Canon PowerShot G11

Photo gallery:
Canon PowerShot G11

It really feels as though Canon's trying to recapture the past, or at least make up for some possibly poor decisions it's made over the past few years. For instance, though in many ways it bears little resemblance to the five-year-old PowerShot G6, that was the last G-series model with an articulated LCD, a feature beloved by many of the series' fans. And though last year's G10 jumped to 14.7 megapixels, bringing with it an increase in noise--anathema to the pixel peepers who play with these models--the new PowerShot G11 drops back to the 10-megapixel resolution of the several-generations-old G7. And these choices seem to pay off.

With the same body, a similarly sized sensor, and the same lens as its predecessor, it's unsurprising that the G11 looks and feels almost identical to the G10. Keeping with its historical design, the metal body feels quite solidly constructed. As with the G10, I wish the grip were just a tad larger; the thumb rest feels kind of slippery and I never feel absolutely secure shooting one handed. While it's not nearly as sleek as a lot of the enthusiast models coming out these days, such as the Olympus E-P series or Canon's own S90, the larger size does allow the G11 to accommodate a sizeable, useful optical viewfinder and big, easy-to-turn dials.

Though I have some quibbles, shooting with the G11 feels as quick, fluid, and comfortable as you'd expect from its class. The camera retains the four-way switch (for setting manual focus, macro, flash, and drive mode) with a Function/Set button nested inside the navigational scroll wheel on the back. Last year, I said of the G10's similar controller, "Like the G9 and the G7 before it, the G10 uses a four-way switch plus Set/Function button, which is surrounded by a scroll wheel. I love the scroll wheel, but find I tend to accidentally hit one of the Manual focus, macro, drive mode, or flash switch when I'm trying to press the middle button." Canon seems to have tweaked the design of the wheel, and I find it even more troublesome: now I frequently press one of the switches while I'm scrolling as well. It's especially difficult to control in cold weather with numb fingers. And in movie capture mode, scrolling the wheel turns on the how-often-could-you-possibly-want-to-do-this Color Accent feature; given how easy it is to accidentally scroll, shooting videos can be pretty annoying.

Canon stacks the mode dial inside the ISO sensitivity dial for right-hand operation and has an exposure compensation dial on the left. In addition to giving the camera a retro feel, the dials on the G10 are really practical and much faster to use than even direct-access buttons, which always require at least some navigation. There's also a new Quick Shot mode, which provides an interactive control panel interface that's become common on dSLRs. Unfortunately, Quick Shot mode is a semiautomatic program mode that activates continuous autofocus and face detection, so you can't access this panel while shooting in shutter- or aperture-priority or manual modes. (And leaving the camera in continuous AF mode is a great way to drain the battery.)

Features that I've liked for generations thankfully remain: a built-in neutral-density filter, two slots on the mode dial for custom settings, capability to change the size of the AF area, a hot shoe, exposure lock, raw support, and the bayonet adapter mount for add-on lenses. Still, it takes a hit for what it doesn't have: decent video capabilities. VGA at 30fps without optical zoom doesn't cut it these days. (You can download the PDF manual for a full accounting of the G11's features and operation.)

Performance is roughly equivalent to its predecessor; it's above average for its class, but still a bit slower than I think people should get for a camera in its price range. CNET Labs' testing shows time to first shot is 2 seconds, slower than before. In bright light, a relatively quick focus helps keep the shutter lag to a zippy-for-its-class 0.4 second. In dim light, that increases to a 0.7 second, about 0.1 second faster than the G10. Two shots in a row have a relatively large 2.5-second gap between, however, slower than the past couple of generations, and adding flash recycle bumps that to a not-very-speedy 2.9 seconds. Continuous shooting drops to 1.1fps, down from the G10's 1.4fps. As before, though the AF system is pretty responsive, no one would confuse this with an SLR. The 2.8-inch LCD is big and bright; it's a hair smaller than the G10's but you don't really notice, and thanks to the flip-and-twist design, it's really useful.