Panasonic G1

[DougL]

I recently received the G1 and I have a question that I cannot resolve. Using out-of-the-box settings, when I press the shutter button half-way to focus, in the viewfinder I am shown a group of boxes with green frame lines. The number of boxes changes, as does the position of the boxes on the screen. Pressing the shutter button repeatedly changes the number and position of the boxes.

What is this? I cannot find a reference or a picture in the manual.

[Er1kksen]

I recently received the G1 and I have a question that I cannot resolve. Using out-of-the-box settings, when I press the shutter button half-way to focus, in the viewfinder I am shown a group of boxes with green frame lines. The number of boxes changes, as does the position of the boxes on the screen. Pressing the shutter button repeatedly changes the number and position of the boxes.

What is this? I cannot find a reference or a picture in the manual.

The green boxes show the points of focus. The portions of the subject under any of those boxes should be in focus under max aperture. Of course, at smaller apertures even more of the final image may actually be in focus. You can set the camera to only focus on the center point if you wish. You can also set the camera to focus on the center point, lock onto whatever it was focused on, and then track the subject as it moves around the frame, provided that it doesn't go too fast. There are some interesting new possibilities for the CDAF system used by this camera.

[DougL]

Thank you. I suspected that it had to do either with focus or metering. I gather this is a form of focus where the camera takes a guess as to what it is in the scene that the shooter finds interesting and focuses accordingly.

Now I know what to disable.

[Er1kksen]

That is essentially the case. The higher-end nikons with their 51-point arrays do essentially the same thing, but in a speedier manner and using a different method to confirm focus (SLRs use swifter phase-detect while the G1 uses more accurate contrast-detect).

Concerning metering, I believe there are options to link the metering to the focus point, as well as the usual matrix metering, centerweighted metering, and spot metering options.