Canon PowerShot G11 Review

The Powershot G series has represented a fairly formidable presence at the top of the compact camera tree. From a keen photographer point-of-view, there's little on the market that can match its mixture of zoom range, lens flexibility, build quality and level of manual control. Somehow Ricoh's GX and Nikon's P series have never quite had the same impact but Panasonic's LX3 has been enough to tempt some potential customers away, with its bright lens and convincing (for a compact) low-light performance.

The G11 seems determined to wrestle back its position as undisputed champion of the market, though, incorporating what Canon describes as a 'high sensitivity' CCD. In what might be a first, the company has reduced the pixel count in comparison to the preceding model. In principle, there is no disadvantage to having more pixels when you consider the whole image (other than the larger file sizes that might slow down the camera and fill your memory card faster and the added complication of having to apply noise reduction before demosaicing, which is not something many people are willing or able to do). However, the often larger photosites of a less pixel-dense sensor will tend to receive more light, in the same exposure, making it easier to produce an image that looks cleaner at the pixel level. Almost as if Canon wants its flagship compact to be a handy all-rounder.

The body style dates back to the G7, which upset many existing G-series owners by omitting several features they'd become used to. Those missing features have, one-by-one, been re-included as the range has developed, leading us to the G11, which finally regains the fold-out, swivel display that went missing after the G6. There's no denying it's a well featured camera and one with styling that appeals to many photographers.

However, since the G10 arrived, Olympus and Panasonic have released their Micro Four Thirds compact interchangeable lens cameras, the E-P1, E-P2 and GF1, the Powershot G series has looked like a less obvious choice. The Panasonic GF1 for instance, is no larger than the G11 and offers a similar level of external control (albeit without the nice retro metal dials), but is built around a sensor with more than five-and-a-half times the surface area. So although the GF1 and Olympuses can't compete with the G11's 28-140mm equivalent lens range (at least, not while remaining as compact packages), they are likely to offer greater image quality and control over depth of field than the small sensored Canon can.

Headline features

• 10.0 Megapixel CCD sensor
• 5x wide-angle (28-140mm equivalent) zoom lens with optical image stabilizer
• 2.8” tilt/swivel LCD (461k dot resolution)
• RAW image recording
• Claimed 2-stop advantage in low light compared to G10
• Dedicated Exposure Compensation and ISO dials
• DIGIC 4 processor
• i-Contrast boosts brightness and retains detail in dark areas
• 26 shooting modes with manual control and custom settings
• Accessories include tele-converter, Speedlights flashes and waterproof case
• VGA movies, 30fps

Changes compared to G10

• 10 megapixel 'high sensitivity' sensor, down from 14.7 megapixels
• Gains ISO 3200 as full setting (Rather than option-limited scene mode)
• White balance fine tuning
• Tilt and swivel LCD 2.8" (rather than 3" fixed screen)
• New Low Light and Quick Shot modes
• HDMI connector
• No Superfine JPEG compression (Fine is least compressed option)
• No voice annotation or sound recording function
• No remote (tethered) image capture

Powershot G11 against its peers

The visual differences between the G10 and G11 are not exactly pronounced - a slight tweak of the grip covering and the flash are the only things beyond the badges that give the game away. It's interesting to see the G11 alongside the smaller Panasonic LX3 (which has a similarly-sized sensor), and the Panasonic GF1 which has a much larger sensor (though would require a much larger lens to match the G11's 28-140mm equivalent range).

Canon G11 specifications

* Changes or additions compared to the G10