Canon Powershot G11 Digital Camera

For some time I've been looking for an every day "walkabout" digital camera. The kind of camera I can take with me anywhere and not worry about the weight or hassle of interchangeable Digital SLR lenses, but still get professional quality results.

Recently Panasonic and Olympus have released some impressive cameras that are sure to be big hits with Brand Loyalists.

What's interesting to me in the Canon Powershot G11 is the articulating screen which allows one to hold the camera high above their head, or down on the ground and still compose images. Another great feature of the articulating screen is the ability to take self portraits that don't look like some amateur cellphone in the bathroom mirror type pictures.

Canon hit the nail on the head with this feature, except for the lack of a remote control. So if you want to take self portraits you'll need to use the self timer feature. In my opinon not including a wireless remote control on a camera with an articulating screen simply doesn't make sense. Especially when you consider that this camera is targeted at prosumers and professionals. A lot of professionals carry the older version G10 in the field.

Another feature which is missing, but not in the competition at this level is the ability to take 720p movies. Instead Canon is keeping the 640x480 30fps movie mode. I feel this is an oversight that will actually hurt sales. If Kodak and Mino (Flip Video) can include 1080p and 720p respectively HD video in sub $200 units, why not in this Canon? Canon is including a 720p feature in other models? Just doesn't make sense.

What I do like about this camera is the effort being put into the sensor for high quality high dynamic range images at low light levels. In fact this camera is an effective 10 mega pixel model which replaces the older G10 which is a 14 megapixel model.

If you are printing images 8x10 or smaller the extra 4 mega pixels is not going to make a difference. But being able to capture a higher quality image with better highlights is much more important. So I'm all for Camera Manufacturers making better quality images and not just trying to stuff meaningless pixels into the marketing literature.

The camera sports a 35mm equivalent focal range of 28-140mm which in my view is just perfect. If it could be 24mm it would have been even better! And the equivalent f-stop of f2.8-4.5. This is very good but not quite as good as an f2.0 would have been. But that would have driven up the cost.

For those of you who are familiar with most prosumer Digital SLR's you know that most "kit lenses" are f3.5 or higher. So this is a huge plus for taking high quality images in low light without having to push the ISO through the roof. But this of course will depend on the quality of the lens. Lets hope it's on par with the G10 or better!

So in conclusion I see Canon Powershot G11 as a very nice walkabout, but I'm still mixed as to if this will be the one I pick up or if I'll buy one of the New Sony Cyber Shots or the Fuji F70EXR which are also featuring vastly improved sensors for low light images. And Sony is including 720p capability! Think I'll wait this out a bit longer (The cameras will not be released until next month anyway) and see what the Professional Reviewers say.