Are Blured backgrounds possible on G3?

[DarrenC]

I am considering getting a G3/G5, but was dissapointed when reading a review of the G3 at www.photo.net saying that it wasn't possible to get a good DOF to create a blured background for portraits.

If anyone has a G3, can you please let me know your comments on this, and if possible give either some examples, or a link with some ?

Cheers,
Darren.

The review is at: http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/g3/
It says:
"Av" (Aperture Priority): the opposite of "Tv" mode, you pick the f-stop and the camera picks the shutter speed. I never use this setting on the G3, or on any non-SLR digital camera. Its main use is to create or reduce depth of field, to make a background blurry for a portrait, for example. But with the HUGE depth of field that fixed lens digital cameras have, you can't really do it very well, and the G3 is no different in this regard.

[jazcan]

First of all, let me say that by no means of the imagination am I a photographer. I have had my G3 for 2 months and have taken quite a few pictures.
Blurred backgrounds are definitely possible on the G3. The only problem that I have read about and that seems to come up in the forums is that it is much better with this effect if the subject you are shooting is close. If you intend on taking a lot of close-up portraits of people (I have taken many of my children but do not post them on the internet) then you can definitely get a nice blurred background. If you plan on doing Macro shots (I have done some on flowers) then you can also get a fairly reasonable blurred background. I have more focus issues with Macro shots than anything else but that is usually when I try to do them handheld.
If you want to get a blurred background on a subject that is farther away then that is where you will run into trouble. I have not really seen any examples of this. Here are two shots from my gallery demonstrating the blurred background in a macro-

[Manoa]

Wiith ANY camera, you do have to be close enough to your subject relatively speaking so the background will be outside the depth of field and hence blurred. If your subject and background are both several feet away, your focus gets closer to "infinity" and the depth of field is increased putting subject and background in focus-- in other words, the camera focuses on both as being "far away". Wider apatures and longer focal lengths help to narrow depth of field, so a camera like the G3 with 4x zoon and 2.0/3.0 apeture will be better at limiting depth of field (blurring background) than most.

[James aka Butch]

Here's a nice shot from a G2 for P.O.T.D. for June 24.

<http://www.benel.com/powershot/pic-of-the-day.php>

8)

[Sabbath]

Take a look and make your conclusions


Pedro Rodrigues
http://www.pedro.dk3.com