90% – The G11 is DSLR-expensive, but you can’t fault the pictures it takes.

The G11 is an intimidating camera. Hand it to someone inexperienced and it’s likely they’ll hand it straight back. The top is scattered with dials controlling everything from the shooting mode, exposure compensation and even – unusually – ISO.
This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it makes the G11 – already the biggest, heaviest camera here – about as user-friendly as a Boeing 747, at least for beginners. On the other hand, for photographers who understand the basics, it makes setting up a shot and compensating for different subjects and lighting conditions an absolute snap.

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Aperture, Business, Digital single-lens reflex camera, Exposure compensation, Film speed, International Business and Trade, International Organization for Standardization - ISO, Tools and Equipment

Pierre Contant took the G11 for a challenge, and here is the highlights of his thoughts:
My recent purchase of a Canon G11 P&S camera has raised a few eyebrows. Why would I go from a Nikon D300 to a Canon G11? Why not a D700 or even jump ship to a 5D? First thing is I didn’t replace my D300 for a G11. I got the G11 to compliment my existing equipment and more importantly I purchased it to bring as my main camera on my trip to Cuba, instead of lugging around my 30lbs camera bag.

The Verdict
After one week in Cuba shooting the G11 and a borrowed D10 and processing the images, here are my thoughts.

From a stress point a view, it was a pleasure to be on a trip and not have to worry about $7k of equipment which I carry most of it when I travel. All I had was a small belt bag with the camera, spare battery and memory cards. On the beach or near the pool I didn’t care about the sand or the saltwater, the D10 could take it all.

The G11 clearly exceeded my expectations. In fact, the only time I wish I had my DSLR was when I was in Havana where my Tokina 11-16 would have come in handy. Although P&S are slow, I managed to capture all but one key shot during the dolphin show. The G11 has a handy Quick Shot setting for action.

The Canon G11 is truly an amazing camera. Interestingly Canon has gone from 12 MP (G9), 14 MP (G10) down to 10 MP on the G11. They have improved image quality and noise reduction to produce superlative quality images on 10 MP, busting the myth that more Megapixels is better.

Camera, Canon, CanonG11, Cuba, Digital single-lens reflex camera, Havana, Nikon D300, Tokina

t’s fat. It’s $500. It takes fantastic photographs.

The G11 is Canon’s top-of-the-line point-and-shoot. It occupies a sorta strange spot, towering over the average point-and-shoot in basically every metric—image quality, size, weight and price—but sits just below entry-level DSLRs and more recently, micro four thirds cameras.

So, there are two ways to look at the G11: It’s an amazing street camera. More discreet than a DSLR, but more powerful than a run-of-the-mill point-and-shoot. You can’t stuff it in your jeans pocket, but that’s fine, because you want to sling it over your shoulder anyways. The other way is that you can buy a more versatile entry-level DSLR that’s not much larger for around the same price, especially if you step back a generation or so.

Okay, but do I buy it?
I like this camera a lot. It’s what I’d reach for whenever I wouldn’t feel like tugging along a honkin’ DSLR, and I’d feel like I wasn’t sacrificing too much. The real question, I think, it how it stacks up against Panasonic’s Lumix LX3, which is in the same demographic—a lauded $500 point-and-shoot—and outgunned the G10 in many respects (though the G10 tried to cram 14 megapixels onto the same-sized sensor the G11 only squeezes 10 megapixels onto). The slightly cheaper S90 offers the same sensor as the G11 as well, and inside of a pocketable body—though you lose perks like the dedicated control dials and a viewfinder, as far as that’s a perk on the G11.

If you do buy the G11, you won’t regret it—you’ll be too busy taking pictures.

+ Photographs are top-notch for a compact camera

+ Solid low-light performance

+ Built to smash into people’s spaces and live to smash again

- It’s huge

- The viewfinder is basically useless

Read the full review on Gizmodo

Camera, Canon, Digital single-lens reflex camera, Lumix, Micro Four Thirds system, Panasonic Corporation, Photography, Point-and-shoot camera

For years, a G-series Powershot has been the flagship of the Canon compact digital fleet – starting with the G1 about mid-year 2000, all have featured RAW and JPEG shooting formats along with full manual controls. As the line progressed, resolution predictably moved higher and new and/or additional features or upgrades to existing systems found their way into subsequent models. Last year, the PowerShot G10 hit the streets packing 14.7 megapixel resolution on a 1/1.7 inch sensor, Canon’s current generation DIGIC IV processor and a 3.0 inch LCD monitor.
Now, Canon has introduced the PowerShot G11: “Designed for those looking for a pocket-sized camera with SLR functionality, this new powerful camera is ideal for the consumer who is looking to capture beautiful landscapes and professional portraits.”

CONCLUSIONS
When Canon brought out the successor to the G10 and dropped resolution from 14.7 to 10 megapixels, some eyebrows may have been raised. The trend in compact digitals has been to keep bumping up resolution (while not necessarily keeping pace with physical sensor size), but Canon heard some grumbling about the G10’s noise performance and, to their credit, responded.

The G11 is a wonderful combination of a lens with very good optical performance, good auto focus and shutter performance, and lowered resolution on the same physical-sized sensor that produces excellent noise performance for a compact digital. Image quality from the G11 is the best overall of any compact digital I’ve ever reviewed – at 100% enlargements the images are quite clean, without the artifacts that seem to pop up to one degree or another in the other guys.

The viewfinder is poor for image composition due to its inaccuracy (77% coverage), but that’s about the end of the gripes for this camera. It’s bigger and heavier than the typical 5x point and shoots and the MSRP is bumping entry-level DSLR territory at $500, but the camera offers something for everyone – full auto controls, scene shooting options, face detection et.al. for the new user, and manual controls with DSLR-like adjustability (and RAW) for the more experienced shooter.

Pros:

Excellent image quality
Good AF and shutter performance
Excellent ISO performance
RAW shooting option

Cons:

Inaccurate viewfinder
Large, heavy compared to most compacts
Expensive

Read the full review on Digital Camera Review

Arts, Camera, Canon, DIGIC, Digital camera, Digital single-lens reflex camera, Liquid crystal display, Photography