G12's Close-Up, Sharp?

Most of you read my rant on how sharp the Canon G7's close-up is ;)

I even showed you a JPEG image I took of a Canadian bumblebee at the beautiful Butchart Garden on Vancouver Island, Canada!

I even blow-up the bee in a 100% crop and show you how SHARP the little zoom lens on the G7 can deliver!


Here is another shot of the same instance, a few seconds later...

And a 100% crop...

You can see WHY I am so very impress with the G7's fast f/2.8 (W) – f/4.8 (T) 6x optical zoom lens (35-210mm focal length, 35mm equivalent, with Image Stabilizer)!

Fast forward to the present, my G7 is long gone and in its place; a G12.

I love my new G12, I rant about how good it is :)

But how good is it's close-up ability?

After all, the G12 have a different lens; hopefully a BETTER one than whats on the G7!

Believe you me that I was going to shoot a NZ bumblebee to compare, somehow; I have no luck! The bumblebee at my backyard are too small! Bummer!

This afternoon we visits our neighbor's parents on our hill top. Mrs Soh is a real green finger, her garden is lovely; but like our "jungle", I can't spot any fat bumblebees!

Then I saw these stunning bright red lilies, I took two no brainer shots with my G12.

A pure point & shoot, auto focus; max zoom at 30.5 mm, ISO 200; f4.5, 1/250 sec.

I was floored when I blow-up the center part of this shot to 100%!

Hard to believe a NZ$888 point & shoot is now able to deliver that kind of resolution!

Just for interest sake, pushing it; this is a 200% crop...

Wow! Look like Canon made the right decision in keeping to only 10 mega pixel for the G12!

What is even more amazing is that the CCD that produced this kind of resolution is no larger than a QUARTER of your smallest finger nail!

Famous Last Words:

In digital sensor (ccd/cmos) performance term, more is not necessary better.

I know of many photographers who constantly worried about the pixel count in his camera, just because a new model came with a sensor 2 or 4 more mega pixel more!

The Urban Dictionary defined these photographers as Pixel Peeper and advice these people to get a life and go out in the sunshine AND take a picture or two.

How about looking out for a bumblebee or two? ;)