Depth of field preview & shutter speed preview

[FlyingPete]

Hi all,
I am about to upgrade my digital camera from my three year old Sony DSC-S50 (2mp point and shoot). I am looking at the G3 (although still slightly tempted by the G5, or to wait for the G6?), and have used one on several occasions.

On my only Sony, if you change the apature or shutter speed the resulting depth of fielf or shutter 'blur' is shown in the LCD screen, I find this esspecially useful with the sutter speed option. Upon using the G3, I found that neither of these options seems to preview.

As a fond user of depth of field preview since my Olympus OM1, and more recently my EOS30, I would really like that option in my pending G3.

Does anyone know if what I am asking is possible?

Thanks!
Peter

[paul162brown]

Pete,

I have just got my G3 and took my first shots today. I took a number of outdoor portraits selecting different apperture values and, unless I am going mad (which is a possibility), the G3 showed the background out of focus on the LCD before I took the shot. I know this is certainly the case with some of the macro shots I took. It may be the case that with the settings you used and the lighting levels that the differences in depth of field were very small and not that noticable. It seems to me (and I am sure I read it somewhere) that it is far harder to throw backgrounds out of focus using digital compacts. It is certainly harder than it ever was with my old film SLR!, although the G3 seems to cope well judging by the shots I took today. I think it is something to do with the lenses and CCD that result in far greater depth of field on digital compact cameras generally. Remember the built in 0.9 ND filter can also be used to great effect to restrict the amount of light coming in and therefore has a bigg effect on the depth of field options for a given shot and this should be shown on the LCD prior to pressing the shutter.

I would recommend you just get the G3 rather than wait for any new model. Many reviews I have read state that the G5 does not produce shots that are that much better than the G3 and as a result it has been marked down in review scores, (although I appreciate the slightly higher pixel count can mean larger print sizes, but how big do you need to go?, the G3 can produce superb prints up to A4 size) In addition, many stores (well, here on the UK anyway) are running out of G3 stock and are only selling the G5 which has resulted in very cheap G3 prices. I got mine secondhand on e-bay. Any new model is bound to command a high price for a while yet, although maybe it will have features and improvements that we do not know about yet. I say, bite the bullet and get a G3 and just get snapping. Sometimes we have to just get a good bit of kit that does the job well and then concentrate on the rest of the picture taking/manipulation process rather than waiting and waiting for new gear promised by the big manafacturers. Have fun with your purchase whatever you get. Hope this helps.

Paul

[Andy_T]

Depending on your price point, you might take a look at the Digital Rebel with the 18-55 kit lens.

This camera will certainly allow you to get the composition right.

Regards,
Andy

[FlyingPete]

Guys, thanks for you help!

I have now purchased a G3, I did look at the 300D or 10D, as they would be a good match to my EOS30 kit, but they are still both way out of my budget.

As for the DOF preview, I will ive with trial and error, at least I get the results back straight away!

I will do some shooting at differnt F stops to see what the variance in the depth of field actually is on the camera, as it might so small that it is not noticable.

[OmeRobbie]

For a DOF with backgroundblur there's actually one method with the G3...

* Use full Telezoom (G3: 28mm)
* Use large aperture (G3: F2.8@28mm)
* Try to have a large distance between the subject and the background (e.g. distance between flower and a background like a wall)

In this way you'll have with the G3 a nice background-blur, although not as nice bokeh and easy as with a D-SLR and the right lens. But it's much better than most Point-and-shoots.

[Man-Fai Wong]

For maximum background blur, adding a tele converter can help along those lines also although it limits the useable zoom range.

Also, you might want to try shooting a separate frame for background blur and then combine in post-processing much like some people do for blending different exposures to extend dynamic range. Would be pretty simple to shoot your normal focused-for-subject shot and then add a blurred background shot using manual focus set to some very short distance like 10" or less. Then in postprocessing, you just mask out the background in your normal shot and combine the subject w/ the blurred background.

_Man_