Need help choosing DSLR Camera

[salad_man]

I use a Nikon D40, a Nikon D60, and a Canon G-11. I am pleased with all of them. The G-11 is an incredible camera that doesn't require any lenses. If you check out the my Mt Langley Hike report thread, those were all shot with my G-11 in RAW format. They needed very little touching up but I always do a little with them. I use Adobe Lightroom 3 to process my images.

Looking over the G11 it really looks like it could suite my needs. I like the low light capability that I have read in reviews.

[OLLIE]

The G=11 is remarkable for a point and shoot. I dropped mine a few weeks after getting it and the flash quit working. Even without the flash the pictures come out great. There is the G-12 too. It has even better low light capabilities and added HD video. I believe it is still within your price range too. They have all the main function of the DSLR's in a small package. They are heavy duty to. It feels very solid in your hands. It has a flip out LCD so you can choose to use that or a view finder. My favorite features are the pre-histogram and te exposure dial. You don't need to take a picture then review the picture's histogram to to see if the exposure turned out alright. You just point you camera, look at the histogram on the LCD, adjust your exposure knob to compensate for proper lighting, and shoot your picture. It has insane macro ability as well. I think it's focal length for macros is don to 3 mm.

I bought mine when I got tired of backpacking with my DSLR and banging it around. Paying as much for a good lens as you would the camera itself, doesn't lend itself well to banging it around. So my friend and I went on a search for a point and shoot with RAW capability. We spent 3 months researching cameras to find what we were looking for and finally went with the G-11 a few months prior to our Langley hike last year. Then they released the G-12. Probably would have went with the G-12 if they had it out at the time.

[salad_man]

Awesome durability is also a plus. I will have too look into the G12 as well, and see what else I can ask, ha ha, how does the histogram and exposure work, is that for low light only really?

[OLLIE]

Awesome durability is also a plus. I will have too look into the G12 as well, and see what else I can ask, ha ha, how does the histogram and exposure work, is that for low light only really?

Exposure compensation is the key to getting a good picture. The histogram is the graph that tells you about the lighting in the frame.In a nutshell, you want the mountain in the middle on a histogram. If the mountain creeps up the left side then your picture is too dark or it will have black spots. If it creeps up the right side then there is too much light and you'll have flare outs where it's all white or void of color. Usually your exposure comp is set to "0.0". If you histogram mountain is sliding up the left side (dark) then you adjust to the negative side of the exposure comp. If it's climbing up the right side (light) you adjust to the positive side. My G-11 tends to climb up the right on a moderately sunny day, letting in too much light so I usually have it set at "-0.3" for exposure comp. This usually puts my mountain just left of center on my histogram. As the day starts getting darker I slowly increase the exposure comp to the positive side trying to keep that mountain slightly left of center on the histogram. I am learning though that a slightly right-side exposure would be better.

Here's a link to explain it in a little better detail for you...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutor ... rams.shtml

[salad_man]

That was a great explanation, thanks for the info.

[Chazz Layne]

*2, I never knew what that thing was for - I'll be turning it on the next time I use the camera.