Excuse the indulgence of this thread but I just received my G2 in the mail last night and wanted to do a quick thread on initial early user observations. Hopefully, this will help those others that are thinking about getting a G2. I encourage other relatively fresh users to join in.
Quick backround: I have been a Contax SLR owner for 20+ years. I am NOT a professional photographer but can identify one by his/her work when I see one. My own work is lacking in many dimensions which is the reason that I find this forum excellent. People seem (for the most part) to go out of their way to offer solid help and confirmation to problems that others are observing. I also have a digital camera (a much loved Sony for those instant feedback needs.....yup, I bought it because it had a Zeiss lens and it has not disappointed me).
I purchased the G2 for several reasons: 1)I wanted a new challenge. I've heard that this camera is a different animal with a learning curve. I want to learn a new tool. To be blunt, G2 owners seem to be a pretty passionate bunch and that stands on its own to me. 2)I want to spend less time thinking about a pile of gear and how to get it from point A to B without sacrificing negative quality that I've come to expect. 3) Value for the money. Just to be crass, the rebates that Contax are offering are too good to pass up. The value proposition (I hate using that term but its accurate in this case) of this camera relative to other rangefinders/P&S's is too good.
I am a manual focus fan so getting this camera was quite the departure for me. Mid-life crisis (my rebellious nature) or maturity about being open mindeded....not sure yet.
Onto the thread:
- Received the G2/45/200 last night.
- The camera drips quality. I'm an engineer and understand the subtle aspects of exhaustive design. This camera team did an excellent job. The fit,finish and form are a cut above what you see these days. Control layout looks okay but more comments after a roll or two. First impressions substantiate what others have said about camera being solid. The RX/RTSIII are built like small tanks, the design team for the G2 built what looks to be a different type of tank. Again first impressions.
The lens (and I'm sure that I'll get the 90 next) is what I was expecting. Excellent design. Again, after a roll or two, I'll offer more substantial comments. One observation about how stupid I am....open the lens and the f stop positioning was all off until I mated it onto the camera. It through me for a loop for a moment.
The manual is where I'm at right now. All the talk that I've seen about going through the manual carefully is right on target. A couple of the sequences or when focus occurs and what happens after a shot has occurred are very important. I'm starting to see where the learning curve exists on this camera. It seems that the CH/CL and AF options are all key to understand. Also, the suggestions and limits of the AF (such as repeating patterns, not using a horizontal horizon for AF, or beware of high glare points) are really key as well. These limits look okay (limitations exist for any camera). The quality of the manual is pretty good but again, I'm reading it very carefully before I start. This is pretty atypical for me....I usually one of those guys who gets a motherboard, puts a computer together, and spends a couple of hours (or more) trying to trace the subtlety of where I went wrong. READ THE MANUAL.
Okay, slide film is in the camera. Off to take a couple of shots to understand this AF thing. I'll be taking a lot of pics of walls, sticks in fields, bracketing, etc. I'm quite interested in learning what the weighting is on the meter.
keoj
Quick backround: I have been a Contax SLR owner for 20+ years. I am NOT a professional photographer but can identify one by his/her work when I see one. My own work is lacking in many dimensions which is the reason that I find this forum excellent. People seem (for the most part) to go out of their way to offer solid help and confirmation to problems that others are observing. I also have a digital camera (a much loved Sony for those instant feedback needs.....yup, I bought it because it had a Zeiss lens and it has not disappointed me).
I purchased the G2 for several reasons: 1)I wanted a new challenge. I've heard that this camera is a different animal with a learning curve. I want to learn a new tool. To be blunt, G2 owners seem to be a pretty passionate bunch and that stands on its own to me. 2)I want to spend less time thinking about a pile of gear and how to get it from point A to B without sacrificing negative quality that I've come to expect. 3) Value for the money. Just to be crass, the rebates that Contax are offering are too good to pass up. The value proposition (I hate using that term but its accurate in this case) of this camera relative to other rangefinders/P&S's is too good.
I am a manual focus fan so getting this camera was quite the departure for me. Mid-life crisis (my rebellious nature) or maturity about being open mindeded....not sure yet.
Onto the thread:
- Received the G2/45/200 last night.
- The camera drips quality. I'm an engineer and understand the subtle aspects of exhaustive design. This camera team did an excellent job. The fit,finish and form are a cut above what you see these days. Control layout looks okay but more comments after a roll or two. First impressions substantiate what others have said about camera being solid. The RX/RTSIII are built like small tanks, the design team for the G2 built what looks to be a different type of tank. Again first impressions.
The lens (and I'm sure that I'll get the 90 next) is what I was expecting. Excellent design. Again, after a roll or two, I'll offer more substantial comments. One observation about how stupid I am....open the lens and the f stop positioning was all off until I mated it onto the camera. It through me for a loop for a moment.
The manual is where I'm at right now. All the talk that I've seen about going through the manual carefully is right on target. A couple of the sequences or when focus occurs and what happens after a shot has occurred are very important. I'm starting to see where the learning curve exists on this camera. It seems that the CH/CL and AF options are all key to understand. Also, the suggestions and limits of the AF (such as repeating patterns, not using a horizontal horizon for AF, or beware of high glare points) are really key as well. These limits look okay (limitations exist for any camera). The quality of the manual is pretty good but again, I'm reading it very carefully before I start. This is pretty atypical for me....I usually one of those guys who gets a motherboard, puts a computer together, and spends a couple of hours (or more) trying to trace the subtlety of where I went wrong. READ THE MANUAL.
Okay, slide film is in the camera. Off to take a couple of shots to understand this AF thing. I'll be taking a lot of pics of walls, sticks in fields, bracketing, etc. I'm quite interested in learning what the weighting is on the meter.
keoj