Canon PowerShot G3... My new toy

04/24/2003 06:44:28 PM · #1

I just got a Canon PowerShot G3. I also just uploaded to the Multi-image composition using the "Stitching" mode on the camera. I have not seen this feature on any other camera. I have much good to say about this camera, but I would like to know what others think of it as well...

Thanks,
Brad

Message edited by author 2003-04-27 10:16:46.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/24/2003 07:09:31 PM · #2

I really like my G3 although the focus has taken a little getting used to.

How did you use PhotoStitch to create multiple images? I've used it to stitch photos together into a panorama (which works very nicely, I must say) but doesn't create multiples.

04/24/2003 08:38:07 PM · #3

It did not create multiple images, but took multiple images and created one.

Message edited by author 2003-04-27 10:16:51.

04/24/2003 09:04:11 PM · #4

Mine finally arrived yesterday :) Am glad to read that you, mk, also had some trouble getting used to the focusing. I read up on the stitching but haven't used that yet; it really is for panorama shots. Happy to hear it works well as i was planning to do some this summer.
What are you using/planning for macro's: rings or a lens?

casualguy

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/24/2003 10:24:28 PM · #5

Oh yum.... some more tasty G3's to chew on with our S602's.

04/24/2003 10:33:45 PM · #6

Well, the Canon G2 sucks at autofocus :) sorry but that's truth!!!! Image quality is execellent though, but the autofocus is just bad....

Originally posted by Journey:

ruthiek

04/24/2003 10:34:31 PM · #7

I've only had my G3 two weeks, and I'm still having trouble focusing. I'm okay with stationary items, but with moving objects, I'm not having an easy time.

I bought a 2x telephoto lens, a wide angle lens, and a macro lens, as well as a filter set when I got the camera. When the extra lens tube is on, you HAVE to use the screen -- you can't use the viewfinder at all.

When I use it, I feel like someone has tied my right arm behind me, but I guess I'll get used to the feel of the camera (and using the screen) with enough practice.

Glad to know there are others out there just starting with it too!

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/24/2003 10:52:58 PM · #8

The things that I've found are that the more light, the easier to focus and on the closer up, macro style shots, it's better to hold the camera farther away and zoom in closer...that makes it easier to focus.

Ruthiek, I'm sure you'll get used to using the lcd. It's pretty cool when you get used to it because, by bending the screen, you can sometimes get shots you wouldn't otherwise.

04/24/2003 11:50:57 PM · #9

Originally posted by mk:

Yeah, i discovered that as well today (day 2) that it's easier to focus with more light. I tried a few macros and they totally sucked so i will gladly try your advice on day 3 :)

I'm really out of luck with the weather. We had such a great, mild winter, 1/2 hour of wet snow and hardly any rain. Then spring arrived and it has been nothing but rain. G3wise i really want to go out and shoot but weatherwise it's so chilly and constant rain that you want to stay in bed. In other words, i won't complain any more about the little mavica but from now on i will blame the weather for everything :)

Ruthiek, you'll get used to the screen. You do know that you can tilt and turn it around any which way, don't you?

Paganini, that's bad news about the auto focusing. Today i resigned myself to being a very slow learner but from what you're telling, it is much worse: it isn't me, it's the camera.

ruthiek

04/25/2003 12:46:44 AM · #10

I know I'll get used to the LCD, but I'm so used to actually "shooting" (sort of) -- aiming the camera and "shooting" what I find in my cross-hairs, so to speak. I go to the San Diego Zoo a lot, and the local lakes around San Diego County, and even though you can move the screen around (and it's great for things like flowers on cactuses and cats), somehow it's not the same feeling as "aim, focus and shoot." Know what I mean?

I agree about auto-focus. Worthless. The landscape setting isn't too bad. The setting I like best is manual. And actually, now that I think about it, when you're in manual, it's really nice to have that screen -- as you change the aperture and shutter speed, the exposure on the screen changes so you can really see what you're doing.

I guess we all figured out the same thing about macro shots, too -- use the zoom and get back farther than you would with a macro lens.

Has anyone actually tried the "vivid" setting? I tested with it when I was reading the manual, but I just can't think of anything I'd use it for.

04/25/2003 01:05:27 AM · #11

Ruthiek, well just shoot and glance at the lcd then :) I wish that was my problem instead of the focusing. I think, in general, i will have the lcd totally flipped around and smooth on the back of the camera - that's the most natural setting for me, or because i was used to that.

As to vivid, yes i tried that today in rather poor light, so i don't know for sure. I took two pictures of blue Muscaris in the garden, one in the normal setting and one in vivid. The colors on the vivid weren't all that much more vivid but it gave a nasty bright blue halo around the flowers. For now, seems rather gimmicky but i will try it again in better light. Who knows, could be cool for something abstract.

How many pictures did you make before you had one worth keeping, if only for a couple of months?

04/25/2003 01:08:12 AM · #12

Yep. G2's autofocus sucks. That's the biggest gripe -- it lags behind Sony or others. However, G2's color rendition is super and it's image quality is very good and gives you RAW files....

There are limitations for G2 -- shooting kids or any moving object isn't one of them. There are very few prosumer cameras that can do that anyway, Sony 717 is probably one of them, but G2/G3 is not.

Do not ever use the viewfinder, it's worthless, only use the LCD screen. Viewfinder isn't 100% coverage and it's slow. Of course with an adaptor you can't use the viewfinder!!!! G2 isn't a DSLR..... if you mount something on the lens you can't see it on the viewfinder for the magnification, only the LCD screen works.

Low light usually sucks for most digicams, not just G2 alone, but the biggest issue is the lack of autofocus for moving targets. One way to remedy this is to use a fixed length manual focus and shoot away with a larger DOF :) Or you can try the CONTINUOUS autofocus mode, still not fast enough though.

Originally posted by Journey:

Originally posted by mk:
The things that I've found are that the more light, the easier to focus and on the closer up, macro style shots, it's better to hold the camera farther away and zoom in closer...that makes it easier to focus.

Yeah, i discovered that as well today (day 2) that it's easier to focus with more light. I tried a few macros and they totally sucked so i will gladly try your advice on day 3 :)

I'm really out of luck with the weather. We had such a great, mild winter, 1/2 hour of wet snow and hardly any rain. Then spring arrived and it has been nothing but rain. G3wise i really want to go out and shoot but weatherwise it's so chilly and constant rain that you want to stay in bed. In other words, i won't complain any more about the little mavica but from now on i will blame the weather for everything :)

Ruthiek, you'll get used to the screen. You do know that you can tilt and turn it around any which way, don't you?

Paganini, that's bad news about the auto focusing. Today i resigned myself to being a very slow learner but from what you're telling, it is much worse: it isn't me, it's the camera.

04/25/2003 01:28:39 AM · #13

My advice for the G2/G3 --

autofocus works, but you have to know the limitations. It'll be hard sometimes to lock focus on a person especially on the face where there aren't any edges. You have to look at hte LCD screen to make sure the GREEN light comes on, not YELLOW, before you press the shutter. Green = lock.

It also likes VERTICAL edges. So if you have horizontal edges, it might not lock well (what you do is to tilt the camera 90 degrees and it will lock).

If you're shooting for landscapes, it's easy. Set it to widest angle, set your aperature to F8 and manual set your focus distance to 1.02 meters, where it is the HYPERFOCAL distance and anything from 0.51 meters to infinity will be in focus. :P

If you're shooting macro and you can get close to the subject, you should shoot as wide angle as possible and you can get REALLY close and with F8, you can get REALLY good DOF. If you need to get closer, buy Canon's 250D closeup lens or for cheaper options, Hoya closeup lenses and you can cut the distance to 1/4 of what you can do before with a 4x lens.

Generally, G2 is hard to shoot kids, because they move very quickly.... a $330 Elan 7 will focus a hell of a lot faster, even a Rebel 2000 will than a G2 :)

Not sure why Canon G2 is so awful with focusing. I didn't know how bad it is until I bought it. If i were shopping for a digicam, the first thing i'd try is the autofocus in the stores. That's why you probably won't find any action shots by G2 on this site -- the autofocus is dog slow.... but you will find a lot of good portraits and landscape, etc. with a G2. i believe Alecia also shoot with a G2 and Gordon at some point also shot the G2, they can tell you more. But when I was buying a digicam my requirement was:

1. Low noise (G2 works at least in ISO 50)
2. Adaptor for filters
3. Compact Flash cards (rules out Sony right there)
4. My co-worker had a Canon G1 and I had a chance to see his images and was pretty impressed with the low noise and more of a realistic color rendition from other digicams that i have seen.
5. Didn't ask him about the autofocus :) ooops....

This is taken with a G2, along with all of the photos on my pbase thing which is now not going to be updated:

Sol Duc Falls

(Photo was taken without a tripod... what a pain it was to keep it steady at 1 second exposure)

The thing I like a lot about the G2 is that even the default Canon raw conversion creates natural "colors", unlike some of the digicams that seem to produce artificial VIDEOCAM colors. With RAW conversion and some of the actions floating around in the web, it can be more close to "film" if you want.

Still, it's a huge difference between G2 and 10D or any of the "entry" DSLRs such as Nikon D100. Sensor noises are low, color rendition is better and more resolution (even the Canon D30 with 3 megapixels easily outperforms Canon G2 or Sony 707 because of its realistic rendition of colors and contrast), along with a lot of lens choices.

So Journey, it's not too late to return it and get a 10D :) This is taken with a 10D, straight out of camera, saturated with +1 and +1 sharpening. Can't wait until i get a wide angle lens and take a trip to the Rockies this summer..... actually I might head back up to Rainier again, such a gorgeous place to visit in August and still get snow up there!

Message edited by author 2003-04-25 01:31:52.

04/25/2003 01:30:29 AM · #14

This thread has proven very helpful to me and good for the ego as well (which feels somewhat crushed right now). Yes, i couldn't believe the colors i was getting from the G3 imgs!

Paganini, what's your advice? Only shooting in RAW, whenever possible? After superfine, I shot some in RAW and in Photoshop converted to a psd file. Correct? I wish RAW files have a different icon; they look and say that they are jpegs; only in photoshop do i see it's raw and see a big file size. Mind i haven't gotten around yet to reading the software manual.

Thanks everybody for the advice! Much appreciated.

04/25/2003 01:37:17 AM · #15

Colors are nice from G2/G3, i bleive G3 has better colors even than the G2 by default.

Either way -- RAW is good because you can adjust everything later. Or you can shoot in JPEG to save space. I'll admit that some of the photos i took last year around Rainier I wish i had shot RAW so i can tune the colors without introducing noises with JPEGs. The extra 2 bits (10 bit color) is REALLy nice... it makes a big difference in post-shot adjustments.

If I were doing this again, i'd just shoot JPEG mostly, and shoot RAW when I have a scene or something that I may want adjustment later on a trip.

But if autofocus is a real problem for you, i'd return the camera and get something else that suits better. The SOny 717 isn't toobad, the colors are more realistic than the 707, but it still takes memory sticks.... which is a bummer.

The thing that really bites with the G2 autofocus is that you can spend $150 on a point and shoot FILM camera and get better autofocus than the G2 :) Heck, even a Kodak $10 disposable camera focuses better under bright lights and faster too.

Originally posted by Journey:

04/25/2003 02:10:20 AM · #16

Hey paganini, thanks a bunch! Your last post was very, very helpful and if you don't mind i'll print it out. Not sure what you mean about the vertical and horizontal edges but i may figure that out. Think i will have a better testing day tomorrow :) My problem today was that i thought YELLOW was acceptable and tried to squeeze out smaller DOFs than was really possible(hey still big on the learning curve).

Your 10D image of the flower is fantastic. I really had fun voting this week on the two challenges and if i'm not totally mistaken i can pick out THE cameras. It's just a different, higher level. The g3 will do me just fine for a year or so once i get over the hump.

If you're planning for Mt Rainier, you might also want to consider Mt Baker and Shuksan (sp?) and also Vancouver Island. In the Lumni language (the Lumni tribe located just north of B'ham) Mt Rainier is called 'the jealous wife of Mt Baker':) Vancouver Island, west coast, has some rugged wilderness and i hope to do some g3ing there this summer. Beyond Victoria i'm not acquainted with V Island so that should be fun to explore.

BTW, remember the Rockwell critiques of the other day? Thanks to you guys i found the fredmiranda site and his Abandoned image, Death Valley, just blew me away. To me that image has so much soul. With Rockwell, i see a technical tour de force, and some of his images are great, but i sense a little that he left his heart at home while waiting for that perfect timing and that perfect capture.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

04/25/2003 02:19:25 AM · #17

And another post! No, i don't believe autofocus will be a problem. Those limitations i'll be able to live with. Just need to get over the hump and easy light conditions would have helped for a starter but such is life. Decided on the G3 as opposed to the Sony 717 for pretty much the same reason you mentioned below. Also, i didn't particularly care for that big lens in relation to the itty bitty camera, although it isn't really bad to hold. And, who knows, maybe the g3 will be my backup some day and then it is nice that's compact.

jimmythefish

Canon EOS-10D

04/25/2003 02:25:07 AM · #18

Originally posted by Journey:

If you're planning for Mt Rainier, you might also want to consider Mt Baker and Shuksan (sp?) and also Vancouver Island. In the Lumni language (the Lumni tribe located just north of B'ham) Mt Rainier is called 'the jealous wife of Mt Baker':) Vancouver Island, west coast, has some rugged wilderness and i hope to do some g3ing there this summer. Beyond Victoria i'm not acquainted with V Island so that should be fun to explore.

If you're heading to Vancouver Island the places to hit are Tofino and Uclulet on the west coast (Tofino if you're only hitting one) and Strathcona Park in the middle of the Island. Cape Scott is great but it's ~10 hours by car from Victoria.

James.

mbardeen

04/25/2003 02:58:12 AM · #19

I love my G3 :)

After approximately a week with my camera, I've taken close to 400 pictures with it. Some have been good, some have been bad. Both my current entries were taken with it and are doing quite respectable.
I see the point about the autofocus paganini, I was trying to take some pics of flying gulls and found that immensely difficult - because of both autofocusing and unfamiliarity with shooting from the LCD. However, I think on balance the advantages of the G3's LCD far out wiegh the disadvantages of the camerea. I like shooting B&W scenes, and it's nice seeing them as they would turn out when composing the shot rather than in colour. Also, being able to check exposure and DOF on the LCD before the shot is a very nice feature as well, especially since I'm just learning how to control them with aperture and shutterspeed.

Just my take..
-Matt

rogerspaul

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

04/25/2003 03:11:40 AM · #20

what do you people do to practise im a dumb ass when i take my camera out i just point and shoot to much any tips?

mbardeen

04/25/2003 07:02:03 AM · #21

Paul,

I started by getting a photography magazine and trying to reproduce the photos that I liked in it. There is typically quite a wide variety of styles in any issue and I find it helps me get to know my camera better. It has the added benefit of making me think more about my shots and how I want to portray my subjects.

Hope this helps!
-Matt

04/25/2003 07:53:05 AM · #22

Amazing this thread has turned out the number of posts it has... I just wanted to get a few opinions on the camera.

I have noticed the focus issue, but I have seemingly worked it out. I always used the focus lok on the Mavica and N65, so it was natural for me to do the same on the G3. I have found it takes a bit longer to get the lock, but oh well... Also, with the digital medium, experimentation does not cost anything but time. So far, I am very pleased with the camera.

I will say this, one of the coolest things I have found with it is the remote capture. I was playing with it last night, camera on a tripod, laptop next to it. I was able to set almost all of the settings manually, and take a full shot at whatever resolution I wanted. Talk about macro posibilities. Not even having to touch tha camera after using the manual focus (not seen that on a digital before) and getting the position of the camera set up. I plan on trying this out in more detail this weekend.

Thanks for everyone's tips, they have helped. To those who are still working with it, experiment. It does not cost anything. Use the manual to learn the exact way to set things up on the camera. Also, when you find the settings that work best for shots you take the most of, use C1 and C2 to save them... I love taking Macro shots, so my C2 is set up already for doing macros.

Message edited by author 2003-04-27 10:17:15.

04/25/2003 07:54:08 AM · #23

--- Got Cut Off ---

I guess, in short, this is a much better camera than I initially expected. The salesman said it was a lot of camera, but if I was used to an SLR, it would be easier for me to pick up than someone looking to do snapshots at family gatherings. I think he is right. This camera will be a lot of fun to learn and experiment with... Hopfully I can get into the next challenge.

Thanks for all your replies.

Message edited by author 2003-04-27 10:17:29.

tyrkinn

Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Canon

04/25/2003 10:40:02 AM · #24

About this RAW format issue, the G3 offers one great feature; you can take a shot in JPG format and if you think you got a great shot you can turn the shot into RAW file for a lossless capture (just make sure you do it before you take the next shot, see manual for how to). That way you can shoot in JPG and save the best shots in RAW. Great camera, the G3, no problems for me....yet...