GE G1 Digital Camera Review

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.
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Model Design/Appearance
Overall, the G1 is a well-designed camera with a clean, smart design with rounded edges and well integrated controls. Although the case is plastic, it feels pretty robust and should not have any issues standing up to use. Our only major concern is that the plastic could scratch, and that it does seem prone to picking up greasy fingerprints.
 
Size/Portability
At 0.8 inches thick, 3.6 inches wide and 2.4 inches high, the G1 is a reasonably small, compact camera. However, it is a little thicker and larger than some (such as Casio’s Exilim Card cameras), and is a bit heaver at just over 4 ounces. But it’s not heavyweight and would easily slide into a shirt pocket. It’s just not the smallest camera out there.
 
Handling Ability
The G1 fits pretty comfortably in the hand, with the fingers falling onto the controls. However, the zoom control is poorly placed on the top of the camera, where you have to use the index finger to control both the zoom and the shutter. This is annoying; when you frame a shot, you have to zoom in or out, them move your finger over to the shutter, a process that involves taking your eye off the screen and could lead to lost shots. The shutter button itself does not require much pressure to trigger. A light touch is all you need to take a shot.
 
It is possible to use the G1 with one hand if all you are doing is zooming and shooting, but it is not a comfortable experience. It’s much better with two hands.
 
Control Button/Dial Positioning/ Size
There are a lot of control buttons and dials on the G1, and most are grouped on the back of the camera at the left. This area does feel a little crowded. You can’t really navigate the buttons and dials by touch, and you have to do a certain amount of hunting to find the right one.
 
The control dial on the upper left side of the camera is the most commonly used control, and it is pretty well located for turning with the index finger or the thumb. It’s also interesting that General Imaging decided to give one spot on the dial to the portrait mode. All of the other shooting modes have to be accessed through the on-screen menu that pops up when you set the dial to the Scene mode setting.
 
Menu
The on-screen menus of the G1 are pretty standard. You access the menu with the menu button and use the directional pad to navigate and select settings.. The menus are structure as follows:
 
AF Mode
Single AF, Multi AF
AF Assist Beam
On/Off
Continuous AF
On/Off
Meter
Spot AE, Center Weight, Evaluation
Seq. Shot
Cont. shot, 5X Shot, 5X Sot (last), Intervalometer
Grid
On/Off
Review
Off, 1 sec, 2 sec
Digital Zoom
On/Off
Histogram
On/Off
 
A number of controls are also accessed by pressing the Func. button in the center of the 4-way control;
 
White Balance
Auto, daylight, cloudy, florescent, florescent 2, incandescent, measure
ISO
Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Image size
7m, 6m, 3:2, 5m, 16:9, 3m, 2m, 1m, 0.3m
Image quality
Fine, Standard, Economy
Color Effect
Vivid, Sepia, Black & White, Off
 
Some of these settings (such as white balance and color effect) are not accessible when the camera is in auto mode.
 
Ease Of Use
Overall, the G1 is a reasonably easy-to-use camera. We aren’t that keen on the placing of the zoom control, but the other control buttons and dials are well-placed for easy use.
 
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