G9 Manual Focus

I'm in the final stages of choosing my new camera rig and have a question about manual focusing the G9 in an Ikelite housing.

I dive in the Pacific Northwest and we have lots of particulates in the water. I've only had a Sea & Sea DX-3000 which had a very hard time autofocusing and is difficult to manual focus in really junky water.

How easy / difficult is it to manual focus the G9? How well does autofocus work in murky water?

Thanks in advance,

Brian

Hi Easydiver,

I don't own one but I'll go out on a limb here and say its between hard and impossible. There are two ways to "manually focus" a digicam. One is menu driven, the other would be physically controlling the focus ring. The latter of these would be out because I've yet to see a digicam housing that had room in port for a focus ring. If its done via software then you end up making focus decisions based off of the LCD which leads to unfocused photos. I'm sure someone with a G9 can chime in at any time to tell me how off base I am.

New G9 owner here... yep MF doesn't seem of much use to me; just like on my SP-350.

HI easydiver

I'm romeo and write from Italy...so excuse me for my probably uncorrect english(I learned at school 20 years ago!)

I've the canon G7 and think that is the same with G9...

I've just bought the IKELITE housing...wondeeeerfuuullll !!! (at today still never dive with the camera inside...)

...but before I dive a lot of times with the camera in original canon housing.

I never use the manual focus because i don't need to do it.

If the water is really murky i don't like to take photos !!( I think that is impossible! )

but if the water is medium murky I can take always MACRO photos using a FOCUS LIGHT in my left hand and lighting the subject directly and precisely (I use the FA&MI 40 watt LED,but I never see this light in my photo...because I have an external flash...)

I think that this is the really solution...remember also,that Canon G7 (and sicurely also G9) can auto-focusing in MACRO mode starting from widest zoom position to 2/3 of the total zoom range(very very wonderful !!!) I never see this in other cameras I had before(nikon coolpix 5400 , sea&sea 8000 G)

hoping that this can help you

bye from italy

by romeo

...ANYWAY...

(just look for this)

I have the manual focus control in my IKELITE housing

(I have to push the MF button,and then turn the ring that stay around the five buttons near the LCD display-I can do this with the housing too!)

I think(but I'm not shure !! ) that is the same with G9

Also I think (and now I'm shure)that I'll never use it !

byeeeeeeeeeeee

romeo

Hey!

A newbie reply here. I've been using the G7 with Canon WP-DC11 housing the past season. I suspect it's more or less the same with G9.

You can (in theory) focus manually the G7 even though it's controlled by the rotating ring. You do that by pressing the direct print button in the upper left corner of the back panel. While holding it you can adjust the focus by pressing the buttons as if they were a normal 4way control ones. I believe they designed it that way especially so it can be used with housings and rain cases.

HOWEVER - Just like Romeo I've never used this option underwater for two main reasons:

1. I am not a SCUBA diver and i take all my photos on freediving. Therefore I don't usually have the time to adjust it correctly... Even on dry land it takes some time to adjust.

2. It requires both my hands - impossible.

So, if manual focus is an issue, I personally wouldn't go for the G7/G9.