New Camera - Canon G12!

I took the plunge yesterday and bought a new camera.  I'm not sure if I had posted here about it or not, but after last Summer's bicycle tour, my Canon G5, which is almost 9 years old, started to act wonky.  It could be because of moisture, but I think that the age is beginning to catch up with it too.  It's been faithful to me for 8 years.  I had paid $450 for it used off of my Brother, so I think that I got my money's worth out of it.

I've been thinking about which camera to replace the G5 with.  I do technically have another camera, a Sony that I got free from Telus.  But I call that my whack-a-camera as I must whack it before each use as the screen is white when I turn it on, and whacking it makes it usable. So it too is showing it's age.

Big size difference between my old G5 and new G12

I ended up buying a Canon G12.  It is so familar, but yet so different.  It is much smaller then my G5, and the lense doesn't stick out so it's easier to stuff into my jacket pocket.  It's not as compact as many cameras, but it has a lot of features on it.  The G5 was a bridge between compact and SLR and I still feel that way with this camera.  I do like SLRs, but I don't really want to drag one around hiking or biking.  A hiking friend of mine has either the G11 or G12 and loves it, and she had always used film SLRs before getting this camera.  I still want to get an Ipad before Summer, but another friend, who is big into photography, said to get a good camera first! I will admit, that I've been tempted by the cheap point and shoots and they are stuff in the pocket cameras, but they don't have an optical viewfinder.  I think that they still take not bad photos as I've taken some nice photos with my whack-a-camera and had them published.

I was worried that with the G1 X coming out soon, that the G12 would disappear off the shelves.  The G1 X is $799 vs $469 for the G12 (on sale).  I am sure that the G1 X is one awesome camera, but the G12 is more around my price range.  My big selling point was that it has an optical viewfinder which is hard to find on digital cameras these days.  It's great using it when it's too bright outside to use the LCD screen.  The optical zoom is only 5x, but heh, you can't have everything!  I noticed that taking photos of my birds, that that macro is enabled, in automatic mode anyways.  But there is so much more to do in Manual modes, that I should try them out.

First photos taken with G12 - Wembly

Gobo

I'm not really sure if the G1 X is a replacement for the G12.  According to http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/01/10/CanonG1X_Preview it is not.  Oh well, if it isn't, I did still need one as my G5 is unreliable even though it seems to be working ok when taking photos for the blog.  It's when I use it intensely taking many photos at once when it seems to start acting up.  I think that 9 years is pretty good for a digital camera these days, especially considering how 'hard' I use it on my adventures.  It takes a lot of beating!  I don't think that I'm going to completely stop using the G5 (or the whack-a-camera either) until it completely stops working.  Or I could give it to someone who wants a decent camera to play with.

All I know is that I've been thinking about which one to get for months now, ever since the G5 started acting up in the Summer.  Yesterday was the day to get a new one so I can use it for this upcoming Summer adventure.  If I could sell some of the photos, I could get some money back on what I paid for the camera.

*On a side note, I'm not going snowshoeing today :(, but I will be going next weekend.  So no snowshoeing photos/report this week.  I should have gone as I'd get to practice with the new camera.