I just received my new Canon G11!  Now I'm putting it to the test with a 3 part review. As always, I'm not really a camera tester. You'll have to go to dpreview for that. I'm just a photographer giving my initial impressions from a real use perspective.

I'm dividing my review into three parts:

Part 1:  build quality, usability, and high ISO noise

Part 2:  macros

Part 3:  portraits

Build Quality:

This thing feels more solid than my 5D.  It's nice and hefty. Not Leica-hefty, but pretty darn solid - kinda metallic feeling (as opposed to my 5D, which is plasticky-feeling). I like the fact that the lens retracts into the body (unlike the LX3). It definitely feels more durable. It also has a nice rubber grip - the first time I've ever seen one on a compact camera.

I have mixed feelings about the swivel LCD. On the one hand, it seems like an unnecessary (for my style of shooting, anyway) moving part, and therefore a weak link that's just waiting to break. On the other hand, by swiveling it with the screen facing inwards, it protects the LCD during storage and transport.

LCD:

Gorgeous, big 461k pixel screen. Most importantly, the histogram is large and accurate. Also shows flashing highlight clipping like my Canon DSLRs.

Lens:

Only f2.8, which is slower than the LX3 or the S90. However, it goes to a 140mm equivalent focal length, so I'd say that's a pretty good tradeoff. Unlike the LX3 or micro 4/3 cameras, the lens retracts into the body, which is a huge advantage. You don't have to fiddle with a lens cap, there's much less possibility of damage, and it makes the camera more compact.

Size:

In my opinion, it's just right for a compact camera. The LX3 was, for me, a bit too small. Unless you have very small hands, it's just hard to hit those tiny buttons. The G11 is still small enough to put in a coat pocket (remember that the world's best camera is the one you have with you) without being too small to be easily handled.

Usability:

This is where the G11 shines.  Having never owned a G series camera before, imagine my shock when I looked at the top of the camera and saw this:

Mein Gott - a dedicated exposure compensation knob and ISO knob!  Holy crap Batman, you've got to be kidding me!  For the first time since I went digital, I now have a camera that doesn't require pushing buttons and looking at LCD screens to change exposure comp and ISO.  The 5DmkII doesn't have these control knobs, neither does the D700. This alone is worth the price of the camera. So as far as usability goes, I'd have to rate this camera as better than a DSLR in some ways.

Viewfinder:

Pretty tiny and crappy, but at least it has one. That's pretty rare, as viewfinders on compact cameras have become all but extinct. In most circumstances, I'll probably compose images using the viewfinder instead of the LCD.

IQ test #1: high ISO

Shot RAW, using "tungsten" white balance. No flash. Converted and resized in Lightroom. The room was pretty dim. (The ISO 1600 shot was at f2.8, 1/60). And yeah, I know, I'm a bad father for pestering Theresa while she was trying to do her homework!

(1) ISO 200. Clean. Print it out and you'd never notice any noise. Shot at 1/13 sec, which also demonstrates how well the image stabilization works.

(2) ISO 400. Some shadow noise, but still pretty darn clean. Looks a bit better than ISO 200 on my LX3, and the LX3 had the lowest noise of any compact I'd ever used before. If noise in this image bothers you, then you probably didn't have a date to the prom.

(3)  ISO 800. Still okay!  In a real print, you'd probably notice some shadow noise, but only if you were looking for it. Very useable. On the LX3, I would only use ISO 800 for black & white. (however, in defense of the LX3, it's lens is one stop faster so I could have taken the same shot with the same shutter speed at ISO 400)

(4)  ISO 1600.  Now it's starting to get noisy. Still, easily the best ISO 1600 I've ever seen in a small-sensor camera. If I ran this file through some noise reduction (I use Neat Image) I could probably make 8x10 prints without any issues.

(5)  ISO 3200.  Very noisy and losing detail, but still useable, which is incredible.  For a competition print, no. But would probably make a decent 4x6 snapshot for grandma.

(6)  One more in case you're not convinced. This was shot at much lower light levels. ISO 800, f3.5, 1/13 sec. How's this for 800 ISO on a small-sensor compact?

Conclusion:  I could be wrong because I'm really not much of a pixel-peeper, but I'd estimate that the noise is slightly more than 1 stop worse than my 20D and a bit more than 1 stop better than my LX3. Nikonians might take issue with this, but I'd say the noise is about equal to the Nikon D200, which was Nikon's top pro-sumer DSLR only, what, 2 years ago? I can make this claim because I've seen thousands of D200 files taken under low light by 2nd shooters I've worked with at weddings.

As camera manufacturers continue to advance sensor and processing engines for their DSLRS, it's clear that this technology is trickling down to compact cameras. And that's a great thing! Although I've only taken a handful of frames, it's already hard for me to imagine a better compact digicam out there than the G11.

Why I sold my Panasonic LX3

I've written several very favorable blog posts about the LX3. Just look under the "gear" category and you'll see a bunch of posts. It's a great little camera. Great for landscapes, fine art and macros. So why did I sell it? (by the way, I sold it for nearly as much as I paid for it!)

In the end I followed the old adage "horses for courses".  My primary reason for owning a small point 'n shoot is to have something to take snapshots of my kids with. I hate lugging my DSLR around when I'm not on a paying gig. Anyway, the Achilles heel of the LX3 is it's lack of dynamic range. So it is pretty much impossible to get a clean shot of my kids in any kind of sunlight. In the shade, yes, but not in the sun. Look at the image below and you'll see what I mean:

So with some reluctance I retired the LX3 and decided to give the G series a try.

Coming next - G11 part 2:  Macros.