OK Ok I confess, I jumped on the G2 bandwagon as well.
I was keeping the deal to myself because I have been contemplating getting two and I personally believed the supermarket deal you guys are referring to was a pricing error, being like £100+ under most retailers. Curry's still had it listed for £379 in a store I went in yesterday, which admitedly is too high. But being £80 cheaper than even amazon, I was thinking...hmm...
Additionally, when I came to first buy it at the supermkarket store online, I noticed that it claimed to have no stock. This also made me worry. But hey, I went ahead with it. Says it's shipped so all appears good!
Frankly, the G3 is better on paper yes, in that it has a better sensor and does 1080p over 720p of the G2. However, the G2 has an eye sensor that auto turns off the back LCD which is really useful rather than having to switch it off yourself. Some people complain that it is too sensitive when shooting from the waste say, but overall I can see it working and being really good for me. Also the G2 has an external mic jack unlike the G3. The G3 has an internal mic that does stereo over the G2's mono, but as above, external jack for better sound if you want.
Most of all though, the G2 handles nicer. It's true. I picked up both for a while in a store yesterday and I am glad of my decision. Yes the G3 is lovely and portable being as small as can be, but this comes at the expense of not being able to grip it as easily, bigger battery compartment and hence life on the G2 and it just feels more balanced. Finally if you so wish, the G2 is hackable to enable I believe manual video controls and higher bitrates. However, this only seems possible on older stock G2s. Newer ones aren't always hackable. I am hoping that the place we have bought these G2s at, really wanted rid of very old stock. In fact, I would be happy if they were well over a year old stock.
So it went like this:
G2 kit brand new @ £199.99 from tesco direct
- new customer sign up code via quidco @ £10
- quidco cashback @ 3%
=
£184.29
Panasonic 20mm prime from John Lewis @ £289
- friends staff discount @ 12.5%
- panasonic cashback on additional lenses @ £50
=
£203.71
TOTAL = £388.00
So that's less than about the same as a G3 kit with cashback and I've got a G2 with kit lens and a 20mm prime. I'm quite happy with that. This will be the first time I have had a decent camera since 6 months ago when I sold all my canon gear.
It all comes mid week. Will let you guys know how I get on and no doubt be back on here to ask questions. In the future I will probably try to pick up the 45mm prime.
I see a lot of praise for the 14mm prime, but I'm not sure I would use it that much for my needs. If I was going to get a wide prime, I'd make it a wiiiide prime.
Plan for the future is to pick up a cheap Olympus Pen as they have IBIS and give this to my partner so she can have it as a family point and shoot but can use my 20mm prime and other lenses when she wishes.
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