Canon G7 or Panasonic LX2

I am going to buy a compact digital camera soon. I narrowed my choice to these

two Panasonic LX2 and Canon G7. I have held both in my hands and like them

both. What I need from the camera is a good image quality, good IS, simple and

understandable controls, ability to switch between modes or ISO without going

into menu/submenu. I can live with JPEGs, so RAW is not really that important

here, same as LCD/ viewfinder. As an alternative to these two I also keep my

eye on the Canon SD800IS, in case I dont buy either of the above mentioned two.

Please, push me into the right direction, especially those who had any

experience with these cameras, I will greatly appreciate this. <p> P.S. I know

it is sort of qeustion that people ask a lot, so dont flame me please.

I got a G7, and so far I'm liking it a lot. I held the LX2 (actually dlux 3) at a shop yesterday, and for me, after using the G7 since Friday, I know I wouldn't be happy with the LX2 just because it doesn't have the feel, to me, of the G7 regardless of any functional differences.

Jerry,

 

Not to make your life more difficult, but have you looked at the Canon S3IS?

 

It meets every one of your requirement and brings a very good 12x zoom to the party, as well as an articulated LCD screen. It's also less expensive than either the G7 or LX2.

 

It's a bit larger than the G7 or LX2 which may be a deal breaker for you. It's "only" 6mp, but I get nice 8.5X11 prints with no effort at all. The longer lens eliminates the need to crop very much which pretty much negates the higher mp count of cameras with shorter zooms in many situations.

 

ISO's up to 200 are very good and ISO 400 is fairly clean. Even ISO 800 is usable for smaller prints.

 

I don't use it, but the video feature is supposed to be one of the best around and even features stereo sound.

 

Rich

If both cameras feel good in your hand, what about deciding based on focal lenght? 28mm vs. 35mm is a big difference! So is 112mm vs. 200mm on the long end! Also, the Panasonic has a true wide sensor (19:9).

Hi Jerry,

 

I have the G7 that I use as a backup/in lieue of carrying my 5D. It is a superb camera that will meet all your requirements, I even dropped it a couple of weeks ago from about 3ft onto a hard wooden floor - not even a mark, and still works perfectly.

 

It is a great camera that can produce some amazing images of very high quality.

 

I am posting this link to my G7 images on this site, see what you think of the quality it can produce and I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=663210

 

Good luck.

Panasonic's LX2 has a lot going for it: it's a jewel of a camera, has RAW, can take full rez pics at 16:9 format and the pics looks real sharp at small sizes.

 

But, and this is the reason I no longer have it, the LX2's images are prone to noise big time and when enlarged to at least 8"x14 (16:9 format) JPEGs show detail smearing induced by the in-camera NR.

 

RAW is a little bit better, but noise is still apparent and using NoiseNinja will cause detail loss and smearing in anything but a well lighted scene. Maybe Panasonic will get it right with the LX3. Maybe.