Canon PowerShot G11 Review – Good Option For Photography Enthusiasts
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Good photo quality, LCD is articulated.
Thumbs Down:
No HD video, a bit slow performance.
Inside the Trunk:
Bundled software – Canon ZoomBrowser EX, Canon Remote Capture, Drivers & Utilities, Canon ImageBrowser, Canon PhotoStitch.
Accessories – USB cable, A/V cable, Neck strap.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Canon PowerShot G11 is a 10 megapixels camera, with 4x digital zoom. light sensitivity options ISO auto, ISO 3200, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 80. maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum shutter speed is 15 seconds. Exposure modes include aperture-priority, shutter priority, automatic, program, manual. White balance presets include flash, daylight, fluorescent, cloudy, underwater, tungsten light.
Videos are stored in H.264 format and images are stored in JPEG, RAW, RAW+JPEG format. Options for video capture resolutions are H.264 – 320 x 240 and H.264 – 640 x 480. For images, the options for resolutions are JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 1824 x 1368, JPEG 2272 x 1704, JPEG 2816 x 2112, JPEG 3648 x 2048, JPEG 3648 x 2736, RAW 3648 x 2736.
Flash modes include red-eye reduction, rear curtain sync, flash off model, slow synchro, fill-in mode, auto mode.
Zoom lens is 6.1 mm – 30.5 mm – F/2.8-4.5, with focal length of 6.1 mm – 30.5 mm, minimum focus range is 19.7 inches, macro focus range is 1-50 cm. it has 5x optical zoom, lens aperture is F/2.8-4.5.
Other features include I-Contrast (Intelligent Contrast Correction) system, Automatic face tracking technology, Camera orientation detection, Motion Detection Technology, Face Detection AF/AE/FE/WB, Blink Detection technology, Face Detection Self-timer, RGB primary color filter, Digital noise reduction, Digital tele-converter, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, Saturation control, PictBridge support, Exif Print support, Sharpness control, Resizing an image, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Contrast control, Audio recording, Direct print, DPOF support, Safety zoom, FE lock, AF lock, AE lock.
The camera has a 2.8 inch TFT LCD color display, the connectors on the camera include USB, composite video/audio output, HDMI output and there an SD memory card slot.
Special effects include lighter skin tone, darker skin tone, positive film, custom effect, black and white, color accent, vivid green, vivid blue, color swap, vivid red, neutral, vivid, sepia
Shooting programs include night snapshot, stitch assist, portrait mode, sports mode, night scene, kids and pets, underwater, low light, landscape, fireworks, aquarium, foliage, sunset, indoor, beach, snow.
The camera is powered by Canon NB-7L rechargeable li-ion battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
Looks wise the Canon PowerShot G11 is quite similar to G10 which was Canon’s previous offering. The exterior body is all metal and the camera is a bit difficult to hold owing to the small grip. The camera is big and very little effort has been made for it to look good. The S11 has easy-to-turn dials and optical viewfinder.
Inside Dope:
Canon was one of the most reliable names in the market when it came to photo capturing market. However, with new manufacturers entering the market and offering better technology, Canon has now become a second choice in cameras. Canon is now desperate to bring back those glorious days and hence it brings G11 to the market.
There is still four-way switch for settings like manual focus, macro and flash and drive mode. Just like previous G9 and G7, the G10 has a four way navigation button along plus Function/Set button and it has scroll wheel close to it. The wheel is easy to use but we ended up hitting something else occasionally while using the button.
On the right of the camera there is a dial to adjust the ISO sensitivity and the dial on the left gives you exposure compensation adjustment. We found the dials on the camera quite easy to use even than the physical buttons because the latter needs some navigation in to the sub-menu bars. There is also a Quick Shot mode something that a lot of dSLRs are having these days. However we were disappointed to find out that it is a semi automatic mode that activates face detection and continuous shooting. You won’t be able to get access to this panel when you are shooting in manual aperture-priority or shutter modes.
The camera has capability to change the AF area size and other features include exposure lock, hot shoe, bayonet adapter mount for add-on lenses and raw support. The video mode of the camera is a bit disappointing; it is VGA at 30 frames per second. And you can use the optical zoom.
Performance wise, the camera is quite similar to its predecessor, but it is a bit slow. It takes about 2 seconds to wake up and get started, which is a bit slow and hence a matter for concern. For AF mode, in bright light, it takes about 0.4 seconds and in low light environment it takes 0.7 seconds. In continous shooting G10 took 1.4 fps and this one takes 1.1 fps. Between the shots, it takes about 2.5 seconds which is again a bit slow.
The camera has a 2.7 inch LCD, a bit smaller than G10 but you probably not notice it because the difference is really less and we liked the twist and flip design of the screen.
When it comes to ISO sensitivity, the pictures are best when at ISO 100 or IS 80 but if you go anything above that, then the softening will begin to show. At ISO 400 or 800 the inferiority will really begin to show from a distance. We were delighted with exposure and color which is a bit better than what we have seen in earlier products.
Nitty Gritty:
We thought the Canon PowerShot G11 was a great camera owing to the features like optical viewfinder, hot shoe, articulated LCD, longer zoom and add-on lens support. Other camera in this class is S90 but it is a bit costly.
