Canon G15 - f/1.8 - f/2.8 - Will I Be Missing Out?

Good morning folks,

I'm possibly looking at "upgrading" my Canon S95 and have been looking at the G15.

I will be totally honest in that I do not know a huge amount about photography but wanted to ask about the aperture range.

The f/1.8 is obviously a huge bonus in low light/dark situations (can others please confirm their experiences with this and the noise levels etc please) and also for getting some very good bokeh (again, would appreciate comments on this from users), but my main concern is at the other end of the range with the f/2.8.

Do you feel that this is high enough, especially to achieve decent landscape shots and being able to get a good clear shot over the entire frame? Is this a hinderance?

Would really appreciate your insights?

Also, slightly off topic but has anyone heard of an upgrade to the G15 this season with a flip around screen?

Kind

And also, does the G15 take a wired remote?


Thanks

I've been using mine almost daily since it arrived 3 weeks ago and it was the f2.8 that won it for me (it was either the G15 or the G1X but it was f5.8 at the long end - a helluva lot slower!) at f2.8 your DOF is going to be minimal, but for portraits it's great as it blurs the background (bokeh) beautifully IMO. When you consider how slow the max. aperture is on most of its competition, f2.8 is really good.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #15943155
Good morning folks,

but my main concern is at the other end of the range with the f/2.8.

Do you feel that this is high enough, especially to achieve decent landscape shots and being able to get a good clear shot over the entire frame? Is this a hinderance?
Kind

The f/2.8 is the maximum (largest) at full zoom , you can close it down (smaller/larger#) to get the needed/wanted DOF for landscape shots. Confused yet? LOL I am no teacher.

jhjl1 wrote in post #15943544
The f/2.8 is the maximum (largest) at full zoom , you can close it down (smaller/larger#) to get the needed/wanted DOF for landscape shots. Confused yet? LOL I am no teacher.

The Max aperture means you can keep the opening of the aperture large, f/2.8, even at the maximum zoom range of 140mm. However, you can also set the f-stop to f/8.0 anywhere along the zoom range, just like previous G series models in Aperture mode. See page 307 of the user guide. You can download a copy from Canon;

http://www.usa.canon.c​om …t_g15#Brochures​AndManuals

Dennis

As others have noted, yes you can adjust the aperture from 2.8 (shallow depth of field to isolate subject/blur background) to 8 (large depth of field, entire frame in focus for landscape shots).

Yes to your other question as well, you can use a wired remote.

Dear all,

Thanks very much for your replies.

Lot's of information shared and it's opened my eyes to a few things I wasn't aware of.

Very much appreciated

tuttifrutti wrote in post #15943155
The f/1.8 is obviously a huge bonus in low light/dark situations (can others please confirm their experiences with this and the noise levels etc please)

Yes. In fact, this camera tends to overexpose in low light. You can adjust settings to compensate for that. I haven't noticed any extra noise, but other people here know more about noise than I do and have more experience with dark situations. I shoot mostly outdoors and in daylight.

The G15 does its best work at medium distances. If you do a lot of very close macro or very far-away shots, such as birds, there are better cameras for those purposes, but they cost more and they're less convenient to lug around.

This forum has other G15 threads with comments on the camera's various strengths and weaknesses and samples of its output. I think gathering a lot of information before deciding is a good idea.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #15943155
I will be totally honest in that I do not know a huge amount about photography but wanted to ask about the aperture range.

The f/1.8 is obviously a huge bonus in low light/dark situations (can others please confirm their experiences with this and the noise levels etc please) and also for getting some very good bokeh (again, would appreciate comments on this from users), but my main concern is at the other end of the range with the f/2.8.

Do you feel that this is high enough, especially to achieve decent landscape shots and being able to get a good clear shot over the entire frame? Is this a hinderance?

tuttifrutti...

Based on Canon info and user reviews, I would say that the G15 is a fine camera.

The larger aperture offered by the G15 would be nice to have... it allows you the option to open it up if you should desire to do so. This doesn't mean that you need to go around shooting at wide apertures all of the time. The aperture can be tightened up for deeper depth of field should you need it.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #15943155
Good morning folks,

I'm possibly looking at "upgrading" my Canon S95 and have been looking at the G15.

I will be totally honest in that I do not know a huge amount about photography but wanted to ask about the aperture range.

The f/1.8 is obviously a huge bonus in low light/dark situations (can others please confirm their experiences with this and the noise levels etc please) and also for getting some very good bokeh (again, would appreciate comments on this from users), but my main concern is at the other end of the range with the f/2.8.

Do you feel that this is high enough, especially to achieve decent landscape shots and being able to get a good clear shot over the entire frame? Is this a hinderance?

Would really appreciate your insights?

Also, slightly off topic but has anyone heard of an upgrade to the G15 this season with a flip around screen?

Kind

As others have stated the apeture can go up to f8. But the other thing to remember is DOF is also related to length from subject. So if you are doing a long landscape shot (say 200 ft from you) even at 2.8 the DOF will be a LOT more than a subject that is 3 ft away.