Camera choice?

Canon G10 is pretty good. You’re only gonna get better if you go up to a DSLR.

I’d second the Canon G10.

The Olympus EP-1 is similarly cool, but is a bit above your price range.

“Magazine picture quality” is the result of a lot more than the camera… e.g.: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/08/making-subtle-light.html

You’ll be getting a point and shoot for that money.

Magazine quality is more of the $15,000 Medium format cameras.

Would entry level DSLR be any good compare to the point and shoot camera? I am talking about similar budget for both types of camera.

@mea05key

There’s two basic factors that effect the camera’s quality:

- Size of pixels on the sensor
– Quality of the glass (lenses)

DSLRs have the advantage that they have larger sensors, and therefore for the same megapixel count, have larger pixels. This affects both the low-light capability, as well as the level of noise/detail in full-light shots.

The advantage of an interchangeable lens system, rather than a point-and-shoot is that you can (later) upgrade the lens to better glass. With a point and shoot, you’re stuck with whatever glass they ship.

The G10 has very nice glass for a point and shoot, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a $750 lens you can buy for an entry-level DSLR.

I would suggest you poke around at http://www.dpreview.com/ and look at their full-size images to see what you like. =)

@bpeoples Gives an excellent answer. I would second everything he said. (I used to sell cameras and teach classes)

Also see what Ricoh has in order to compare something with the Canon G10

And I again strongly recommend using dpreview.com as a great source for accurate information. I would trust them over more camera-store guys and I used to be one.

@bpeoples The G10 has very nice glass for a point and shoot, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a $750 lens you can buy for an entry-level DSLR.

Right, but it also doesn’t cost $750. For its price, the G10 is pretty awesome, it also has a pretty decent CCD.

THanks for all the response. I came to a conclusion to get G10 instead of sony alpha A200 which cost around the same price. I noted that A200 sensor is bigger which means better and G10 sensor is small and 14MP crampped into that small sensor seemed to be a bit of a problem here.
It is actually for the workshop man to use it to capture the pictures of gas skids that they manufacture. Apart from the disadvantages, i find that G10 comes with a good lens with “fast” lense as compared to the sony kit lense. it comes with video mode and live view. I am assuming A2 size decent picture quality wouldnt be a problem for a G10. About the insufficient lighting in the workshop, I assuming at this budget, there’s not camera that could properly work under this sitaution. Even for a dslr, the company will need to invest more on the lense or probably a even on the flash to get a decent picture under poor lighting condition.

@mea05key You will undoubtedly figure this out or already know, but now that you are locked into a lens with smaller aperture, learn to manually adjust your ISO speed to get pictures in low light rather than depending on your flash. This will make a huge difference. Just don’t leave it high because it makes the pictures grainier.

@tramnineteen
Thanks for the advice.