Canon G2 |
Nikon Coolpix 4500 |
Ergonomic Features |
| 1. Large 1.8" LCD panel make for easy viewing of shooting scene. |
Miniscule 1.5" LCD does not help seeing the picture composition in bright light |
| 2. flip-out and twist LCD (90 deg CW, 270 deg CCW) makes for great flexibility in camera angles |
Split body and lens swivel design (90 deg CW, 210 deg CCW) not quite nearly as flexible as G2. It does not allow for the 180 deg "flip-out" rotation along Y-axis between LCD and lens system which is possible in G2. |
| 3. Protruding lens system makes storing in a camera bag a necessity |
Camera body when folded upright is compact and pocketable. Accessory lens can be stored separately |
| 4. Camera can be placed upright on a table, occupy less space. |
Camera placed flat on a table surface to avoid lens (in front) or view-finder optical glass (behind) from touching table surface. |
| 5. Slightly less features account for simpler menu structure. |
Complicated menu structures make accessing its rich features difficult |
| 6. Power Off switch is located between power-on (shooting) and display, this makes frequent switching unavoidable and likely to induce wear on the switching dial |
Power on and off is a simple sliding switch. Display mode is available on a separate button. |
| 7. Pressing multi-function button force one to cycle through exposure, white balance, bracketing and flash compensation. |
Unwanted information overlays can be quickly removed in shooting mode by toggling the monitor button. |
| 8. Pushing manual focus button down while pressing 4-way button switch located on a perpendicular force plane is acrobatic and slippery. |
Manual focus is a two-hand operation but is slightly easier with the command dial |
Shooting Features |
| 1. No user presets for shooting options |
3 user presets very handy and helpful especially for accessory lens attached to camera |
| 2. No White Balance Bracketing |
White Balance Bracketing +-1EV in 0.3 EV stops with choice of 3 or 5 shots |
| 3. 8 white balance settings including auto and manual presets. |
7 white balance settings each fine-tuneable to +-2 levels. Tendency to produce red cast in indoors incandescent lighting. |
| 4. Auto Exposure Bracketing +-2EV in 0.3EV steps for 3 shots only |
Auto Bracketing choice of +-1EV in 0.3 EV stops for 3 shots or +-2EV for 5 shots |
| 5. Hands-free AE-lock button allows exposure shift via 4-way controller. |
AE-lock can be assigned to 4-way switch button but needs to press-and-hold before shooting. |
| 6. Single shot AE-lock only. |
AE-lock for multiple shots via menu. For single shot it can be configured to bind to shutter button or 4-way switch. Great flexibility. |
| 7. Manual focus previewed on a thumb-nail smaller than LCD size. |
Manual focus confirmation via sharpening options. |
| 8. Manual focus display useful distance information in cm/ft. |
Manual focus display no distance information, just a toy bar chart. A major gripe amongst Nikon owners. |
| 9. No multiple exposure |
2 shots multiple exposure available in one of the creative scenes |
| 10. 6 creative modes only |
Huge choice of 16 creative scenes |
| 11. Weak auto-focus mechanism despite focus assist lamp. |
Auto-focus robust and sensitive. |
| 12. Limited 3 times optical zoom |
4x optical zoom make a large difference compared to G2 |
| 13. High speed continuous shooting mode up to 2.5fps for 5 images |
A great variety of burst mode shooting up to 32.1fps albeit at lower resolution of 320 x 240 |
| 14. Cumberson and insensitive manual focus mode needed in macro range |
Easy focus with sweet-spot indicator in macro mode |
| 15. ISO noise level noticeable from ISO 100 onwards. Internal automatic noise reduction is pathetic. |
ISO noise is tolerable up to ISO 400 if Noise Reduction is turned on. |
| 16. Shutter lag delay amongst the lowest in the same category of DC. |
Shutter lag is obvious. If noise reduction is turned on for night scene, go for a long coffee break. (It takes minutes to write to CF card !!) |
Display Features |
| 1. Playback zoom in two steps |
Playback zoom up to 6.0x magnification in sensitive 0.2x steps |
| 2. 9 thumbnail displays with no page turns |
Choice of 4 or 9 thumbnail displays with quick page turns using command dial |
Other Features |
| 1. Handy IR remote control unit for shutter release and playback. |
No remote control unit. Wired remote available as optional accessory. |
| 2. 1100mAh battery last longer |
Rather weak 650mAh battery limits continuous shooting time to about 1 hour |
| 3. Adapter ring required for limited range of accessory lens |
Huge variety of accessory lens compatible with Nikon 9XX models ranging from microscopic, telescopic to wide-angles and fish-eyes. |
| 4. Ho-hum user manual |
Excellent, readable user manual well-designed with cross-referencing. |
| 5. At 2272 x 1704 Superfine JPEG compression up to 1:4 ratio is possible. File size close to 2,900 KB (Try shooting treetops with mostly sky outline) |
At 2272 x 1704 Fine JPEG Compression, file size seems to max out at 1,500 KB to 1,600 KB. This works out to be 1:8 compression ratio and NOT 1:4 as claimed in Nikon manual page 102 |
| 6. Jagged diagonals attributed to in-camera over-sharpening rears its ugly head once too often. Painfully obvious if taking many building photos, or even straight line photos such as a pen tilted at an acute angle. |
Jagged diagonals not known to be an issue probably due to soft in-camera processing. |
Conclusion |
| G2 is a camera that surprises you with consistent image quality and reliability even in the hands of a rank novice. It is a quick camera ready to go for the action with minimum menu settings required. The stronger internal flash is also handy in night shots. It is a camera that you can fall in love with as fondness grows over time. |
Nikon CP4500 has many more features/options than G2. That makes it a good learning camera for the control freaks. It is a tad slower to react to those instant take-or-miss situations. Presets and menu navigation takes a minute or so out of camera perparation before shooting, and shutter lag is noticeable. Writing to CF card takes longest when NR is turned on. However in other features such as macro, and specific lens attachment, CP4500 is clearly the only choice. |
