I am trying to help a friend...
Is the current focal length displayed aywhere? In other words, whenever you zoom in and out, is there an indicator display on the LCD monitor or on the top of the camera?

I'm not going to be much help here, but I did have the G3 (wonderful camera btw). I'm sure it does show the focal length. I'm not being "fresh" but I'm pretty sure it is in the manual. Of course, if you don't have the manual, then I don't know what to say. Try looking at the set up options because the zoom is set to certain focal lengths, so it must say it somewhere. I've had a DSLR for a few years now, so I don't want to get them confused. Maybe someone else will show up - hopefully.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Liz

I am trying to help a friend...
Is the current focal length displayed aywhere? In other words, whenever you zoom in and out, is there an indicator display on the LCD monitor or on the top of the camera?

That's a very interesting question. I'm curious why you want to know the exact focal length you're shooting at. I have had a Canon G2 for a long time and we have a G6 at the office. I looked hard at my G2, including trying the manual focus. I couldn't find any reference to the actual focal length. I also checked a Pentax compact digital I've been testing and it doesn't list the focal length anywhere, either. It appears that this isn't something that Pentax or Canon thinks photographers will need or want to know while they're shooting.

You can check later, on your computer. If you have a viewing program that shows EXIF data, like the Canon viewer, you can see what focal length each image was shot at. Otherwise, I think you can only guess-timate.