G12: Rural Life Museum

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 Trying out a new piece of photo gear at the Rural Life Museum has become standard procedure so it was natural to take the new G12 there. I was surprised to find that the museum has been expanded considerably since my last visit. My goal was not so much to produce prize winning photos as it was to become familiar with the G12. To give the factory settings a fair chance, I did not change any of the image settings. I began by shooting in RAW+JPEG at ISO 80 and using Aperture priority with the small Flexizone focus rectangle centered – standard operating procedure for me. After a while, I began increasing the ISO setting and included a number of shots using Auto ISO. For the most part, I liked the results.  All shots shown here are untouched from the in-camera JPEG but downsized for web display (click for 1024x768 size).

I like the old blacksmith shop but it is dark inside and no smithing there today.

This old tool grinder scene on the outside of the blacksmith shop was partially in the sun and partially shaded. 

A scene inside the blacksmith shop shot at ISO 1600, 1/60, f4.

An inside scene with widely varying degrees of available light, ISO 800, 1/30, f2.8.  None of the old buildings have artificial lighting so there were many shots taken at ISO 1000+. I intentionally looked for scenes of very high contrast just to see how the G12 would handle the situation.

Another scene of mixed lighting intensity.  I shot this with RAW+JPEG and will try to recover some detail after Adobe updates Camera Raw for the G12.

Although I did not carry a tripod, I was able to brace the G12 well enough to try a few High Dynamic Range (HDR) shots like the one above. In the G12, HDR is one of the Scene modes and there do not appear to be many options. G12 HDR works – sort of. On examining a few HDR efforts, it seems to me that the G12 HDR is primarily tuned to bringing out the shadows but does not significantly reduce (otherwise) blown highlights.

Some detail, ISO 80, 1/60, f2.8, focal length 6.1mm (wide angle). 

Had to try the "Nostalgic" setting in SCR mode.

On this day, I was out and about for two hours. I took 66 RAW+JPEG shots plus another 15 JPEG only. Previously I had taken 16 RAW+JPEG shots. The G12 was turned on all the time at Rural Life with the display turned on and image stabilization turned to the shoot only setting. The battery indicator did not change from full charge although obviously it was partially discharged.

All in all, I was relatively pleased with the G12 results and handling.  I was very happy to use the articulated screen and I even forgot about the "grainy" plastic finish!

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