I've had the G30 for a week or so, and can give you my impression so far. Unfortunately, I'm disappointed. I'm a hobbyist, not a pro, so I never thought I had the most critical eye. But, there is a significant and noticeable vignette effect when zooming in to full telephoto. About the last 10% of the zoom begins to have noticeable darkening around the edges. At full zoom, it leaves a "hot-spot" in the center. This shows up on the recorded video. I've tried disabling image stabilization, removing the UV filter, removing the lens hood, and setting it to full automatic. Nothing helps. It's distracting enough so that I'm sending the camera back for an exchange, though I have a gut feeling they may all be like this. For $1700, it's just not acceptable.
In addition, the recorded video is quite dark in my opinion, even in full daylight. I had to set the assignable buttons to raise the exposure +.5 or +.75, which really should be used on all outdoor shots I've tried it with. That has to be done every time I turn the camera on, there is no way I found to make it a permanent setting.
Other than that, the images are exceptionally sharp and clear, great image stabilization, fast focus, and I love all the options and settings. The camera has some heft and feels reasonably well built. I do wish there was an external button that could be used to take a still photo, but you have to use the LCD screen for that. I generally just use the viewfinder, so pulling out the LCD is not something I want to take the time to do.
I'm hoping I just got a bad one and that a replacement G30 will eliminate the vignetting and dark video. But if not, I'll return it for a refund. I can get similar video quality at 1/3 the cost.
