A departure from the norm? Not what was expected? A few sites have claimed the G1 is the "replacement for the Pro 70". I personally have other thoughts. The G1 is a direct competitor to Nikon's 990 and Olympus's C-3030Z, it has a completely different form-factor to the Pro 70 (it's more like the S range) and doesn't feature Canon's recently announced 10x optical zoom stabilised digital camera lens.

The G1 is slightly larger and heavier than the S10/S20 size but still smaller than some of its competition. The G1 appeared sporting all the features many people had been begging for, a flip-out and twist LCD, RAW file format, Microdrive compatibility, flash hot-shoe, lots of manual features.. The question is was Canon a few months too late to capture the prosumer 3 megapixel market or will the G1 make its mark in digital camera history?

More Lens Confusion

Remember my Epson PhotoPC 3000Z review? Where I spotted the lens on the 3000Z was identical (in design) to that on the Sony. Well guess what? The lens is back. The lens on the G1 appears identical to that found on the Sony S70 and Epson PhotoPC 3000Z. Close inspection shows the aperture diaphragm to be the same, the internal structure and make-up of the lens system to be identical. This of course doesn't mean that the same glass is used or that it's coated in the same way but it does raise an interesting question... Epson call it an "Epson Digital Camera Lens", Sony call it "Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar" and Canon call it "Canon Zoom Lens".. Which is correct?

Epson PhotoPC 3000Z Sony DSC-S70 Canon PowerShot G1