Does the aperture/shutter speed limitaion of Canon G2 really

[yung1]

I have just bought a Canon Powershot G2 but I'm quite embarassed by the apeture/shutter speed limitaion.
F2.0-3.2: the max shutter speed is 1/500 sec
F3.5 - F4.5: the max shutter speed is1/640 sec
F5.0 - F7.1: the max shutter speed is1/800 sec
F8.0 : the max shutter speed is1/1000 sec
I've tried to make close-up photo in very sunny day. I used the maximum aperture setting F2 and the LCD shown that there is an overexposure at the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 sec. This can be fixed by applying a suitable ND filter.
What I want to know is whether the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 sec is sufficient for us to shoot a fast moving object in everyday life situations.
Does the aperture/shutter speed limitaion of Canon G2 really bother you?

[leony]

First thing to check is your ISO setting - if you're in bright light use ISO 50. If it is still too bright you can close the appereture a little (or a lot, as you see fit). If you've closed the appereture as much as possible and it's still too bright you'll need a ND filter. Similar situations occur with film as well, so this isn't new to Digital. BTW, F2.0 is "largest" appereture - meaning it lets in the most light. F8.0 is "smallest" and it lets in less light. Bigger numbers = less light, and vice versa. So if you get too much light at F2, try going up until you get a good reading. Or you can use a ND filter. G2's optics give too much DOF as compared to film cameras, even at F2.0, so there's no reason to not shoot at F5.6 for example and then blurr the background digitally afterwards in an image editing program. 1/500 should be fast enough for most things. Try to avoid supersonic planes and bullets, but other than that 1/500 should be good enough for almost anything i can think of.

[PatrickEggers]

"leony" is right on. However, 1/125 of a second should be ample for most action shots. You might get a "little" blurr, but it is usually slight and gives the impression of motion...

[rrosener]

I don't really have a problem with the maximum shutter speed of 1/500. I rarely even shoot my Nikkon SLR faster than 1/250. Unless you're photographing races, 1/500 should be plenty. I do agree that the extreme depth of field with digital cameras is a problem....often shooting portraits I wish I could blur the background optically. Optical blurring is always preferrable to what you can do in Photoshop. Photoshop blurring is too "fake" and uniform. There is a Japanese term called "bokeh". Near as I can translate, it describes the beautiful out of focus results you can obtain with lenses. For what it's worth, the Bokeh-heads seem to prefer European lenses. Some of the inexpensive Russian lenses produce the finest blurring and shallow depth of field.
To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this link:
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~rrosener/German_small.jpg
This was made with a medium format camera. Notice how the focus drops off gradually and naturally. To do this properly in Photoshop, you'd have to dupe the image into several layers and overlay, blurring each one progressively. In short, I'm not tossing out my film cameras just yet!

Russ