Hot Deal? Canon G2

[VisionsUCI]

I think these are hot... but go ahead an comment.

edit: Best Buy will not pricematch online retailers, but here are the cheap ones in case you can get the pricematch by someone else

http://www.amphotoworld.com/product_detail.asp?sku=cnpsg2
$559

http://www.bilibi.com/shop/Product.asp?sku=DI3000CANON
$589

OTHERWISE.. if you want to buy it flat out, I just bought mine last week from

http://www.ibuydigital.com/main.cfm?fuseaction=all.proPage&product_id=872&com=10
$717

I ordered on Tuesday and received it on Friday, shipped Fedex from New York to me in CA

Buy.com ischeaper, but out of stock

Its a great camera... hope it helps somebody

 

[SendTrash]

dang.. I had my eye on this camera for the longest time.. anyone pricematched yet?

btw Casio QV 4000 is a model that has the came lens and is very similar to the G2, but is much cheaper (~$400).. if you want a cheaper alternative, you can go for that...

 

[kendogg]

Ever since my friend made a purchase on it i too was looking to get a G2. He bought his for 740$ a while back which was a decent price.

Does bestbuy pricematche online vendors? If so that 559$ seems like a super hot deal.

 

[mark7636]

I bought my G2 for about $620 by Dell two weeks ago (10% off S&P plus $100 off $1000) and there is a mail-in rebate if bought with a Canon printer.

This weekend you can buy it at Dell for about $680 (15% off S&P in Small Business)

At Buy.com you can order it for about $620 after 10% Discovercard discount but camera is back-ordered)

Come from Stockback.com and receive an additional $15 cash back. ( Both Dell and Buy.com)

BTW, the G2 rocks!

 

[IgoByte]

I wish I had the money...

 

[Dre]

Originally posted by: VisionsUCI
I think these are hot... but go ahead an comment.

I was looking through the best buy pricematching thread, and realized... can't we just pricematch at Best Buy to the cheap, shady online retailers?

BestBuy doesn't pricematch to online stores.

 

[JameyF]

I purchased the G2 last year when it came out for about $700 from one of the less Sleazy New York dealers. I would give the camera 4.5 out of 5 stars. It has tons of features, a great feel, great picture quality, tremendous battery life (a rarity in digicams), the best file format options(a no loss format that takes up only about 2.5MB in largest picture size), and the ability to add on what you need. That's where it only gets 4.5 stars from me. You can add a telephoto lens, but I wish it had more than a 3x optical zoom out of the box (5x+ should be manditory on a camera priced in this range). It does OK in low light, but the flash only has a range of about 12-14 feet. Redeye can and is a problem even in the flash mode that helps prevent it. People with darker eyes tend not to show up as red, but one of my nieces and a nephew have light blue eyes. Major redeye!!! Nothing that can't be touchd up in photoshop.

Two sample photos can be seen here. I didn't post any of the redeye pics, 'cause I have a handup of posting pics of the family on the internet. These files are huge so I only had room on my server to post 2 of them.


EDIT: One more thing. Don't expect to take great loking action shots in low light. I haven't seen a digicam that can do ISO 400 without adding too much "noise" in low light. I would stick with ISO 50 or 100 except when taking action shots outdoors. ISO 200 in good light should be OK for that. I stay away from 400 because of the "noise".

 

[dahamond]

hi Mark7636 your info is outstanding!

 

[tazmania99]

Folks, my advance is DON'T GET THE G2 FROM ANY UNKNOWN VENDORS. Most likely these unknown vendors sell the G2 for a cheap price is because they get the camera from black market. Hence, the camera will have no warranty. If you don't care about the warranty, or a great chance of getting a deffective one, then go ahead and order from those rats.

 

[VisionsUCI]

i second that advice...

also, i didn't add buy.com info to the first thread because its out of stock there. harmony computers has a good price too, but they are backordered as well.

 

[phototek61]

Originally posted by: JameyF
It does OK in low light, but the flash only has a range of about 12-14 feet. Redeye can and is a problem even in the flash mode that helps prevent it. People with darker eyes tend not to show up as red, but one of my nieces and a nephew have light blue eyes. Major redeye!!! Nothing that can't be touchd up in photoshop.

But doesn't it have a hotshoe for an add-on flash?

 

[mark7636]

There is a horse shoe for external flashes but so far the internal flash has proven adequate for me.

The battery life is simply amazing. I've taken more than 200 pics and videos with a microdrive so far and my battery still shows full...

 

[esquared]

Horse shoe???

 

[JameyF]

Originally posted by: esquared
Horse shoe???

Don't get me wrong...the G2 isn't any worse than other cameras in low light, it's just the flashes they put on these cameras could be a bit more powerful. I would like to see flashes that could handle 20' or so built onto the camera. That would make the use of an external flash unneeded for all but the most demanding users. Yes, it does have a hot shoe. For the horse shoe, you'll have to see your local blacksmith

 

[JameyF]

On a side note, I would only consider the sony 707 or minolta dimage 7 if I were to purchase something other than the G2 in the same price range. I think those are both 5 MP cameras. At the time I purchased the G2 neither were out.

 

[chibimike]

That would be grey market not black market.

I have read that canon still covers grey market cameras, but I've never tested it.


mike

 

[LilBlinbBlahIce]

$600> Is a really bood price. I've heard these cameras are really really good. A bit too steep for me though.

 

[JameyF]

Originally posted by: chibimike
That would be grey market not black market.

I have read that canon still covers grey market cameras, but I've never tested it.


mike

I've been to china town in New York and seen the people on the side of the street and in the sleezy stores up and down manhattan selling electronic equipment. They're not grey. The stores weren't grey. Pick any other color you want, and you'd probably be correct, but I've never seen grey. So, where is this so called "grey market"?

 

[_Tron_]

The "grey market" that was referred to is imported items from say, china korea etc. Normally the items do not contain a valid US warranty, and the instructions and software are in another language as well. There have been some cases of grey market cameras not having english menus for the lcd. not a problem, if you know mandarin
I've done A LOT of research about this camera and there are relatively few trustworthy online vendors that either a: have them cheap b: have them in stock, or c: wont gouge you on shipping.
I'm in the military, and purchased mine online for 739 shipped from aafes.com. I also purchased a firewire compactflash adapter for 49 bucks too(cheap!) and won a ubid auction for a 512 mb microdrive for the camera. I'll be receiving the camera any day now.
Don't fall prey to these companies advertising prices HUNDREDS of dollars less than legit stores. They will call you to "verify" your order, or CC info. Thats when the high pressure sales pitch starts. Opt out of their severely overpriced accessories(most of which are SUPPOSED to come with the camera, which they have conveniently removed), 1-3 year US warranty, and they will suddenly be out of stock, with 3-8 weeks for replacement. You'll be waiting months to cancel and get your money back from an item they nevewr planned on shiopping you, yet charged your card for anyways
You have been warned

 

[dew042]

Canon basically has no obigation to repair international warrentied (ie grey market) items. However, their current policy is to repair them under USA warrenty terms. Don't worry about it, they will fix it.

Plus - if it breaks you will wish you were dead anyway

Another option is to make sure you buy it with a cc that backs, or doubles the warrenty of the items you buy...

dew.

 

[dew042]

Originally posted by: _Tron_
They will call you to "verify" your order, or CC info. Thats when the high pressure sales pitch starts. Opt out of their severely overpriced accessories(most of which are SUPPOSED to come with the camera, which they have conveniently removed), 1-3 year US warranty, and they will suddenly be out of stock, with 3-8 weeks for replacement. You'll be waiting months to cancel and get your money back from an item they nevewr planned on shiopping you, yet charged your card for anyways
You have been warned

listen to this man. he has the bait and switch exactly. this is common with lesser known photographic equipement companies. magical back-orders for those who don't buy accessories are common. beware.

dew.

 

[vfdfs2]

The Canon G2 4.0MP digital camera is truely a good camera. This camera is tough, solid metal-feel unlike others where it feels like plastic.

I got my Canon G2 camera in Hong Kong for $4000.00 HK dollars, about $515.00 US dollars this Spring (Apr 2002). I got the "water product" goods (I think ?? its called grey market product for the US) version of the camera instead of the "retail one with warranty" for HK$4700 HK, $630.00 US.

The difference is NOTHING except the minus of Canon's 1 year? warranty. I don't know if the sales guy was telling the truth, but he said the distributors got these so called water product (gery market) camera from the their vendor which they paid no tax, custom fees and those misc. fees getting into the country (Hong Kong). This part leaves me with many questions.

I physcially compared the two G2 cameras, retail version and the grey market version. Whats the difference? 1 thing, The word "Made in Japan" is missing on the box and on the camera of the grey market-version camera. The label on the bottom of the camera with the following: Canon PC1015, No. MT-XXXXXX CANON INC. and the other numberings and letters are there, but the word "MADE IN JAPAN" is missing. There were no missing accessories like battery, charger, flash, everything (package and the content) was packed and included like the retail one.
Note: the battery, charger and the minor accessories has the word "Canon Inc. and Made in Japan" printed or stamped on the them just like the retail camera accessories, only the camera doesnt.

There were no defect, flaws, non English language on the menu or manual or any mythical problems we think that one might get from a grey market product found on my grey market camera. Both camera were idential.

This is the difference between the retail and the so-called grey market version of the camera. Of course, i got this in Hong Kong. I don't know if its the same in the US.


TO EVERYONE, not everyone will get what i got, a good decent cheaper than retail camera without problems. Look around, dont let anyone force you on buying anything. As for those online vendors, i would not buy it from them. You dont know what you are getting. Unlike me, i had the opportunity to physcially feel, touch and examine the two-market cameras. BEWARE of this!!!!!!!

To this point, June 23, 2002, back in the states, this camera has been working perfectly without any problems.

 

[kindest]

Ive had my G2 for a while now (since January)
and I still need to send mine end to fix the crack on it.
If you check the Canon forum on dpreview.com you will
find a good % of G2 users developed a hairline crack in their camera
from normal use. Canon has developed a fix for the crack by attaching
a new backing on it. I just haven't sent mine in yet as I use it to much.

Depending if you get a newly manufactored G2 or an older one
will decide whether yours will be proning to cracking I guess.
People were saying even the new Black versions were cracking.
So who knows.

Did I mention I love this camera and don't regret ever buying it.

 

[Tanner]

Now, please dont' laugh @ the size of my camera...but since there IS a thread going for what seem to me to be VERY serious photographers, I want to ask:

1.) What forums about photography do U all visit
2.) What sites do you visit to learn new tricks and stuf like that?
3.) Any other kind of interesing sites?

I only have a measly s110, but I LOVE eVERY SINGLE SECOND of this thing. I really did get it for the size, and the fact that it takes AWESOME pictures has lured me into photography like I NEVER thought I would be!

Here's a little linky to Popular Photography's phorum.
I also noticed that kindest recommended Digital Photography Review, that's what spurred all these questions.

 

[tixtox]

photo.askey.net
www.steves-digicams.com