VHHDT

I have a Canon Ixus 860IS which isn't very good in low light situations like evening or late sunsets.... a bit of a surprise...

It would be worth checking that out with your supplier as our nanny's camera blitzed ours at a Disney parade one evening..

Cheers


John

DD_545i

The other of the two best websites for camera reviews is dpreview.com. Here's what they think about the G11:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong11/

My experience so far:

The battery life is amazingly good. I'm always surprised at how it handles itself indoors, where most cameras fail miserably. It's a bit chunky, sure, but it's not trying to be in the casio exilim super-slim range. This is a camera that can do just about anything (except HD video). I got a spare battery for it at time of buying and I've never needed it yet. I love the LCD at the back that can be put into just about any position you like. It's nice for taking shots from ground level without having to lay down, for taking shots from 7 feet high (if you can reach that high) and still be able to see the framed shot. I love that it has a remote-shutter release socket. Even if you're taking shots from a tripod, pressing the shutter button on the camera can result in movement. Not with a remote release though.

Negatives? The only things I don't like are that the video produces .MOV files. I prefer .AVI. But I can convert them using "River Past Video Cleaner 5.3" to whatever I want. I had no success with converting them with a whole bunch of other programs. They either came out as 15fps (because it had lost half the frames in conversion), or the video came out looking grey or green. As the River Past program can convert in batch mode I don't consider this much of a negative. I also don't like that it produces .THM thumbnail files that I end up deleting. I know they're important for RAW files, but why would I need one for Video.

If this thing was lost/stolen/broken and I was back on the market for another, I'd go straight back out and buy another G11. That says it all really. I guess waiting for the G12 might be an option, presumably that would have HD video. If I'm shooting video with this though, it's just silly home stuff so it doesn't really matter.

Rudy

An evening parade is asking quite a lot of such a small camera and it's built-in flash... I'm betting that most cameras that are similar in size to yours (from any manufacturer) will have a hard time capturing a parade in low light without getting into either a more powerful external flash or some additional manual overrides that could help the camera "understand" what it's being asked to do (and is doable with a camera in the class of the Canon G series...)

fastfrank

Bought my other half a Panasonic TZ7 last June. Really can't fault it, has a very good Leica lens with 12X (Equivalent to over 400mm) Optical zoom and Image Stabiliser, and takes HD Video as well. I'm impressed that such a small camera can do so much with such high quality. I have pretty much stopped using my SLR as a result.
Unless you are really serious about photography I think this is all the camera you'll ever need.

dbae1978

i just got this one for the wife a few months ago. she loves it and it takes near slr quality pics

http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/com...ameras/d-lux_4/

PAKOGERTE

I personally have a Sony DSC-W200.

Reasons why I purchased it:
1. Price/ features realtionship
2. Ease of use
3. 12.1 Megapixels
4. 3 x, 2.5 in LCD display
7. Optical image-stabilizer
8. Manual exposure mode

check out www.cnet.com for good reviews and videos.

ali-cap

Fastfrank is 100% correct with Panasonic TZ7 ,got mine before new year and got nice pictures so far. Awaiting for cam/hdmi lead to arrive to check the HD captures.

dbae1978

Bruce, here are some night shots i took with the Leica on the way back from Vegas.

bruce_miranda

Thanks for all the help. Why did Canon drop the pixels on the G11 as compared to the G10? Anyone who has had the G10 and the G11 care to comment on the differences.

DD_545i

They didn't drop the sensor size (it's still exactly the same size). They only dropped the number of pixels coming from it. They decided that going for a "headline" number of pixels was counter-productive. It resulted in poorer image quality due to the pixels in the CCD being too small. The G11 has larger pixels (on the same size sensor) and can improve image quality.

Summary = less pixels but better quality. Nobody really needs more than 10MP anyway. I won't be surprised if the G12 also has 10MP when it comes out, or a bigger sensor with the same physical pixel size (which is the only way the megapixel figure should grow, not by making them smaller in the same size sensor.