General Electric G1 Digital Camera Review

by Emily Raymond
Published on July 31, 2007

Navigation
Intro	Testing / Performance
Components	Design / Layout
Modes	Control Options
Image Parameters	Connectivity / Extras
Overall Impressions	Conclusion
Sample Photos	Photo Gallery
Specs / Ratings

Likes

- Slim stylish body - Comes in several colors - 30-1/2000 shutter speed range - Great software - In-camera panorama stitching - Low $199 price

Dislikes

- Inaccurate colors - Terrible white balance performance - Heavy smoothing applied - smoothes over lots of detail  - Images appear under sharpened - Poor optics (lots of vignetting; soft corners) - Video quality is weak; overprocessed - Slippery surface - Stiff zoom control - Useless owner’s manual - 200-shot battery - Camera resets to defaults when battery removed - Slow face detection - Inaccessible burst

Conclusion
It is surprising that GE chose to enter the digital camera industry after research firms have claimed that digital cameras have reached their peak household penetration and the industry bubble is about to burst. If a manufacturer enters this late in the game, I would expect them to offer more than the typical digital cameras.

I don’t know about GE’s other cameras, but the G1 is disappointing. It isn’t anything different than the standard digital camera. It has 7 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom lens, and a 2.5-inch LCD screen with sub-par resolution. That’s all been done.

The GE G1 does have face detection technology, but it is slow and requires you to look at one of the scariest graphics ever created – and you have to activate it before every picture you want to take using it. The camera has a decent burst speed, but the feature is buried (and the owner’s manual doesn’t give any hints on finding it), and the image’s compression is compromised so enlargements will look awful.

The G1 does have some interesting highlights: great software that provides a lot more editing than most included software, a $199 price tag, and a Panorama Stitching mode that stitches everything together in the camera. However, these don’t justify the overexposed or grainy pictures. In the end, the GE G1 just isn’t worth it.