Canon G10 in lieu of rangefinder

I’ve been shooting with the Sigma DP2 for about a week now. Reid Reviews has Part One of a two part review online now for its subscribers. It’s an intelligent review, highly recommended for any rangefinder photographer willing to accept a single, fixed focal length lens in the search for a small, relatively inexpensive substitute for a digital rangefinder.

Here are some additional thoughts.

1) It is not an available darkness camera. The autofocus has serious problems in low light levels with low contrast subjects. In due time with a few different tries, it will eventually come up with an accurate focus. But this will not do you much good unless you’re shooting a still life.

2) The autofocus takes a little time and is noisy enough to be heard in quiet situations even in good light. It is certainly not noisy enough to call attention to you when you are street shooting, but unless you can prefocus, lock the focus by holding the shutter button in the half-down position, you will miss moments.

Reid compares the camera to the wonderful Rollei 35, a film camera that only had manual scale focusing. I would compare it to the Leitz Minilux - scale focusing if you can, auto focusing if you must.

Fortunately, the DP2 has quick, effective scale focusing with a small dial near where you would find the thumb wind on a film camera. You choose which is best, scale or auto. But for street shooting, scale focusing and a small aperture allow for that quick, unexpected exposure.

In order to get a high shutter speed and small f/stop, you will often use relatively high film speeds (200 to 800), and this is where the C-size sensor pays off. The noise looks like grain, and fans of Tri-X and HP5 will be happy.

Anybody else used the camera and have info to pass on?
 
Bill Pierce said:
As somebody else in contention for the "worst eyes" award, let me make a suggestion that will really seem stupid - at first. Try street shooting without looking through the viewfinder. Shoot from the hip. For a long while you will chop off people's heads, miss them entirely, e.t.c.. And then suddenly you will start holding the camera level and tilted up or down in the right way. Not raising the camera to your eye avoids one of the big problems of street photography - being attacked by irate subjects.

Even when I use a viewfinder on the street, i tend to bring the camera to my eye quickly, pretty much knowing the frame I want in advance even before I look through the finder (one of the advantages of sticking with single focal length) and just as quickly lowering it. Carl Mydans went shooting with Cartier Bresson one day and told me that was what Bresson did. And that he was really quick.
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It's really interesting to learn something new or new techniques,
and what you've mentioned about practicing shooting from
the hip level is really interesting. I wonder how I could practice
to meter or focus on the subject in that respect? I'm sure those who do it all
the time will be very accurate doing so but for a newbie,
do you have any suggestion? Thanks in advance.
 
Bill Pierce said:
I'm starting to put some miles on a DP2.
Click to expand...

There was a lengthy reader discussion of the DP2 on that most excellent website, The Online Photographer. Much of the discussion had to do with the slowness of the auto focusing and a general feeling that this was a huge negative for the camera. One reader pointed out the effective manual focus provision, but no one pointed out the most effective, accurate and easiest solution. It is possible within a functions menu to program what would normally be the exposure lock to become a focus lock. Thus you focus, and once the focus is locked, you shoot all the digital frames you want until you feel you should refocus. And there is no delay.

That's right. It's the same thing you do with a Leica. You focus, you shoot a bunch of frames, you check your focus and shoot some more.

There is a sort of ignorance that all of us suffer when automation allows us just to pick up and shoot without reading the manual. You read the manual and the DP2 becomes a very useful street camera.
 
I picked up a used LX3 from Tony (thank you for the great service, Alex and Tony!). For what it is, I'm very impressed. First, the image quality is very good, and having a true wide angle and f/2 is very nice. Second, the camera has very accessible controls that make it handle like a "real" camera. I can shift the location of the focus sensor; I can easily dial in exposure compensation ; if using P, I can easily shift the aperture/shutter speed combination or, if using A, I can easily change aperture; I can easily change ISO, WB and flash comp - without drilling into a lot of menus. In terms of physical displacement, it's a fraction of the G10 (but probably a little more than the DP2). For a review, you can essentially translate Sean's writeup of the DLux4, since they are for all intents and purposes the same camera.
 
I'm not in the mega-pixel race, so I've stuck with the Canon G-5 as my digi RF.

With the 35mm f2 and a CV 35 finder attached*, it does everything I need for newspaper reproduction. Our published photos seldom exceed 3 columns (6 9/16") in width.

As others have mentioned, pre-pressing the shutter release reduces the lag time. The swiveling LCD works well for those "Hail Mary" shots.

* I did add the adapter tube for 52mm filter and a w/a rubber hood as a 'shock absorber.'
 
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I've owned a G10 for about 7 months and it's a handy camera. That being said, I'm so spoiled by my larger digi SLRS (D2x and D700) that I have a really big problem with the shutter lag and slower focusing of the G10. Plus, the high ISO capabilities just feel pathetic after shooting at ISO 3200 on the D700, which looks somewhere about ISO 400 on the G10. It is nice to pocket, it can make some decent B/W frames at concerts where I can't get an SLR in (noise is too bad for color in those situations though). Plus, I've used it with PWs to take advantage of its super high speed sync abilities (i.e. 1/2000th of a second).



But it's time for me to move on, so I'm actually about to sell my G10 to fund the purchase of an M2--I've decided it's time for me to have my first Leica :)
It feels more substantial than most P&S, but it still isn't 100% there for me. I guess I'm just not cut out to use a point and shoot the day after I've shot a few thousand frames on high-end nikon gear.


Luckily for me, when I bought the G10 it was $415, and now it's $480 new, so hopefully I won't even lose much money having used it for a few months....
 
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