Looking for a new camer: Canon G-12 vs Sony DSC-TX10

[snhrph]

I have used Olympus C5000 for several years, and I think I'm ready to upgrade. Olympus is a dedicated U/W camera, I use Sony Cybershot topside.

I'm just a casual shooter and do not aspire to become a pro, but I feel that my current set-up has outlived its usefulness.

I'm not ready to make a financial commitment to DSLR, so I'm focusing on digital cameras.

I've narrowed my choices down to 2 units: Canon G-12 and Sony Cybershot DSC-TX10. Both have underwater housings available, and are in the same price range.

Pros of Canon: shoots RAW or JPEG, allows extensive manual controls, and it looks cool.

Pros of Sony: 16MPs, 3" display, water-, shutter-, and freeze-proof, LOWEST shutter lag on the market 0.15 sec.

Both shoot movies, bursts, etc...

I would like to get some input from those who use these cameras.

 

[Gilligan]

I have the G12 and the Canon housing for it. It takes great photos and is easy to use as probably any camera would be after some practice time. The G12 Canon housing does not have a rear or front dial to accommodate those respective dials on the camera. Some rear housing button pushing is required to compensate as I have indicated HERE.

I had a couple of Olympus C4000Z for years in Olympus housings and loved them. But as you said it was time to upgrade.

If I had to buy a point-and-shoot camera today for underwater use it would be the Olympus XZ-1 and the Olympus PT-050 housing. That camera has a larger sensor than most and a 1.8 lens versus the 2.8 in the G12. All the camera's functions are controlled from the housing. The housing has a 67mm threaded lens port for external lenses. There are some reported issues with "vignetting" using some brands of wide angle lenses due to the 4x optical zoom. This is also true with the G12. The Canon G12 housing has an oval port and the WAL adapter is held on with a bungee cord type device.

I use my G10 and G12 with an external strobe and no add-on wet-mount lenses.

Good luck with your choice.

 

[snhrph]

Thank you for your reply.

I have had several Olympus cameras over the years and would like to try something else.

Anyone with experience with Sony Cybershot TX10?

 

[Wantonmien]

snhrph

I bought a G11 as my first camera to dive with and used it full time in the UW mode setting, eventually adding a Inon D2000 strobe, and later a single additional wet lense to aid the macro pics. After accidental 'flooding' the G11 using the Canon case earlier this year, I bought a G12. If you have a look in my albums on scubaboard, since April 2011, all pics are 'as taken', in JPEG, with any editting limited to a bit of cropping and brightness.

I've only just started playing around with G12 in AV mode, and ISO settings, and on last dives I've just started taking pics in RAW & JPEG (as I notice some pics such as Gilligans have that 'something better' than mine), and want to see if it is worth me shooting RAW and spending a bit of time playing on the editting software.

A few of my latest JPEG pics with G12 are here http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/taiwan/387062-longdong-bay-n-e-coast.html - gives a fair idea of what a relative 'new comer' can achieve with G12 in JPEG, without really editting - and my only criticism of the G12 is that obtaining focus often seems very slow.

Cheers

 

[Nemrod]

For what it is worth, the S series are a better choice for (dedicated) underwater use, more flexibility with lens choices, same processor, same IQ, same performance as the G series, if not better, in a more compact format with several outstanding housings available. Having shot a Nikon SLR and a Nikonos III for several decades, I have to say, I was wrong, the S90 outperforms the Nikon film camera in PRACTICAL use, technical BS aside, both in flexibility, size format and IQ.

Of course, there is the new Oly E-P3 and E-PL3 with the fastest auto focus ever even compared to a dSLR (so they claim) and there are new Fuji, Samsung and Oly cameras on the way for 2012 all with faster shutter focus and faster shutter including new high speed focus units from Canon and Nikon supposedly in both advanced P&S and possibly EVIL formats. Maybe, if you can wait until next year.

I am not sold on the Oly XZ1. It is a nice camera, very similar to the Canon S series but unfortunately it does not perform well with readily available, cost effective wide angle lenses like the Fisheye UWL-04 or Inon UFL165AD. I would stick with the Canon S series at the moment, that may change at any moment though as these new high speed autofocus P&S cameras will soon remove one of the major complaints people have about advanced P&S cameras, shutter lag. BTW, my S90, properly configured is quite fast, I rarely miss a shot due to lag, but of course, the one time I do would have been a really cool shot.

This aggravation will soon be a thing of the past it seems. The remaining draw back, small sensor size, is becoming irrelevant as sensors get better and larger on the P&S end and smaller on the prosumer end (M4/3) or are full size (Sony NEX). Applying the Kurzweil Hypothesis and Moore's Law to camera sensors, small sensors should surpass previous generation dSLR sensors in the next two generations, in the next generation, sensor size will become irrelevant as the resolution and dynamic range will exceed the human capability to discern any improvements much as computer speed is no longer a selling point to the mass consumer, neither will be sensor resolution. We shall see, if there is to be a photographic Singularity and when it will occur.

N

 

[alien]

Look at Sony NEX5N or NEX7

 

[PatW]

I have the Canon G11. It is a very nice point and shoot. I am familiar with SLR photography. The Canon G11 feels pretty nice.

For underwater photography, RAW is pretty much a must have. The Canon G12 has that.
I find the Canon G11 to be limited on the wide end for underwater photography. If I want shots of divers or large fish, I really have to be back farther than I like to get good shots. I think you would have this same problem with any other point and shoot.
As for the F stop and mega pixels, the G11 is fine. The problem with the small sensor is that if you use a really high F stop, you will lose resolution to diffraction.
By the way, for underwater photography having a strobe or better yet two makes a big difference.
There is some shutter lag. It is not really too much of a problem except for those small fish that don't ever seem to sit still like Damselfish. The problem with any camara in which you use the back screen to compose your shot is that you will have lag. If you shoot through the view finder like you do for an SLR, that is not a problem. You can use the viewfinder on the G11 but not with an underwater housing (at least I have not seen one where you could).

On another note, the G11 takes very nice "top side" photos and is pretty small (from DSLR standards). My wife shoots a DSLR topside and on vacations she is thinking of appropriating the G11 and letting me lug around the DSLR and extra lenses.

Now the new mirrorless large sensor cameras look to have great potential for making economical underwater photography systems (if you use "economical" pretty loosely). It looks to me though that these systems are still in the early stages and there are not that many housings out there. Plus, most of these systems are not geared to sophisticated photographers.