G1 (cont'd)

[Jeffrey Frey <jeff@eng.umd.edu>]

I took the G1 to a charged Village Council meeting yesterday (democracy in
action) to test it in action.  Exposure conditions were about 1/50 at 2.8
with ISO400.  The noise is really quite noticeable; as mentioned, it is more
the nature (frequency and length of time) than amplitude that makes it so. 
With a manual-advance camera, you can at least drop the camera from your eye
and advance the film slowly after you've taken the picture; with the G1 and
similar cameras, you're stuck with the whole series of snicks that wind the
film, wind the shutter, focus the lens, and take the picture.

Also, I realized I don't know what the field of view of the TTL meter is,
rather an important point in contrasty low-light situations.  The camera manual
labels the rectangle in the center of the viewfinder as the AF area only, and
nowhere else shows a drawing of the actual TTL area.  Nor does the G1 sale
brochure.  Anybody know?

Another interesting point is that the AF is contrast-sensitive, and will fail
(flashing LCDs in viewfinder and a locked shutter button) if contrast is
inadequate within the AF area (also a function of light level).  You cannot
focus, therefore, on someone's hair, or the skin on a cheek, etc.  Contrast is
enhanced, of course, by focusing on the boundary between such an area and
another area--the rim of a person's head, for example.  This is how most of
us focus our Leicas in such situations.  But with the G1, the question is--when
you do this, what ARE you focusing on?  The hair, the contrasting area in 
back of it (which might be twenty feet in back of it), or.....?  I don't see
this in the manual either.  

Jeff