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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Front
The front of the G1 is a Spartan affair. The only major feature is the lens in the top right corner, with the small flash window to the right. The only other major feature is the discrete GE logo on the left hand side, just to remind you that you’ve bought a GE camera. The camera is available in a number of different colors: black, red, blue, white and silver. We looked at the white model.
 
 
Back
On the back of the camera is the 2.5-inch LCD screen, which has 153k pixels. Next to this are the mode dial, the buttons for face detection and the on-screen menu, plus the 4-way control (which doubles as a control for focus mode, flash, exposure compensation and the self timer). Finally, a dedicated button consigns the currently displayed image to the trash.
 
 
Left Side
The left side of the camera has no features beyond a couple of screws to hold the thing together.
 
 
Right Side
On the right side is the always exciting lanyard loop. And that’s it.
 
 
Top
The top of the G1 has a number of features: from left to right is the speaker, the small hole for the microphone, the power button, the shutter button and the zoom control.
 
 
Bottom
There are a few notable features on the bottom of the G1. First up on the left is the cover for the battery and memory card compartment, which clicks firmly into place and looks to provide a tight seal against the photographer’s enemies of dust and moisture. Next is the tripod socket, then the small plastic cover for the combined USB and A/V socket. This uses a proprietary socket so don’t lose the cable.
 
 
 
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