Sorry for not responding sooner.

It turns out that B is only available in Manual mode and not, as you might expect, in Shutter-Priority mode too. Actually, perhaps that does make sense after all… Note also that, according to the manual, B will only work for up to 4 minutes. I’ve never had occasion to use it myself, so can’t comment further.

If you’ve not already found it, you’ll probably benefit from downloading the manual. Visit the official product page and then click the Manuals tab. Then follow the link for the “Operating Instructions”. The final step doesn’t seem to be working today, but hopefully that’s just a weekend server glitch which will be picked up when they return to work tomorrow…

Just bought this and I’m really impressed with it. I was wondering if you knew how to change sRGB to Adobe RGB and keep that as a default.

Thanks.
Tim

> How is the picture quality compared to your canon?

I’ll be honest – I’ve not done any like-for-like comparisons. However, my impression is that the quality of the standard kit lens is high (relative to my previous lenses).

> High ISO noise?

Your best bet here, probably, is to (re)visit DPReview where their original preview has now been upgraded to a full review, including coverage of performance at high ISO’s.

> I heard that there is an adapter available so you can use your canon lenses with the G1, but I could be mistaken.

I know that there are a number of adaptor rings coming to market, though I’ve not really been looking at them so I can’t comment on them. (The only Canon lens I’d want to keep is the Sigma 10-20, which I leave on my EOS 350D most of the time. However, I think it would function as a 20-40 on the G1, so it wouldn’t be much of a bonus. I think I’ll wait to see what wide lenses are released specially for the G1. Additionally, the Sigma is quite large and part of my rationale for going to the G1 was to reduce both the bulk and weight of gear I have to carry around.)

For more coverage of adaptor rings, you could check these links:

• At The Online Photographer, Mike Johnston has two posts concerning rings on 2009-02-01 and 2009-01-27 . It would be worth looking over the comments too.
• At Digital Outback Photo, Uwe Steinmueller has a G1 “diary” page.

There’s probably more if you sniff around the interwebs, but these are ones I recall seeing recently.

> How loud is the camera?

That depends on whether you go for the red one or the black one!

Seriously though, I’d say it’s no louder than an “ordinary” SLR. The distinctive thing about it is that it’s a short, sharp click, rather than the more drawn out shutter release noise of a regular SLR.

To let you hear what I mean, I’ve recorded an MP3 for you to listen to. It contains four bursts from: (1) my new G1, (2) my older Canon EOS 350D, (3) my Canon PowerShot G9 and (4) a repeat of the G1 again. Each camera was put into burst mode and I pressed and held the shutter until the buffer filled and the camera then shot one more frame in isolation. There’s approximately 1 second between each section and the total recording is just under 30 seconds long. Each burst was recorded at the same recording level – as part of the same sequence in fact. The recording was made in the free Audacity software. Each camera was held about two inches from the microphone on my iMac. In short, I’ve tried to be consistent.

The sample won’t really tell you how loud the G1 is in absolute terms (how loud is the playback set on your computer?), but if you can relate to the noise from either the EOS 350D or the PowerShot G9, then it should give you a rough idea.

Here’s the shutter sample file.

Remember, it’ll probably sound quite a bit louder when you’re in the privacy of your computer den than when you’re outside, surrounded by the the hubbub of the streets.

> Would you be able to use it on a crowded street with out scaring people away, like my 5D does?

Are you sure that it’s the 5D that’s scaring people?

I guess that you probably could use it fairly discretely if the street was indeed crowded. I took it into work with me today and was out with it at lunchtime. I’m not a street shooter, but I reckon I went fairly unnoticed.

> Good write up though. I really like the honesty of it. Thanks Gary!

Thanks – it was quite a lot of work!

I’m going to try to get a few images posted next, though it will be a day or two before they appear. But I’ve decided that they’re my next priority… (I think that I should be able to manage that before something else pops up!)