Manual Control Options
There aren’t very many manual controls on the GE G1 despite the camera icon with an “M” next to it. GE calls this a Manual mode, but it’s not. Perhaps they picked up this bad habit from other camera manufacturers who seem to have changed their definition of “manual.” Anyway, in this mode the most manual controls are available. There isn’t full exposure control, although slow shutter speeds can be manually selected. The following paragraphs describe the available manual controls.
Focus
Auto Focus (7.0)
The GE G1 has a nine-point Auto Focus system that is fully accessible in the “multi” AF mode, but can also be set to “single” so the focus remains in the center at all times. The camera can focus as close as 60 centimeters normally and can get even closer when the Macro mode is activated. The Macro mode is set with the right side of the multi-selector: it can focus as close as 5 centimeters when the lens is zoomed out and 25 centimeters when zoomed in. The Macro mode works well, although it doesn’t automatically disable the flash like some cameras. Users must be sure to disable the flash manually because it overexposes anything too close to it. An Auto Focus assist lamp can be turned on and off in the Photo menu. This shines from the front of the camera as a beam of orange light.
There is a Continuous Auto Focus mode in the Photo menu, but it isn’t accessible in the still image exposure modes. It has options to turn on and off, but they couldn’t be selected. I tried different things to make it accessible: turning off the Macro mode, turning off the assist lamp, changing the Metering mode, tweaking the Burst modes, etc. I consulted the user manual, as those often dispel such mysteries. Alas, the G1’s incredibly basic user manual only stated what I knew: that there were on and off options. Wow. The Continuous Auto Focus can be turned on and off in the Movie mode and only the Movie mode. That’s it.
Someone at GE figured out that face detection is this year’s hot must-have feature. However, the GE G1’s is a very primitive version. There is a designated Face Detection button on the back of the camera. When it is pushed, a scary smiley face appears: its eyes look like frowns and it has lines around the mouth that make it look like it has chubby cheeks. It’s a frightening graphic if you ask me. Once that appears, it takes a few seconds to find the faces in the frame, if it can find them at all. If it’s a big group picture with several faces far away, good luck. The camera has a hard time with small faces; it does best when the face takes up at least a quarter of the screen. It also had a hard time with groups. I could only get it to recognize one face at a time, although the user manual has an example photo with four kids’ faces framed. Once the camera recognized a face, the scary smiley would disappear and a box would appear around the face. The G1 tracked the face well but if it loses it the scary graphic comes back. To add on to these inconveniences, after a picture is taken with the face detection the camera disables the setting. So if the user wants to snap more than one picture with face detection, they will have to reset the button before each shot.
Manual Focus (0.0)
The GE G1 does not have a Manual Focus mode.
ISO (7.75)
The GE G1’s sensitivity options are available in the Func/OK menu. The Auto option will probably be the most frequently used setting with the point-and-shoot crowd, but there is a healthy selection of manual settings too: ISO 80 to 1600 (in full stops). Check out the Testing/Performance section of this review to see how the ISO setting affects this camera's dynamic range and noise characteristics.
White Balance (7.0)
In the Func/OK menu is a decent list of white balance options: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Fluorescent CWF, Incandescent, and Manual. As users scroll through these, a live preview shows how the scene is affected. The manual white balance is easy to set; there are on-screen directions that prompt users to push the Menu button to set the white balance.
Exposure (7.25)
The exposure cannot be entirely manually adjusted. There is a slow shutter option that lengthens the exposure time in the Manual mode, but there is no control over the aperture and shorter shutter speeds. There is an exposure compensation option available by pushing the top portion of the multi-selector. When pushed, a scale appears with a +/- 2 scale in third increments. Pushing the right and left sides of the selector moves through the scale and changes the live preview as well. An exposure histogram can be displayed by selecting that option in the Photo menu. The histogram is small and located in the middle of the right third of the screen. If shooting under bright sunlight or white subjects, the histogram is hardly visible – this is unfortunate because that’s the best time to use it. The histogram is surrounded by a white rectangle and yellow shows the graph portion.
Metering (7.0)
There are three metering modes available in the Recording menu. AI AE, or Artificial Intelligence Auto Exposure, is the default metering mode that measures from spots around the entire frame. The Center-Weighted Average mode gathers exposure information only from a group of spots in the middle. The Spot mode meters from a very small portion of the center. Some other digital cameras can move the spot metering around the frame, but the G1’s spot metering is fixed to the center.
Shutter Speed (2.0)
For being a slim point-and-shoot digital camera, the GE G1 has an impressive shutter speed range. It can snap as fast as 1/2000th of a second or as slow as 30 seconds. There isn’t any control over the shorter shutter speeds, but there is a Slow Shutter option available in the photo menu that allows users to manually choose a shutter speed from 2-30 seconds. The Slow Shutter can be turned off. In the Automatic and other preset modes, the exposure time is limited to 4-1/2000th of a second. This is the typical range of most automatic compact digital cameras.
Aperture (0.0)
The GE G1 doesn’t have an impressive lens. The largest aperture possible is f/3.5 when the lens is zoomed out and f/4.3 when it is zoomed in. The smallest the aperture goes is f/5.7 wide and f/7.1 telephoto. Many digital cameras have wider f/2.8 apertures, although most internal lenses settle for sub-par f/3.5 maximum settings. The lens does fare better at the telephoto end, where many competitors shrink even smaller than f/4.3.
