Canaon G11

[ted_raper1]

<p>Just got my G11 a couple of days ago and have done some test shots. My observations:</p>

<p>Build quality, superb<br>

Ergonomics - mostly good. I shoot a lot of verticals and holding it this way is a little awkward, my thumb keeps hitting buttons by accident<br>

Love the rotating LCD, love the exposure comp dial, the ISO dial, the shortcut button (mine is set to WB)</p>

<p>Menu system is very intuitive and easy to use. Love the "my menu" tab (stores most useful menu items)</p>

<p>Image quality - for a small sensor compact, excellent. I shot at ISO 100 and made some 11 x 14 prints. No noise visible, detail excellent</p>

<p>Pretty large for a "compact" camera but I like some heft to a camera anyway</p>

<p>My major complaint would be the operating speed. It's not the fastest shot-to-shot, not the fastest recording/displaying (I'm using a SanDisk 4GB extreme card), flash recycling is fairly slow. The optical viewfinder is basically useless.</p>

<p>Bottom line: I think I'm in love. I've been through a fair amount of compacts (Fuji, Panasonic, Canon) and the G11 is by far the best of them</p>

<p> </p>

[michael j hoffman]

<p>Enjoy! </p>

<p>The only other thing I might suggest is the Olympus VF-1 accessory viewfinder. Its field of view is set for a 4:3 aspect ratio, and its coverage approximates a 40mm equivalent focal length. With this set-up and some custom functions set, the G11 is, for me, the ultimate street shooter.</p>

<p>Enjoy your camera, and keep photographing!</p>

<p>Michael J Hoffman </p>

[bill_tuthill]

With the LCD stashed away for protection, the G11 handles well, like an old film camera. It is true that the viewfinder is inaccurate, but recall that in the bad old days of film, viewfinders were not accurate either. Adding to this was another layer of inaccuracy where the minilab would crop your prints, often in ghastly ways. Things have improved since then!

 

Autofocus and shot-to-shot are faster on my Fuji S200EXR, so my principal frustration is how long it takes to start up. Nonetheless it is an improvement over film in every way. My Canon SD800 was not an improvement over film in terms of dynamic range.

[lance_delo]

<p>I just bought mine about two weeks ago and I'm also impressed. I've not had much opportunity but to snap some pix here and there (on the WA ferries, walking my dog), however, what I've noticed is...<br>

For what is nominally a PnS, the focus, color, and detail in photos I've take around the house and out walking my chihuahua are very good. Very very good compared to other PnS's I've owned.<br>

The detail in her fur, even from 10 feet or so away, is incredible. And being short/shiny-haired and mostly jet black with tan and white markings, I've had trouble in the past taking photos of her that retain detail in the bulk of her (black) coat while otherwise not blowing out highlights or bright areas or messing with the color to some extent. The G11 has done superbly with her!<br>

I've taken night shots of a lit-up (they always are) ferry approaching the dock and just after docking. Even though I was perhaps 50 yards or so away, on a somewhat shaky tripod, and not using a remote release, the photos came out pretty darn good.<br>

Hardly an objective analysis and so on, but subjectively and in terms of what I've seen so far, I am very very impressed.<br>

Like others I do fumble sometimes with the placement of controls and inadvertently changing settings, but that's more a function of the size of the camera and the number of controls, there just isn't a lot of real estate there that would allow designers to move things into less-used areas...</p>