My review of the Canon G11- it can shoot around corners

Its very nice, let me say that first off, its heavy, heavier than the average compact camera, but then again, there is alot more under the hood too. It feels good in the hand, well built and solid, bristling with buttons and dials, very much looking the part of the serious camera. To start there is the large 28mm f2.8 lens hiding behind its Star Trek door, once the power button is pressed the doors disappear and out slides the lens, all in the blink of an eye, not sure on the actual figures, but I’d say start-up time: 1 second. The lens is very clear and the zoom is reasonable, 28-150mm or there abouts, enough for your average walk in the park.

Next thing you will notice is the large rotating swinging 3′ LCD Display on the back of the G11, its big bright and you can twist and turn it so as to be able to shoot from any angle, you could even use it to shoot around a corner. The thing I really love about the hinged Display is that you can shoot from waist height composing in the viewfinder much as you would with an old Hasselblad. Also if you are shooting people and are trying to be discreet by not holding a camera up to your face this camera works well. It comes with a traditional “Tourist” strap, one that holds the camera from the top left and right corner, so if you hang it over your head, you get “The Tourist” effect…

There is also a traditional viewfinder, although it is quite small and not very bright, I’d imagine that most users of the G11 will opt for the new norm in photography, composing the photo in the LCD at arms length. The viewfinder in the G11 also suffers that when at wide angle, the top of the lens can just be seen in the bottom of the viewfinder, a minor inconsideration that in no way affects the images.

On the top and back panels of the G11’s rugged alloy body are the controls, set out in a traditional manner harking back to the era of pre-electronic film cameras. An outter flat dial for the ISO, with a raised inner dial for the function settings. This camera is loaded with more features and functions than you can shake a barn full of ponies at and I am not going to get into them as the only functions I am interested in are Aperture, Shutter and Focus. All three of these are achieved by the same jog dial on the back of the camera, this disappoints a little, but once I got the hang of switching between the function settings with the botton just above the dial, I was able to quickly make manual adjustments to the aperture and shutter, so far I have just let the focus take care of itself, the only use I can see for the manual focus option is when using the G11 for Macro photos.

Now all that is very fine and nice, but what about the IMAGE QUALITY. In a nutshell: bloody good.

By reducing the pixel count from 15 in the g10 to 10 in the G11 Canon have been able to reduce the amount of noise created. Now noise is a nasty thing, its the kinda of snowy effect that you see in photos shot in low light or at high ISOs. Canon have been having a real problem with their low end camera range, lots and lots of noise. Basically they were trying to get too many MegaPixels into too small a sensor. And really if you ask any professional photographer 15Megapixels is ridicoulous in point and shoot, you only need 10!

Well I have not shot too much with it maybe 500 images, but from what I have seen shooting over a range of different conditions and exposures, looks good. The only noise I saw was at 1600ISO shooting at night. The rest of the images were clear, well focused and sharp. One small comment on the Video, Canon have not included the full HD1040 features on this camera, I guess they have to hold something back for the g12…

So yes I am very happy with this camera and will be recommending them to anyone who wants an ADVANCED point and shoot compact camera. I can’t wait to get the underwater housing!

If your looking for a full TECHNICAL review of the G11 check out DPReview’s here.