Is the G3 the digital Leica M?

[Jade14]

I am looking a for a compact carry along, yet full featured, camera to go where my D60 system can't. The more I read into dpreview's G3 review the more astonished I got at capabilities present in this little camera that I would love to have in my D60:

Two Custom White Balances, adjustable without scrolling down the rear LCD menu.
Full manual control and power settings to 1/16 with the 420EX (ettl only in the D60).
Being able to save in RAW format AFTER looking at the histogram (in jpg mode).
Superb battery life (even better than the already good D60 battery life).
Zooming down to 10x in review mode (D60's 3x often leaves me wondering).
Two fluorescent white balance settings (D60 has got but 1).
Custom 1 and Custom 2 preset shooting modes to quickly switch back and forth between indoor/outdoor settings.
G3 focus (AF assist light ON) is faster than D60s focus (built-in assist light ON and 28-70 2.8 L lens).

Phil Askey states that "As expected the G3 puts in pretty much the same resolution performance as the G2, it appears as though Canon has decided to compromise extinction resolution (only slightly) for reduced moire, this is probably a wise move". I interpreted this as a clue that images from the G3 may stand up to more upsampling than images from the G2. Indeed the ISO 50 image clarity (which according to Askey is closer to ISO 80) reminds me of the D60's much maligned low ISO smoothness).

So I downloaded Askey's low sharpened wristwatch-on-crayolas test image and upsampled it using 110% Stair Interpolation and USM 500/05/0 + 300/0.3/0 (Smart USM to the edges only) +15/45/0 (haze removal). This procedure (my standard D60 upsampling action) produced a very sharp YET still clean 12 x 16 inch @ 300 ppi image.

My only remaning concern is unconspicuos low light focusing WITHOUT the AF assist light, since the G3 does not use the 420 EX deep red AF light, which makes "available darkness" CANDID photography possible with the D60.

Since the G3 has manual focusing with viewfinder distance indication and the small CCD produces huge depth of field, I am considering using zone focusing. Leica M lenses have gorgeous depth of field scales to instantly check where sharpness starts and ends at any given aperture. I even used zone focusing for medium format street photography with my Fuji GSW645! Zone focusing the G3 would let the photographer forget about focus point selection and AF lag and concentrate in composition and capturing the decisive moment.

Can a kind G3 owner check the users manual to see if this info (depth of field scales) is provided? If it isnt , can anyone shoot at maximum Wide and Tele settings, at f4, manual focusing at 1 meter (3 feet), and report where does the sharp focus start and stop in each case?

Jorge Alban
Costa Rica

[Jade14]

Can someone with a G3 actually confirm the camera can be used this way for candid and street photography?

G3's two Custom Modes (C1 & C2) can be used for Zone Focusing the same way it has been done for decades in Leica M wide angle photography (Cartier Bresson, Sebastiao Salgado, etc.). By using a focus preset, no precious time is wasted focusing every shot and the photographer can concentrate on capturing the action.

As long as the subject remains within a certain distance range, the G3 photographer can forget about focus point selection, autofocusing lag and the intrusion of the AF assist light (which can be turned OFF):

SUBJECTS THAT EXTEND TO INFINITY: Focus at 3 meters and get sharp focus from 1.4 mts. (f5.6) or 1.2 mts. (f8) to INFINITY.

DISTANT SUBJECTS: Focus at 2 meters and get sharp focus from 1.1 mt. to 7.1 mt (f5.6) or INFINITY (f8).

NEARBY SUBJECTS: Focus at 1.5 meters and get sharp focus from 1 mt. to 2.5 mts. (f4), 3.3 mts. (f5.6) and 6.6 mts. (f8).

Simply choose your most used focusing range and save the MF distance and AV aperture values in either C1 or C2 Custom Modes. Please note the distances are good only for the Wide Angle (W) setting of the zoom lens (7.2 mm). For depth of field calculations I used a circle of confusion of 0.003345 mm in order to obtain a critically sharp image that stands upsampling beyond 8x10.

Thanks,
Jorge Alban
Costa Rica

[gandini]

This is a great idea, and yes it can be achieved with the G3. Custom modes maintain manual focus distance if set, and aperture value if set to that mode.

I always thought the G series was like the old 35mm range finders such as the Nikon and Canon (from the Liecas originally.) Of course these cameras usually had those huge f1.0 or f1.2 lenses on them!! But the G series handles like this type of camera, in weight and feel.

thanks again,
philip