Re low light focus:
Photography has been a lifelong hobby; I love to take candids and I have always wanted a camera that was small enough to take anywhere, fast enough for candids, with high image quality and manual features beyond a point & shoot. I have finally found it in this camera. I have already taken hundreds of pictures and the quality has been great. But I was perplexed why most reviews complained about the poor ability of the camera to focus indoors while others have said they get perfect results.
In fact the autofocus light does continue to blink annoyingly on most indoor shots, even in good lighting, indicating that the autofocus is not locked . But the camera allows you to take the shot anyway and the results always appear to be in focus.. I tried shots even in total darkness (using flash, of course) and the results are fine, despite the fact that the autofocus indicator says that focus in not locked.
How could this be? To see if the autofocus was really working in the dark I tried a simple test. I took a picture in a poorly lit room with the focus light indicating focus was not locked and another of the same subject with the lights turned up, allowing me to lock focus. Much to my surprise I found negligible difference in sharpness- To prove that the camera lens was not pre-focused before turning out the lights I first locked focus on a subject 18 feet away, then darkened the room, released the focus lock and shot a subject at 4’ - this insured that the lens had to work in the dark almost instantly to autofocus- and it did. (To check if result was due to depth of field I also tried a test shot by locking focus on the subject at 18 ft then shooting the subject at 4 feet without releasing the focus lock. [See page 41 of the manual]- This shot was blurred as expected, proving that the previous result was not due to a large depth of field ) The results are posted here: http://home.comcast.net/~russo857/G400. They were taken at full telephoto
I repeated this several times with the similar results however very close examination shows that some of the shots taken with the autofocus locked seem slightly sharper than those in which the autofocus cannot lock. Even when the autofocus could not lock, some low light pictures seem a bit sharper than those taken in total darkness. But I find the differences are negligible - if you can find them at all- and only visible with high magnification and close examination. Also, I took these shots in either total darkness or very low light- conditions which would be a challenge for any camera. This camera’s autofocus in low light actually exceeded my expectation. But you need to get past the fact that the camera is indicating the focus cannot lock and simply look at the results.
Pros
Very small & light weight
Super fast response: opening, closing, and shot to shot
Well priced
Packed with manual features
High image quality: very good sharpness and excellent color accuracy
Easy to use – Menu is a bit complex but fine once you are used to it
Strudy construction
Cons
Poor Minolta customer service
No printed manual
Camera front is easily scratched
Problems:
none
Photography has been a lifelong hobby; I love to take candids and I have always wanted a camera that was small enough to take anywhere, fast enough for candids, with high image quality and manual features beyond a point & shoot. I have finally found it in this camera. I have already taken hundreds of pictures and the quality has been great. But I was perplexed why most reviews complained about the poor ability of the camera to focus indoors while others have said they get perfect results.
In fact the autofocus light does continue to blink annoyingly on most indoor shots, even in good lighting, indicating that the autofocus is not locked . But the camera allows you to take the shot anyway and the results always appear to be in focus.. I tried shots even in total darkness (using flash, of course) and the results are fine, despite the fact that the autofocus indicator says that focus in not locked.
How could this be? To see if the autofocus was really working in the dark I tried a simple test. I took a picture in a poorly lit room with the focus light indicating focus was not locked and another of the same subject with the lights turned up, allowing me to lock focus. Much to my surprise I found negligible difference in sharpness- To prove that the camera lens was not pre-focused before turning out the lights I first locked focus on a subject 18 feet away, then darkened the room, released the focus lock and shot a subject at 4’ - this insured that the lens had to work in the dark almost instantly to autofocus- and it did. (To check if result was due to depth of field I also tried a test shot by locking focus on the subject at 18 ft then shooting the subject at 4 feet without releasing the focus lock. [See page 41 of the manual]- This shot was blurred as expected, proving that the previous result was not due to a large depth of field ) The results are posted here: http://home.comcast.net/~russo857/G400. They were taken at full telephoto
I repeated this several times with the similar results however very close examination shows that some of the shots taken with the autofocus locked seem slightly sharper than those in which the autofocus cannot lock. Even when the autofocus could not lock, some low light pictures seem a bit sharper than those taken in total darkness. But I find the differences are negligible - if you can find them at all- and only visible with high magnification and close examination. Also, I took these shots in either total darkness or very low light- conditions which would be a challenge for any camera. This camera’s autofocus in low light actually exceeded my expectation. But you need to get past the fact that the camera is indicating the focus cannot lock and simply look at the results.
Pros
Very small & light weight
Super fast response: opening, closing, and shot to shot
Well priced
Packed with manual features
High image quality: very good sharpness and excellent color accuracy
Easy to use – Menu is a bit complex but fine once you are used to it
Strudy construction
Cons
Poor Minolta customer service
No printed manual
Camera front is easily scratched
Problems:
none