Canon G11 User Experience

[pks1702]

I have had this now for a couple of months and accept it is expensive as a Point & Squirt camera but you really should not consider this if that is all you want from a camera.

By no means is it as flexible as my SLR and where ultimate image quality and creativity are required this would not be in my bag but increasingly over the the last 18 months I have found I take a 'pocket able' P&S where I could not be bothered to take an SLR. The G11 has allowed me more user creativity and therefore as I carry it most of the time more opportunity to get shots I would not normally get.

It is solidly built and will come as a bit of a shock if you are used to a normal p&s. The swivel screen I thought was a bit gimmicky but it did allow me a couple of shots that would have been much more difficult with a fixed screen and if you wish it will sit in the normal fixed screen position which is how I tend to use it.

Lens is 28-140mm based on 5x zoom.

Camera is 10MP compared to the G10 14.7 but in my view has less higher ISO noise than the G10, shooting up to 3200 ISO, the high ISO is impressive even in RAW. The dedicated control dials on the top on the camera for exposure compensation, ISO and Shooting Mode are very easy to navigate. Numerous shooting modes are on this camera from full manual to low light. Battery life is extremely impressive I hardly ever seem to charge the thing up.

The all round image quality is very good.

There are cheaper compact camera's but if you want a tool that will give you good all round creativity, High ISO and build quality I can recommend this product.

A few snaps:

[mbird]

Wow Perry. From a P&S, they are stunning photos

[Guest]

Very impressive Perry. I saw those marina shots on the Coastal thread and assumed you had finally dusted off your SLR, such was the quality. But now I learn this is not so!

I have been looking very long and hard at the G11 myself. My ageing Sony V1 hails from the day when Sony still gave a damn about producing fine compact cameras and, as such, it is pretty full featured and generates images which Susan's Sony W120 (new last year) simply cannot compete with. But it is a 6 year old design and therefore doesn't benefit from the recent advances in High ISO shooting. It also has quite a small and relatively poor LCD and its battery life is terrible. Add to that the fact that it has been dropped, kicked and bounced more times than I can count and it is starting show and feel its age. The G11 is high on the list of potential replacements but I must admit I still baulk at the price a little. It's not so much the affording it as the justifying it. The V1 sees almost no use anymore. My photography is now almost exclusively done on the SLR and Susan uses her W120 - there is little need for a high end compact so shelling out £400+ to replace a camera which isn't really needed anyway seems a little wasteful.

Still, the V1 was used a lot when boating so now that we have a boat again it may yet have a role to play, in which case I might look for a successor after all.

[Guest]

Blast !.... I knew I should have bought the bridge.

Only joking, I've had a lot of fun trying out all of my old PK lenses on the 500d.

Excellent photos, especially the night shots of the harbour.

[Guest]

Superb Images Perry,

I think that particular P&S has matched the image quality of my 5D Mk2 and doubt it would produce any better examples!

Plus the 5D 2 weights a ton more to carry around!

Clive.

[pks1702]

Clive Wrote:

Plus the 5D 2 weights a ton more to carry around!

I can relate to that Clive a 1DMK111 and associated L lenses weighs a bit as well and the reason when I am not 'shooting seriously' the G11 is in my pocket.

Thanks for the kind comments

[Guest]

Very impressive stuff Perry, and some really nice work on your part, leaving aside the quality of the camera. I think this demonstrates that the race for more mega pixies can be at the expense of high ISO image quality, and Canon's apparent step back from the G10 seems to have paid off. These are very smooth, clean images.

Bruce

[pks1702]

I think this demonstrates that the race for more mega pixies can be at the expense of high ISO image quality

This has been a view I have had for a while Bruce not based on Pixel peeping but looking at real samples. I would assume development work has/is being done on Algorithms and that high ISO and high may well be the future but at present I remain to be fully convinced, although have seen some good samples floating around.

[Guest]

Very impressive stuff Perry, and some really nice work on your part, leaving aside the quality of the camera. I think this demonstrates that the race for more mega pixies can be at the expense of high ISO image quality, and Canon's apparent step back from the G10 seems to have paid off. These are very smooth, clean images.

I agree Bruce. I do think that, for the most part, the MP obession is now over though. High ISO has taken over as the fighting ground and that in itself isn't always a good thing because it is entirely possible that the battle for semi-usable high ISO images is potentially coming at the expense of low ISO. Sony were the only manufacturer who refused to get drawn into it and concentrated on fabulous IQ at low ISO. My D90 is without doubt superior at ISO1600 to my A200 but at low ISO the A200 was better (though the gap smaller). Hell the D90 doesn't even HAVE an ISO100. The A200 may also be helped slightly by the lenses as the Sony lenses were slightly better. Unfortunately as Sony has been panned time and time and time again for their low light performance it's only a matter of time before they fall into line to please the reviewers.

[mbird]

Hell the D90 doesn't even HAVE an ISO100.

Are you sure ???? According to the info I've read, using the Hi and Lo settings you should be able to get from 100 - 6400, although standard range is 200-3200.

[pks1702]

Never owned a Nikon so can't help you Simon on operating but specification lists:

Sensitivity

• Default: ISO 200 - 3200 in 1/3 EV steps

• Boost: 100 - 6400 in 1/3 EV steps

Select sensitivity (ISO equiv.)

• Auto

• L1.0 (100 equiv.)

• L0.7 (125 equiv.)

• L0.3 (160 equiv.)

• 200

• 250

• 320

• 400

• 500

• 640

• 800

• 1000

• 1250

• 1600

• 2000

• 2500

• 3200

• HI 0.3 (4000 equiv.)

• HI 0.7 (5000 equiv.)

• HI 1.0 (6400 equiv.)

[Guest]

You are correct, of course, but it's more of a simulated ISO100 than a real one (hence why it is not actually CALLED ISO100). There is always a price to pay for using anything other than base ISO, which in the case of the D90 is ISO200. Admittedly when you're that close to base ISO you're not really going to lose much at all (like ISO250, 320 etc) but the point is you don't get less noise or higher IQ for using it, just a bit less sensitively to light so you can adjust your shutter / aperture combination accordingly. I've read elsewhere that you actually lose a little of the highlight range as overall DR is reduced.