Canon PowerShot G11 10MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Stabilized Zoom and 2.8-inch articulating LCD
Canon PowerShot G11 10MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Stabilized Zoom and 2.8-inch articulating LCD
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- New 10-megapixel High Sensitivity System; DIGIC 4 Image Processor
- Bright 2.8-inch Vari-Angle PureColor System LCD plus optical viewfinder
- Wide-angle 5x optical zoom (equivalent to 28-140mm); Canon's Optical Image Stabilizer
- Improved Smart AUTO intelligently selects from 22 predefined shooting situations
- RAW + JPEG shooting and recording modes; capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
Brand : Canon
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,Point & Shoot Digital Cameras
Rating : 4
Review Count : 270
Canon PowerShot G11 10MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Stabilized Zoom and 2.8-inch articulating LCD
- A few days hands-on with a new camera have allowed me to form some opinions. Overall I am very impressed, the camera looks to be everything I wanted. Build quality appears to be up to the G-series standard. The wider lens gained with the G10 and carried over to the G11 is distinct improvement. Photo quality meets my high expectations, what else do you want to know?I am not writing this entry as a complete review, the digital photography websites will do a far more thorough job of that. But I do have some comments on the camera I wanted to put here. Much of my comparison is against the Powershot G9, as I never have never seriously used the G10.After using the Canon G9 for so long I have had no issue in learning the controls of the G11, most are located in the same places, the menus are mostly unchanged. This was true from the very first frame when I was using the camera in the dark. The only real difference is in the top wheels, where exposure compensation is now a direct control and not a rear thumbwheel action. Considering how often I use this function the top wheel is a very welcome improvement. ISO gain is below the main function wheel, something that has the benefit of being harder to actuate. I had a few instances on the G9 of finding I was using a high ISO when I wanted low ISO as this wheel had gotten accidentally changed.The camera is a bit larger than the G9, most of that seems to be front to back. The data sheet shows the camera to be 5mm (1/4\") thicker than my G9, you feel that 5mm when gripping the camera. It takes a larger pocket to hold the G11. The camera just fit in the shirt pocket of the aloha shirt I was wearing when unpacking the camera, but barely, not certain I would call this a pocket camera.The return of the flip-out viewscreen is welcome, but with mixed feelings. The loss of 0.2\" in screen size from the G9 is not an issue, despite some negative comments I have read on other sites. I enjoy the ability to compose a photo with the camera held over my head or close to the ground. This is something I loved about my old Nikon 995 and allows some great creative possibilities. I worry a bit about the robustness of the screen assembly, will I inadvertently damage the screen or the swivel mechanism?I do forget that the screen can be swung out. At least twice already I have found myself in an uncomfortable position trying to compose a frame before realizing I can just flip out the screen and stop straining my neck. Duh!The screen is just beautiful, nice color, bright and with very high resolution. Some difficulty seeing the screen in full sunlight unless you turn up the brightness all the way, annoying to do when the setting is buried in a menu. The screen also shows every little greasy fingerprint, it is nearly impossible to avoid putting a finger on the screen during handling.One price of the larger area taken up by the flip-out viewscreen is a smaller area for the rear panel controls. They are certainly more compact than the G9, I have had some issues with my fat thumb when using the wheel and rocker. I suspect these will go away as I become more practiced with the camera.I have now taken a fair number of photographs under a wide range of conditions. The low light performance is a dramatic improvement over the Canon G9. I had done specific testing with the G9 after I ran up against the G9 performance limitations in low light during normal use of the camera.To see what the G11 could do I set it up with a tripod to take photos under the light of the full Moon. To my surprise the camera did a respectable job of landscape photos lit only by moonlight. This is something I have done with a DSLR on several occasions, but did not expect to do with a compact. At ISO1600 and 3200 there is appreciable noise in the photos, but these speeds are by no means useless. The in-camera dark frame subtraction also works well, with no hot pixels apparent in close examination of the frames.Another pleasant surprise was the quality of the new lens. From the first images the lens has continually impressed me as better than the G9 lens for sharpness. I was surprised when closely examining the day\'s images, fine details in a seed head were perfectly sharp to the limit of the sensor resolution. The limiting resolution of the camera was indeed set by the sensor, not the lens, at least under the right conditions. Is this simply the lower resolution sensor? Is this a result of not pressing the performance past the resolving power of the lens? Or is the new lens design simply better than the G9?My only major complaint is one that many others have leveled against Canon... Why does this camera not have a decent video mode? I usually shoot still, but like to do a little video when the situation calls for it. The 1024x768 video and time lapse video modes of the G9 are missing. Why can they not add at least a 720p HD mode? There is likely no technical reason for this. Some internal Canon politics with the video camera division?The camera is indeed everything it has promised to be, with very few shortcomings. Beautiful pictures from a compact camera. I look forward to a long and productive relationship with this camera.
- Well, I\'ve had this camera for a couple of weeks now and I love it. My old Canon A95 of six years died and I needed a replacement. Two qualities I wanted, in addition to clean images were a view finder and flip out LCD. Actually I had boiled down my choices to the G11, the Canon S95 and the Lumix LX5. All three are great cameras and once you had one I don\'t think you would be disappointed with any of them. The biggest reason I choose the G11 was because it was the only one with a view finder and the flip out LCD. I\'m not disappointed.Granted the view finder is not that great and it only shows about 75 to 80% of the scene, but so did the A95, and it was easy for me to pick up on what I needed to see through the view finder to know what was going to be in the finished image. It\'s not that hard to do. Using the camera this way I not only get sharper images but it saves on battery life as well. By holding the camera against my face, along with the image stabilization I don\'t have to worry about holding the camera steady when using the LCD and holding the camera out from the body.I use the image stabilization on shoot only, on general shapshots I will either leave the ISO on auto and in the P mode and let the camera do the work or I will leave the ISO on auto and set the aperture that I want. For more important works I will set the ISO and choose either the aperture or shutter that I want and basically the camera reacts faster than expected, and I\'m impressed with it. Not as fast as a DSLR but faster than some would have you believe.Overall the image quality is great, even up through ISO 800. After that noise does start to appear but in most cases, if the exposure is correct it is quite acceptable, except for work that may be shown in a gallery. Also, I set the over/under dial at 2/3 underexposure for daytime use and reset it to -0- for indoor use. In addition, I set the exposure setting to Vivid for more saturated colors. I have tried the Positive film choice and to appoint I like it; similar to Kodak Ektachrome and occasionally I will use that as well.What it boils down to, is to first let the camera show what it can do and then experiment with what you think it can do and just learn what works best for your needs. If you want DSLR quality then buy a DSLR but if you want a camera that will give you great images, is fairly fast and, once the ins and outs are learned, is easy and fun to use then the Canon G11 is the camera for you.And it makes a great street photography camera as well... :-)
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