Canon PowerShot G11 hands-on preview
Canon’s line of ‘G series’ compacts have traditionally offered the highest image quality and most complete feature set of all digital compact cameras. They have proved popular amongst enthusiasts and professional photographers alike who have appreciated the comprehensive manual controls available. The G11 is set to replace the G10 which was Canon’s previous flagship model. The G10 was praised for it’s great build quality, manual shooting modes, fast handling through use of external controls, hot shoe for external flash compatibility, 28-140mm equivalent lens and the ability to take pictures in raw. The headline feature was the 14.7MP sensor that promised fantastic image quality. Whilst it was certainly true that the very high resolution meant great detail could be recorded at low ISO values photographers noticed that the camera exhibited quite a bit of noise as soon as you started shooting at ISO 400 and above. This is what the G11 aims to address.
For many photographers it seems that compact camera’s resolution is enough to satisfy most of their shooting requirements. A good 10MP sensor can comfortably record images good enough for viewing as an A3 print, what could be improved is the performance of the sensors in lower light situations. Over the last couple of years this is an area other manufacturers have been targeting, specifically Fuji with their recent F200 EXR and Panasonic with the LX3. The pixel count of the sensor has a direct bearing on the ability to record with little noise at high ISO settings. Quite simply, the more pixels you have on a given sensor size, the smaller each pixel has to be and therefore less light reaches each pixel. By reducing the pixel count you can enlarge each one so they are better able to record images when light levels are low. The first thing you’ll notice about the G11 is that the pixel count has been reduced to 10MP whilst maintaining the same sensor size. Canon claims that this gives a clear 2 stop advantage in handling noise at high ISO settings. In August, Canon and Park Cameras attended the Rutland Bird Fair and the only G11 in the country was bought along for us to see. Whilst I didn’t get to inspect the images on a monitor to verify Canon’s performance claims the results seemed impressive when magnified on the built in LCD. When zooming in on high ISO images there seemed to be a very good level of detail maintained where you would not have expected such good results from the older G10. This brings us onto the next feature, the new 2.8” vari-angle LCD. This is a slight reduction from the 3” of the G10’s screen but I think it’s a worthwhile sacrifice for the ability to adjust the viewing position. You can fold away the screen to protect it if necessary when pocketing the camera or even when shooting using the built in optical viewfinder. With a great macro facility you may well find yourself shooting small subjects in all manner of awkward positions but with the new screen you shouldn’t find many situations where you can’t adjust the screen to a suitable position.
Most other aspects of the camera are unchanged; the same high quality lens is used covering an equivalent of 28-140mm with a fast f/2.8 aperture at the wide end and built in optical image stabiliser giving the benefit of up to 4 stops. The camera is still compatible with Canon’s range of speedlights, including the macro lighting kits. The flash sync speed has increased to 1/2000th of a second for better performance in bright conditions and a 3 stop neutral density filter has been implemented to further enhance the G11’s ability to shoot in a wide range of light conditions.
It seems that Canon have taken what was widely regarded as the best digital compact camera available, and improved it by listening to the needs of photographers by implementing a new sensor that is more suited to shooting in real world situations. With the time we had with the camera we were very impressed. As soon as they become available we’ll test the image quality in depth and I’d be surprised if the results turn out to be anything other than class leading. For now it appears that the G11’s real highlight is its ability in low light.
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Gui de Basly, Park Cameras.
