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G3 wish list

Hy Ezekiel, > I'd shell out on a Biogon 21/2.8 but not a Elmarit 21/2.8 for my M3 at current prices. I'm sure there are many others out there who would do the same.

You may be lucky, have a look at the Rollei 35RF, it=B4s made be Cosina and has Zeiss Glass in a M-Mount.

Regards

Volker
 
Right, I have just about finished my letter to Santa and just need to clarify the specifications for my new G3.

Firstly let us keep the slim sexy shape of the G1 rather than the more bulbous G2. We will keep the viewfinder and Drive & Focus options of the G2 though. Then we could have two program modes: A ‘Point & Shoot’ Mode with center weighted metering and wide autofocus sensor and a ‘Considered’ Mode with 5% spot meter and corresponding narrow autofocus sensor. In the latter mode we could aim the camera at a mid tone, lock the AEL and then hold focus on a suitable area before recomposing and taking the shot.

The meter could resemble that of an OM4 with horizontal bar graph and a flag to indicate the suggested shutter speed and AEL value where selected. That way we can see the spread from highlights to shadows at a glance. The AEL will have to be updated to work like the RTSiii and store an EV value not just lock the shutter speed. While we are reworking the display let us include the aperture, and a frame counter, then we’ll put in a depth of field indicator a la RX.

A simple 2 stop flash compensation dial could be worked in there somewhere.

Finally, as it is Christmas let’s do away with the thing that bugs many of us – the self park autofocus. By leaving the lens at its last position especially when MF is in use it would reduce the irritating noise by over 50%.

Next year I’m asking for a 28 ~ 90mm zoom……….

Merry Christmas to all.

Clive
 
I'll add that to my Christmas list as well if I may. Just one thing, = for next year's zoom- can we request an f2.8 fixed aperture, or is that = being greedy?

All the best for Christmas and the New Year to everyone.

John
 
Sorry John,

Santa says that a fixed f2.8 aperture would be stretching his magic too far as the lens would have to be much wider than the current G mount optics and would foul the autofocus sensor given that we have asked for a compact body.

Santa has n't got round to bending the laws of physics yet.

However, he's got his elves to start drawing up the G3 design and with luck should have it down our chimneys next year.

Merry Christmas,

Clive
 
>Do you have inside information in re. Santa's elves working on a G3 design? I thought we were all operating on the assumption that no such was actually planned. Yes, the self-parking at infinity has defiitely got to go. The point and shoot mode with wide sensor is a good idea for shooting from the hip. Moreover, I'd welcome an array of crosshair sensors from which is chosen automatically the one corresponding to the nearest significant object, Canon style. This is a boon to rapid work. Keep the single sensor mode of course, and add the narrow-angle metering as suggested. Make these modes operate independently, allowing mix-and-match. Add a flatter 45mm lens (f2.8 or 3.5) for those of us who want a more compact unit, and finally - I know this is heresy to some - judiciously incorporate more plastics. I've gotten such good results with cameras of modern plastics that I think it's worth it for the weight reduction you get. Nobody says the Aria is a lousy camera just because of the plastic, do they? I don't really consider the G cameras to be take-everywhere cameras, with their current size and weight, though they may seem so to RTS users.
 
> [Hello, I am not yet a Contax G2 user. But Santa Claus is going to give me one soon. So, has he made the good camera choice ? Bernard Paris]
 
Hi Bernard,

Lucky you! You will get your dream camera before we get ours.

Of course Santa has made a good choice in bringing you a G2. But, like with a good woman you need to get to know her well before you will derive the most pleasure from her. Many new users to the G Series find it difficult to make the switch from a SLR. Give her time and she will soon become familiar and reward you with superb photographs.

Going back to our original G3 wish list: Charles, if you want a plastic autofocus compact then there are lots already on the market. Santa is designing a special camera to carry on the great tradition set by Kyocera who are presently unfortunately astray in Pixel Land. Hopefully they will find their way back to the real world soon and help out. Meanwhile Santa has asked his chief Elf to look into the autofocus aspect from a fresh angle. He cannot see why AF cameras need to focus on the closest object detected by their sensors as this leaves a wasted zone of sharp focus in front of that object. His idea is for the Elf to re program the AF chip to calculate the optimum point of focus given the camera to subject distance and the aperture set. We old guys used to do these calculations on the back of cigarette packets or use the lens barrel guides, Santa has realised that the electronics of an AF camera could do this for us. Now is n’t that a good idea?

Clive
 
For a G3, I would like to see an option of reading distance in FEET. I am not used to meters; it takes trouble to convert instantly. There must be at least as many Americans as metric people, so why not be nice to us ?
 
>There must be at least as many Americans as metric people<

Metric's easy, all 10's. The States, I believe, is the last, or one of the last countries in the world that isn't metric. The world is how many billion now? It's the power of the America market that's the thing. Maybe they'll listen. Good luck, Jeff
 
Having an English/metric option could even be a running firmware change to the G2 (and the T3, etc.)

Metric may be easy, but if you weren't raised using it, it has surprisingly little meaning. What I mean is that simply knowing a meter (metre) is 3.281 feet just doesn't translate into useful information to my English-raised brain. When the camera tells me the distance to subject is .61 meters, I have to translate the reading to 2 feet before it has much meaning.

--Rick
 
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