Super lenses attached to a poorly executed body. I never regretted selling the two Contax G kits I owned. I absolutely hated the wasted time dealing with the focus issues, rather than subject and composition considerations. That's just bad photography.
So here's a thought for all, after reading these posts.
Can you all imagine what a wonderful system the Contax G would have been if it had NOT BEEN AUTOFOCUS, but rather a real rangefinder camera.
The bodies are worthless.
1. I never had focus issues with any of the three working G2s i owned. I did have one G2 body that needed to have its AF calibrated. I sent it to ToCAD and it was fine after that.
2. The focusing blog's suggestions are excellent, and anyone who has had a problem would be well advised to study them.
3. It's a silly thing, to denigrate the G for not being "a real rangefinder camera." It doesn't matter one bit what it 'really' is. It's a camera. An EOS isn't a rangefinder either. Nor is a Toyo or a Rolleiflex. They all can make amazing pictures. They can all make photographs that are better than those from a rangefinder. If one were similarly closedminded, one could wonder how wonderful a Leica M would be if it DID have AF.
4. Again, bad thinking: "the bodies are worthless." They do what they're supposed to do. If you don't like how they work, that's one thing. But, they're obviously of worth since so many people use and enjoy them, and make beautiful photographs with them. It's like saying a Deardorff is worthless just because i'm not willing to lug it around and i don't like using a tripod.
5. "Bad photography." Well, the G works the same way as a Leica M. You have to first focus in the center, and then recompose if necessary. If that process equates to "bad photography," that process has 'accidentally' contributed to a lot of incidentally phenomenal photographs. In my experience, i do sympathize with the kernel of this complaint, and it's close to the reason i ultimately sold the last of my G2s. I found that with AF cameras, you raise the camera to frame and compose an image. But, with (single-point) AF and rangefinders, your first act is to put the center of the frame in the middle, and then move it to find the picture you really want to make. For me, it significantly changes my thinking, and the whole recomposition process then seems contrived. Sometimes like i'm then 'obligated' to move the camera in one direction or the other.
But, that's one of the reasons i sold my M7s. Same issue. Except with "real rangefinder photography," i also had to deal with the problem of finding the RF patch. RF devotees don't find that to be a problem, and they sometimes employ tricks to make sure the patch is already 'close' to focusing position before they raise the camera. By kuzano's logic, that would also make an M "worthless," wouldn't it? Bottom line, if you have AF issues with the G2, you're either not using it properly, or expecting too much. Same with a Leica, Bessa, Mamiya 6/7.....
Oh, and the "fanboy" comment? Seriously? Are you being purposefully offensive? That's about as ignorant a comment as i've seen in this forum in quite some time.