Canon Powershot G11
The resolution race is over, apparently
Review Canon’s Powershot G-series has been a best seller for the best part of 10 years. What photographers have always loved in these cameras is the combination of pocketability with full manual control and direct access to all main settings by means of professional-looking dials and buttons.
No contest? Canon's Powershot G11
With the G11, Canon remains faithful to tradition but, surprisingly, it puts the brakes on the resolution contest and drops the 14.7Mp count of its G10 predecessor to 10Mp, all in the pursuit of better noise performance. Outwardly very similar to the G10, this model has just a few but fundamental changes.
The Powershot G11 gains what Canon describes as a High Sensitivity sensor; increased sensitivity range with a top setting of 3200 and a new Low Light mode with an extended scene-only speed of 12800. It also features a tilt and swivel 2.8in LCD, albeit smaller than the G10’s 3in fixed panel. In addition, there is a Quick Shot mode; White Balance fine-tuning and an HDMI socket.
Other key features are RAW image recording; i-Contrast to even out area of highlights and shadows in high contrast scenes; 26 shooting modes and the renowned DIGIC 4 processor. What the G11 loses is the sound recording option; the remote image capture and the Superfine JPEG file compression featured in the G10.
The design of the body has changed very little from the G10. However, the alloy has been replaced by varnished plastic to compensate for the extra weight of the tilt and swivel LCD, but the G11 maintains all the beautiful metal dials that made the G series the compact of choice of many DSLR owners.
The articulating LCD panel is smaller than the fixed screen of its predecessor
The dials are solidly built and provide direct manual control of the parameters most used by professional photographers, like exposure compensation, manual ISO control and shooting modes. These controls on the top plate of the camera are also designed to avoid accidental triggering or changes.
COMMENTS
It would be great to be able to shoot RAW remotely. Now you can.
CHDK is a firmware mod for cameras.
One of the things it provides for the Canon G7 is RAW shooting.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
I hope you find this useful.
Sensor fault
It may be repairable for nothing apart from a couple of quid postage. Our A85 had a sensor fault, and Canon repaired it free despite being 4 or 5 years out of warranty. There's a known issue, and if confirmed, they'll repair or replace.
http://www.canon.co.uk/Support/Consumer_Products/products/cameras/Digital_Compact/Powershot_A_series/PowerShot_A80.aspx
Much cheaper in the USA? Not really, at least not this time.
Once you take British VAT into acount the kit is only about 24 quid cheaper across the pond. Though it is certainly the case that the AV manufacturers do take the piss when they can. If you compare the price of Sammy's 55 inch LED TV in Blighty and in the States (one has to compare specs to work out which models can be compared, they are very carefull to make it as difficult and confusing as poss.) one sees that the equivalent model is about 40% cheaper! However on this occasion it does not seem as if Canon is taking the piss by very much.
Swivel Screen
Back down to earth my old Canon Powershot A80 had a swivel screen, Loved it so good to see this G11 has one too, hope Canon and the others bring them back :)
The A80 sensor don't work properly but cant bring myself to chuck it lol
Price?
How can they justify the price? It's around the same price as many entry level DSLRs. And a DSLR comes with a number of advantages over a compact like that. The much larger sensor on such a camera will give less noise, more control over depth of field and the larger photosites should give a better dynamic range. Of course a DSLR has a wide choice of lenses where the G11 is stuck with it's fixed and rather slow lens.
Yes it's a nice camera, but it's list price is at least twice what it should be.
