Typical Shutterbug Podcast

Yesterday I finally got to go out and shot the new Canon Powershot G11 point and shoot camera. I bought this camera last week as I wanted a point and shoot camera that would shoot in raw and also have some easy access to functions such as ISO settings, aperture settings etc. I also bought a Canon 270ex small flash as I knew this would be a fun camera to experiment with off camera (and on ) flash. My total investment for these two items was approximately $578 US.

I went with Liana Lehua @fittorrent on Twiiter to the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA which is a wonderful place to take pictures and very photographer friendly. I shot most of the pictures below using the Canon 270ex small flash,and generally found the camera to be a joy to shoot with. The quality of the RAW pictures is excellent, specially at ISO’s below 1000. It was nice not to be hassled because I was carrying a “pro” camera around. This was also a large motivator for my purchase.

I found the camera to be noisy at ISO 1600 (see this shot) and above. The pictures taken with these high ISO’s were simply unacceptable but, the G11 though said to be better than it’s predecessors in low light, is no low light magic box.  It took me a while to get use to shooing a point and shoot camera again. I found the body to be a bit small for my hands, but I was soon adjusting.

While trying to do flash photography, I found it annoying having to go to the flash menu (via the screen) in order to adjust flash power each time I wanted to. It would have been nice if the exposure adjustment dial which is great to go plus or minus up to two exposures, could have doubled as a flash power adjustment function.

As I was reviewing the shots in Light Room I noticed that about half way through my shots all the pictures were jpg not raw. What happened? Well apparently during one of those times when I was messing with the menus to change the flask power, I fat fingered a menu and changed the camera settings from RAW to high jpg. No mind you the high jpgs are really good and I’m kind of glad this “accident” happened as I got to see the quality of jpg files, but it was a disappointing mistake that may have been avoided by better menu management on the G11.

After day one , I would say the Canon Powershot G11 is the best point and shoot I’ve owned despite it’s less than stellar low light performance at about ISO 1600. This may be user error on my part so I’ll hold off judgement until I get to know the camera better. The ability to have ISO 80 however was so great and darn near with the price of the camera. See the pictures below to get an idea of the versitality of the Canon Powershot G11.

Overall, I need to get out and do some night shots, try bracketing and do some plain old day time photography with the Canon Powershot G11, but for day one I’d give this camera four starts. I know it will serve me well.

Here is a slide show from the shots taken yesterday