{"id":3680,"date":"2011-12-04T17:10:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T22:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2011-12-04T17:10:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T22:10:01","slug":"finally-time-for-a-new-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/12\/04\/finally-time-for-a-new-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally Time for a New Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Panasonic G2 + Konica Hexanon 50\/1.7 by senza senso, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mesec\/5627039842\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5106\/5627039842_13e49325c7_m.jpg\" alt=\"Panasonic G2 + Konica Hexanon 50\/1.7\" width=\"240\" height=\"186\" \/><\/a>After nearly 5 years of using my <a title=\"Why I Still Use My Canon PowerShot S3 IS Camera\" href=\"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/07\/31\/why-i-still-use-my-canon-powershot-s3-is-camera\/\">venerable old Canon PowerShot S3 IS<\/a>, I think it&#8217;s finally time I took a step up and got a new camera. After much research and thought, I finally decided that the right next step up cameras for me is the <a title=\"Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC-G2\">Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of the new <a title=\"Micro Four Thirds system\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Micro_Four_Thirds_system\">Micro Four-Thirds System<\/a> cameras &#8211; also known as &#8220;mirrorless interchangeable lens system&#8221; cameras, or sometimes &#8220;EVIL (electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens)&#8221; cameras. (And isn&#8217;t that an awesome acronym for a camera system?)<\/p>\n<p>This camera has many of the same features I loved about my old Canon PowerShot S3 IS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Swivel screen<\/li>\n<li>Electronic viewfinder that shows a full view of what the sensor sees<\/li>\n<li>Good zoom range (based on what lens you use, of course)<\/li>\n<li>Decent lens speed (again, based on what lens you use)<\/li>\n<li>Almost the same size &amp; weight (without the lens)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And while it misses out on a few other features I really like (side-mounted memory card slot, standard AA batteries), I think I&#8217;m willing to give up on those for the ability to switch lenses and get more depth-of-field and better low-light performance. (The battery thing in particular is something I realized I&#8217;m just never going to see &#8211; so few cameras these days still use standard AA batteries anymore; and especially not any sort of DSLR or interchangeable lens camera.)<\/p>\n<p>On top of all that, this camera is not <em>too<\/em> terribly expensive &#8211; which is something that always bothered me, since there really was a big gap in price between super-zoom cameras (which is what my old PowerShot S3 IS was categorized as) and any sort of entry-level DSLR or EVIL camera. For example, <a title=\"B&amp;H Photo\" href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\">B&amp;H Photo<\/a> (which is an awesome store, BTW) has this camera (just the body only, no lens) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/732283-REG\/Panasonic_DMC_G2KBODY_Lumix_DMC_G2_Digital_Camera.html\">for just $299 at the moment<\/a> &#8211; and that&#8217;s not bad!<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, lenses for micro-four-thirds cameras are still a bit rare and a bit more expensive than their DSLR equivalents, but hopefully that will change with time. (And if not, well, there&#8217;s always adapters!)<\/p>\n<p>So, I think I&#8217;m going to upgrade to this camera, because I feel like I&#8217;ve gotten to the point where I can&#8217;t get any more out of my old camera in terms of creative options. It&#8217;ll be interesting to see how I get along with having to switch lenses &#8211; something I&#8217;ve (obviously) never had to do before. It&#8217;ll also be fun to have a camera with a bigger sensor, and thus a larger possible depth of field.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, I&#8217;m pretty excited! I&#8217;ll be sure to post some photos once I get the camera, and maybe even re-do some of my <a title=\"Depth of Field Experiments\" href=\"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/11\/10\/depth-of-field-experiments\/\">experiments with depth of field<\/a> for comparison. Should be fun!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: smaller;\">(Camera picture by Flickr user <strong id=\"yui_3_4_0_3_1323035336075_1647\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mesec\/\">senza senso<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IT IS TIME&#8230; for me to finally upgrade to a better camera. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[204],"tags":[247,294,92],"class_list":["post-3680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-pictures","tag-digital-camera","tag-micro-four-thirds","tag-photography","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-Xm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3700,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/12\/14\/new-year-new-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":0},"title":"New Year, New Camera","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith gets a new camera, and proceeds to totally geek out over it, as expected.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"canon powershot s3 is vs panasonic lumix dmc-g2 - from above","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7158\/6507762599_d902bae9b5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4500,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/01\/23\/aperture-focal-length-sensor-size\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":1},"title":"Photography Experiments: Aperture, Focal Length, and Sensor Size","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a quick photography experiment to demonstrate the effects that aperture, focal length, and sensor size can have on depth of field (i.e., how much you can blur the background of a photo.)","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"snow on pine tree branch - f5.6","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3770\/12086166773_5f8cff5794_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3770\/12086166773_5f8cff5794_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3770\/12086166773_5f8cff5794_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1543,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/12\/07\/latest-camera-gear-addition\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":2},"title":"Latest Camera Gear Addition","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest addition to my camera gear collection has finally arrived - a circular polarizing filter! Yay! And here it is, in all its glory. Almost makes my little (well, medium-sized) camera look like one of those big honkin' DSLR cameras! Maybe now I can get the \"big lens\" effect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Gadgets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Gadgets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/gadgets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"camera with polarizing filter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3278\/3089979416_2142060f2d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3230,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/12\/03\/not-all-f-stops-are-created-equal\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":3},"title":"Not all F-Stops are Created Equal","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Explaining why that blurry background effect is harder to get on your point & shoot camera, even though you might have it set to the same f-stop as a DSLR.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"camera sensor comparison","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2010\/12\/camera-sensor-comparison.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":895,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/06\/06\/my-digital-camera-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":4},"title":"My Digital Camera Guide","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've made a guide for non-professional people trying to decide on a digital camera. I hope it's helpful!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3156,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/07\/31\/why-i-still-use-my-canon-powershot-s3-is-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":5},"title":"Why I Still Use My Canon PowerShot S3 IS Camera","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Why I still use my 2006 vintage Canon PowerShot S3 IS Camera, despite being a bit old.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2010\/07\/Canon_Powershot_S3_IS-300x185.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}