Anyone got a G11?
 

Has anyone bought a Canon G11? If so, what do you think of it? I'm thinking of buying one as an alternative to my Canon 40D. I cycle a lot and the DSLR with lens(es) is too big and heavy to carry around on the bike. Time and again I feel I have missed picture opportunities because I don't have the camera with me. I could carry the G11 around with me all the time. Your thoughts, please.

BTW, I seem to have managed to add a thumbs down at the top of this message (I think!). It wasn't deliberate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Friend has bought one & it's very impressive, she reckons it's difficult to tell the difference between that and the Nikon D700. It's much better than the G9 and the G10 marginally better than the SXI but then it can't so all the things the SX1 can.

G11
 

Review here,

[url]http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/g11.shtml[/url]

Images are definitely better than D700.

I'll sell mine and buy a G11.

Regards

I have a G9 and G10 for the same reasons you state here. Suffice to say, my 30D is semi retired now because of the quality I get from the two compacts. They are however no match for the 30D for sports or anything where a fast response is needed.

As for the G11, I will pass on this. The flip screen I would like, however I cannot see I would be gaining anything I don't have with G9 and G10. I have a moan about all three of these compacts though. I'm not interested in video. So I would rather the technology for the "G" series were concentrated on things like noise reduction with night shots/shadows etc, and a wider angle such as 16mm plus f/16 aperture.

[QUOTE=Dunkeld;6180]I have a G9 and G10 for the same reasons you state here. Suffice to say, my 30D is semi retired now because of the quality I get from the two compacts. They are however no match for the 30D for sports or anything where a fast response is needed.

As for the G11, I will pass on this. The flip screen I would like, however I cannot see I would be gaining anything I don't have with G9 and G10. I have a moan about all three of these compacts though. I'm not interested in video. So I would rather the technology for the "G" series were concentrated on things like noise reduction with night shots/shadows etc, and a wider angle such as 16mm plus f/16 aperture.[/QUOTE]

I'm afraid you seem to be judging this compact camera by the standards of DSLRs. f/16 would be absolutely unuseable with a sensor as small as the G11, on most DSLRs it's already way past where diffraction begins to affect image quality, and the geater depth of field given by the small sensor means that you don't actually need it anyway. The real problem is at the other end where getting background blur is extremely difficult, so large apertures are needed.
This also means that wide angle is limited. Given the crop of a compact sensor 4.59 acording to a site I found on the web the lens is actually 6.1 - 30.5mm 28 - 140mm This would mean that Canon would have to make a lens with a focal length of just 3.5mm, just about impossible to design a zoom at that length.

You say you are not interested in video and would like to see the technology concentrated on noise reduction. Just because you're not interested in it doesn't mean that other people aren't, and how much extra technology do think was required to include it? Would it surprise you if I told you there was no actual hardware required and it's a function of the digic IV processor? Even then if they hadn't done anything I could understand this remark, but Canon have and I quote from Canon's website:

[I]greatly improved noise reduction. Canon’s new Dual Anti-Noise System combines a high sensitivity 10.0 Megapixel image sensor with Canon’s enhanced DIGIC 4 image processing technology to greatly reduce noise and increase quality equal to 2-stops. The Dual Anti-Noise System allows photographers to capture full resolution images - using up to ISO 3200 - in difficult low-light conditions. This makes it easier than ever to take stunning low-light portraits or retain the ambient light detail with late-night landscapes. Motion blur can also be substantially reduced.[/I]

Just how much more development would you have them do before youre satisfied they've done enough?

Well, following my starting this thread, I've now bought a G11 and am pretty excited about it. Of course it's not a DSLR and has limitations (notably, as a previous contributor mentioned, sports or anything where a fast response is needed). But the results are surprisingly good. It has already accompanied me on a few bike rides and will be going on quite a few more. Holidays, too, I suspect to save lugging around my hefty Canon 40D. The novelty of the G11 will wear off, but at the moment I'm delighted with it.