 lol) I have not really tried them all because I am waiting for interesting occasions to do so. So I might come back from time to time with a new set. 

That said, I may have used the G2 also on a shoot :)

All new full set from this weekend with Astrid tomorrow, don't miss it !