G3 wish list

[afranklin]

Hi Cuong,

> Why do you want to do that for ?. I'd rather compose, lock the > exposure with the AE Lock button, re-aim the autofocus, keep the > shutter button half-way, re-compose then shoot.

I prefer to lock the exposure with the shutter release, and lock the focus with the focus lock button on the back. If you forget and leave the exposure lock locked, you can ruin quite a few shots... My method works perfectly for me on my AX, so I'd prefer to be consistent and do it this way with the G2.

Regards,

Austin

 

[saspencr]

I wondered who uses the focus lock on the back and what advantage it might have. Personally, I find it less natural than pushing the lever...just personal preference. Are there other reasons that it would be advantageous to use the focus lock on the back? Scott

 

[afranklin]

Hi Scott,

> I wondered who uses the focus lock on the back and what advantage it > might have. Personally, I find it less natural than pushing the > lever...just personal preference. Are there other reasons that it > would be advantageous to use the focus lock on the back? Scott

I set AE lock to be shutter button half way, which still, BTW, does focus lock as well as AE lock. Why I like having the AE lock on the shutter button, and the ability to do focus lock on the back is so I can focus on one thing, lock it, expose on another, lock it, then recompose and shoot...and that, for me, gives me optimal control of the image. Though, I really wish it had a spot meter...but at least the very center is the area of highest sensitivity.

Regards,

Austin

 

[saspencr]

Austin, I'll have to think about your technique and whether it would be useful to me. Regarding the weight centered metering, I guess only experience will be adequate in helping to understand when the meter might still be fooled when the photographer has the center pointed on the equivalent of a grey card. Scott

 

[salmori]

My dreamed G3:
- bathroom: when I´m taking photos in the desert I need some personal care.
- a chair: long time stand up it´s over.
- an oven: a good breakfast it´s the best way to take good photos...

Have the perfect camera it´s not possible, but this is part of our hobbie. We like to have different cameras, lenses, tripods, cases...
Who wants to have a 21-600 mm f1,4?? I like to change the lens, go shopping, etc.

 

[rickd]

I do some of my best thinking while my brain is oxygen-starved. Or not, you be the judge.

I was snowshoeing in the high country yesterday, toting my trusty G2 w/ 21 and 90 and was thinking about what frustrates me with the manual focus, which is the lack of ease with which to set the hyperfocal distance.

Why not a hyperfocal distance command button? You'd select an f-stop via a selector dial, telling tell the G (let's call this a G2-B) which aperture you'd sent. The camera, of course, already knows what lens is mounted and if you're using the zoom, it also knows what focal length is set. The camera would use the input to rack the lens to the correct focus position.

I'd find this a boon for shooting scenics, particularly in situations that are a challenge to the auto focus (snow, to use a convenient ex&le).

By extension, if the user selected an f-stop and a focus distance, the camera could present DOF data. The values could be presented on the LCD screen or in the viewfinder.

A point of contention could be what circle of confusion value they'd use. I suppose even this could be a user preference.

Any reason why this *wouldn't* work? Has Canon or Nikon already buried a similar feature into one of their fabulously complicated system camera bodies?

--Rick

 

[chevrol]

I totally agree with you Rick, this feature would be great.
But setting the aperture first on the lens then on the body would be something as infuriating as using the second polarizer trick on rangefinders...
So in my point of view, such a feature can only be enjoyable if the body is able to know by itself the aperture set on the lens.
In that case, this new position on the command dial would make for a great feature. For the CoC , it could be derived automatically from the sensitivity of the film, which is closely correlated to the ISO rating...

Apart from that, I think my brother told me that his Canon EOS fantastic technology marvelous plastic camera had a feature maximizing the depth of view, which amounts to pretty much the same thing when the focus is infinity. Patent protected ?

By the way, this is my first post, but I've been enjoying the read for a while.
I own a G2+45 and really get my kick out of it, even if the digital freaks tend to think I'm a craze.
Thanks for all the good opinions, advices, etc. that this forum contains.

Eric C.

 

[rickd]

Great idea about auto-magically matching the CoC to the film Eric! I hearby agree to share my royalties from Contax with you once they've added the feature.

I also agree that setting a dial on the body isn't the simplest method, but because the lenses don't communicate the f-stop to the body, it's the only scheme I can come up with.

Unless these mysterious extra contacts on the lenses really *are* for communicating aperture.

--Rick