GE G1
Digital Camera Review
Mar 11, 2007
- By Richard Baguley
1.7
The digital camera market today is a place of razor-thin profit margins and competition more reminiscent of a street brawl than the gentlemanly rivalry we used to see. As such, we don’t see newcomers very often since most companies look at the entrenched hold that the big companies have on the camera market and decide to move into new markets where they are less likely to get a bloody nose. But newcomers do try their luck sometimes, and General Electric is giving it a go.
Actually, General Electric is only sort of giving it a go; the electrical and broadcasting conglomerate is licensing their brand to a new venture called General Imaging. The new company announced a range of 8 cameras at PMA. You can find out more details on their web site or by watching our video tour of the whole range here. Their launches are broken down into four product lines: the budget A series, the intermediate E series, the compact G series and the high-end X series. We decided to take a closer look at the G1, the first of their new compact range. The G1 has a 7-megapixel image sensor and a 3x optical zoom lens. Pricing and availability has not yet been finalized so keep an eye on our news pages for details. We looked at a preproduction model of this new camera at the PMA show in Las Vegas.
| Top Point & Shoot Cameras |
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| Likes |
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- Simple controls
- Small size
- Manual controls (if they work properly)
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| Dislikes |
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- Awkwardly placed zoom control.
- Low resolution screen
- Proprietary USB and A/V cable
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Conclusion
It’s hard to come to a conclusion on the G1 without knowing the price; General Imaging has said that their new cameras will be priced between $149 and $399 but didn’t specify where the G1 would fall in this range. We would expect it to fall somewhere in the middle, though. This is a value-driven camera that has no outstanding features, so the price and image quality will be what ultimately decides how well it does. But it has most of the features that people look for: decent resolution, a good sized screen (albeit a rather low resolution one) and a decent control system that bodes well for this new camera manufacturer. And it comes with the General Electric logo on the front; a brand that’s synonymous with quality engineering and high technology. We’ll wait to see how well it fits in with this reputation, but price is key in the modern digital camera market.
