Nikon Coolpix P7000 vs Canon PowerShot G12

Colby, up close and personal..
Not taken with a Nikon P7000 :-)

There was an add during the basketball game tonight. It was one of the Ashton Kutcher Nikon adds.

This one was for the Nikon S8100. Based on the add, I was about to go online and order one.

Reason kicked in before my credit card made it out of my wallet, and I did some checking for the ratings. In the commercial, there was a short line that said more serious photographers should look at the Nikon P7000, so after finding out that the S8100 was not at the top of the "users' favs", I headed over to the P7000 Amazon page.

This looks like a serious competitor. In fact it looks a lot like the Canon G12 in almost every aspect. Since I love the Canon/Nikon debate, I thought it might be a good idea to compare the two. How I got from the Nikon S8100 to a comparison between these two "almost pro" digital compacts is still kind of fuzzy, but there I was.

To set the record straight, I am the owner of a Canon digital SLR, which I dearly love. However, I am in the market for a good compact, simply because carrying all that camera stuff 24/7 is not very convenient. I want something that I can carry with me no matter where I am.

My process for evaluating cameras has evolved into a rather predictable pattern. First stop is DPReview to see if an expert review has been written. Then I head over to Amazon to read the customer reviews. Final place to check is the B & H Photo store online where there are also some valuable user reviews.

I actually prefer these user reviews to the expert's articles because these are real people like me and you who are giving their honest opinion about the cameras. They don't get anything for their $.02 worth of opinion. But in my eyes, it is worth so much more than that.

In the Nikon P7000 vs Canon G12, there are about 40 user reviews for each, so it is a fairly reliable resource. They are pretty close in evaluation. Too close to call, in fact. And as mentioned, the features of each camera are also very close to identical. Both will give the advanced photographer all the control necessary to take charge of the final image results.

If one feature could push the decision, it would be the articulating LCD screen on the Canon G12. This is very handy, especially when shooting in unusual positions or capturing video.

However, the overall evaluation is at a standstill for right now. Maybe this doesn't help you if you are trying to decide on one of these cameras, but here is something else I came across in my research, and it is this: neither one of these two great cameras are the top choice of shoppers in this "almost pro" category. Nope, the evaluations didn't even get them into the "Top 5 Point and Shoot Cameras" list.

Lucky for you, there is such a list at: Top 5 Point and Shoot Cameras.
The web address is http://www.squidoo.com/top-5-point-and-shoot-cameras. Check it out.