By Terry Lane
Price: $900
Less is much more
This 10-megapixel camera is Canon's top compact. The fast 28-140mm lens is image-stabilised. The optical viewfinder is large, bright and has dioptre adjustment. The seven-centimetre LCD swivels. There is a built-in flash and an external hot shoe. Image formats are JPEG and RAW. Construction is excellent and ergonomics are unique and superb. The large knobs on the body top are for exposure and compensation and for ISO settings are wonderful. It is the same as the superseded G10 on the outside, with all that camera's virtues and its one vice corrected (see below).
Canon Powershot G11.
This camera is a joy to use. It is bigger and heavier than other compacts but this makes it feel like a real camera. Image quality is excellent, even up to ISO800. Auto white balance is very good.
Hmmm. A hard one. Well, nothing. For a small-sensor compact, this is as good as it gets.
The big story here is that Canon has heeded the G10's critics. Reviewers loved that camera's retro design and logical ergonomics but they hated the 14-megapixel sensor. Panasonic's LX3 won the competition for best serious compact with 10 megapixels. Fewer pixels meant better noise handling and slightly better dynamic range. Canon responded in a way we have never seen before in the camera business — they actually reduced the pixel count and, in the process, made a good camera superb. There is a lesson here for anyone buying a compact digital camera — less is more when it comes to pixels. Ten beats 14 any day, no matter what the salesman says.