So I\’ve been using a Canon PowerShot S10 for the past 3 years for my digital pictures. It\’s a decent camera, but it\’s too slow; shutter lag is too long and the menus are sluggish. Plus I was ready for more manual features. For my next camera I did some research and narrowed it down to the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the Canon PowerShot G3.

Both are 4 megapixel, 4x zoom with a ton of manual features, like aperture priority and shutter speed priority. The Nikon has that cool twist-body design, plus the lens doesn\’t need to extend. The Canon has a flip out and twist LCD, but the lens extends so the startup time is a little slower.

Ultimately I decided to get the G3. It has a way longer battery life, shorter shutter lag, and the lens is a little faster (F2.0 vs. F2.6). With a lens adapter it can use regular-sized camera filters which I can also share with my film camera. And for some reason the Nikon was hard to find, as not many stores had it.

I ordered the G3 and got it last week. So far it rocks. Pictures are really sharp and vibrant. While using it in manual mode, though, it\’s easy to mess up the pictures, so I got a lot of crappy shots. But I also got some incredible pics. I\’m gonna have fun playing with it.