Battery Compartment

The battery fits into a compartment in the base of the hand grip. The G3 has a simpler design without the lock seen on the G2 (which was unnecessary). The battery is held in place with a small brown spring clip, just rotate it slightly and the battery will pop out. The G3 (just like the G1 / G2 / EOS-D30 / EOS-D60) takes the Canon BP-511 (or BP-512; same capacity) Lithium-Ion battery pack which is rated at 7.4 V, 1100 mAh (8 Wh).

The battery pack charges in-camera using the supplied AC adapter / charger which simple plugs into the side of the camera. The orange lamp on the viewfinder flashes during charging and goes steady once fully charged. Optional double battery charger / car charger can also be purchased.

Compact Flash Compartment

Behind a plastic compartment door is the Compact Flash slot. The G3 can take both CF Type I and II cards and is fully compatible with the 340 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB IBM Microdrive. If the compartment door is opened while the camera is on the camera will shutdown, if there are any images still being written to the Compact Flash card a loud tone will sound until complete.

Note that in our tests the camera appeared to work perfectly well with cards formatted to the FAT32 filesystem, providing access to cards greater than 2 GB.

Connections

Gone is the weak rubber door of the G2, replaced with a hinged plastic door (although still with a hard rubber backing). Behind this door are the DC-IN, USB and A/V Out connectors. Note that the supplied USB cable can be used to direct print to compatible Canon printers. I'm glad to see Canon listened to the complaints of reviewers and owners and have improved the layout and quality of the connections compartment.

Lens

The G3 has a brand new four times optical zoom lens with an equivalent zoom range of 35 to 140 mm. Maximum aperture is F2.0 at wide angle and F3.0 at telephoto, which is respectable considering the zoom range. The lens barrel itself is thinner in construction to the G2 (and looks better for it) it also now has two moving barrel elements rather than the one.

Lens Ring / Optional Accessory Lens

The G3 has a new quick-release bayonet removable lens ring, simply hold the ring release button and turn the ring anticlockwise. Once removed the standard lens ring can then be replaced with the LA-DC58B Conversion Lens Adapter which provides a 58 mm thread onto which you can mount one of the available optional lenses (shown with the Wide Converter WC-DC58N below).

Base / Tripod Mount

On the base of the camera is a metal tripod mount, and yet again it's not positioned in line with the lens but then again is at least far enough away from the battery compartment to make it possible to change the battery with the camera on a tripod. There is sufficient area around the mount to provide firm attachment of most tripod quick release plates.

Remote Control

Supplied with the camera is this handy Infrared remote control, with a 5 m range it can be used to remotely fire the shutter release, control the zoom and other menu options or as a control for playback (say of a slideshow on a TV screen) with thumbnail, zoom and DISPLAY buttons also available. Kudos for the inclusion of this useful accessory.

Internal Flash / Auto Focus Assist Lamp

The G3's flash has a specified range of 0.7 - 5.0 m (2.3 - 16.4 ft) at wide angle and 0.7 - 4.0 m (2.3 - 13.1 ft) at telephoto, which almost identical to the G2. Surprising consider the smaller size of the flash unit. There's no doubt the new slimline flash unit adds to the looks of the G3, it appears to be the same unit used in the PowerShot S45. Just like the G2 you can also shoot in continuous mode with the flash enabled, approximately one frame every two seconds.