Despite its semi-professional ambitions the G11 is not a fast shooter. Power up is quite quick but nothing else is speedy. It takes over 1.5 seconds for the camera to display an image after capture and continuous shooting is a mere 0.8 frames per second.
Autofocus in low light was none too bright
Autofocus, which is usually one of Canon’s strengths, did not always perform well in tests, especially in low light. It is not particularly fast and too often either missed the main subject or took so long to find the focus plane that I missed my shot entirely. On paper the G11 should be able to focus in very dim light without the AF-assist lamp on but this wasn’t the case during tests. On the plus side, the G11 has two focusing aids that can be quite useful if you get used to them.
There’s the Flexizone AF, consisting of a focusing square that appears in the frame and that you can move around with the control dial to set the focus point on any area of the scene. The AF-point zoom alternative magnifies a portion of the scene within the focal point and overlays it to the normal image to check focus on relevant elements, like the eyes in a portrait for example.
While there is an issue with the pixel count reduction, it does not necessarily represent a giant step back. The biggest criticism the G10 received when launched was poor noise performance. So Canon had to make improvements in its next release.
The options were either, maintain the same resolution and increase the size of the sensor, as Micro Four Thirds cameras did, or decrease the resolution and maintain the same size sensor. The advantage of the latter is that Canon could keep the excellent small zoom lens of the G10, while preserving the same magnification ratio of a bigger lens.
The optical viewfinder is good to have, but lacks attention to detail
Canon decided to create a less dense (lower pixels count) sensor but boost its light gathering by increasing the size of the pixels. The result, in my view, is a much improved handling of noise and colour aberrations compared to the previous model and a very good overall image quality.
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.
