Canon PowerShot G11 Performance, Timings and Image Quality

PERFORMANCE
The G11 presents an interesting dichotomy in that it is "Designed for those looking for a pocket-sized camera with SLR functionality" as well as "advanced amateurs." This is balanced by the full range of auto shooting options and specific scene settings that most advanced amateurs will seldom use. The G11 is first and foremost a Point and Shoot (with a size and heft that will have you thinking "pocket-sized" refers to Godzilla-sized pockets), but with a definite SLR mentality when it comes to manual controls and, more specifically, the ability to adjust important shooting settings on the fly.

Shooting Performance
SLR functionality was left out of the G11 with regards to powering up - the camera takes about 1.6 seconds to present a focus icon after power on and the quickest I could get off a first shot ran about 2.25 to 2.5 seconds - definitely Point and Shoot type times.

Single shot-to-shot times ran about 3 seconds with a SanDisk Extreme III 20MB/s card. Continuous shooting rates at full resolution with AF and exposure calculated for the first shot and applied to all in the sequence ran 1.1 fps - the camera shot 25 consecutive JPEGs and was still going strong when I quit shooting. Tracking moving subjects is hamstrung by a screen blackout of about 0.9 seconds after the first shot of the sequence, and the camera is always one shot behind on display.

Shutter Lag (press-to-capture, pre-focused)

Camera	Time (seconds)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8	0.01
Fujifilm FinePix S200EXR	0.01
Canon PowerShot G11	0.03
Olympus Stylus 7010	0.03

AF Acquisition (press-to-capture, no pre-focus)

Camera	Time (seconds)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8	0.27
Canon PowerShot G11	0.38
Olympus Stylus 7010	0.45
Fujifilm FinePix S200EXR	0.55

Continuous Shooting

Camera	Frames	Framerate*
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8	3	2.2
Fujifilm FinePix S200EXR	6	1.8
Olympus Stylus 7010	2	1.7
Canon PowerShot G11	∞	1.1

AF acquisition times in good light with no pre-focus ran about 0.38 seconds - times lengthened a bit in dim conditions but the G11 has a focus assist lamp. Shutter lag came in at 0.03 seconds.

Flash range can go out to 16 feet at wide angle and 13 feet at telephoto with auto ISO set. Recycle times with partial discharge ran about 4 seconds - seemingly full discharges took a bit over 5 seconds. The G11 will display and update the flash recycle icon while the shutter button is half pressed, making follow up shots possible at the earliest possible moment - the camera will not allow shots with the flash enabled until the flash is fully charged.

With ISO set to 80 for best image quality, flash range is predictably short. However, the G11 can provide a little post processing magic to help, using i-contrast in the camera playback menu. Here are shots of an aircraft at the National Museum of The Air Force in original and post-processed form.

Original

i-Contrast

The flash also performed well at close range - these two shots were made in the archives of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame at distances of about two feet. There is some loss of highlights in the white foam of the second photo, but the flash exposed the main subjects in both shots nicely. (Our thanks to HOF VP/CFO Bill Allen for providing our photo op in the "behind the scenes" world of the Hall).

Lens Performance
The G11's 5x zoom maximum aperture ranges from f/2.8 at wide angle to f/4.5 at telephoto - nice speed across the entire focal length of the lens. There is a bit of barrel distortion at wide angle, and the slightest hint of pincushion at telephoto. Edges are a bit soft at both the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom, and there can be some slight chromic aberration (purple fringing) in some high contrast boundary areas, but the fault is well controlled overall. The lens can focus as close as 0.4 inches in macro mode.

Video Quality
With more and more point and shoots featuring 720p HD video, it was surprising to find Canon's flagship compact capturing at a maximum 640x480 pixel resolution. Video quality seemed adequate.

When in movie mode, the control dial switches the camera between standard, color swap, and color accent movie modes - the right thumb lays across the dial and can move it relatively easily, switching modes.

Image Quality
I was very pleased with default image quality out of the G11 - virtually all shots used to illustrate this review were shot at 80 ISO and Program auto mode, and all with auto white balance. Indoor with flash, indoor with available light, outdoor - the G11 produced excellent results.

If the default settings don't produce images to your liking, the My Colors palette offers a range of color/tone settings as well as a custom setting that allows the user to modify image characteristics like saturation, contrast and sharpness. It's hard to imagine not being able to come up with a combination of settings to please the fussiest of users.

Auto White Balance, 3200k incandescent light

Auto WB shot warm under incandescent light in our studio, but performed well otherwise. The Air Force Museum is, for the most part, dark with spot illumination of the aircraft and exhibits, and shots in this environment were invariably color accurate. The G11 has white balance settings for daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, flash, underwater and a custom setup in addition to auto.

Evaluative metering was used for most shots in the review, and worked well in a range of lighting conditions. The G11 would lose some highlights on occasion in high contrast scenes, particularly shots with portions of open sky in the image - and most cameras would behave the same. With exposure compensation easily adjustable on the camera top, fixing highlight issues was easy. Center-weighted and spot metering options are also available.

ISO noise performance was all we hoped for - compared to the G10, I'd say the G11 is about 2 stops better. ISO 800 in the G11 looks very similar to ISO 200 in the G10, at least to my eye.

ISO 80	ISO 80, 100% crop
ISO 100	ISO 100, 100% crop
ISO 200	ISO 200, 100% crop
ISO 400	ISO 400, 100% crop
ISO 800	ISO 800, 100% crop
ISO 1600	ISO 1600, 100% crop
ISO 3200	ISO 3200, 100% crop

The G11 is quite clean from 80 through 200, with just the slightest of noise showing up at 400 and a bit more at 800, but even these two values are quite good. ISO 1600 shows definite deterioration, and 3200 is predictably worse. Below is a direct comparison of the ISO 1600 shots from the G10 and G11 cropped at 100%.

Canon PowerShot G10, ISO 1600, 100% crop

Canon PowerShot G11, ISO 1600, 100% crop

In addition to our studio shots which demonstrate performance on a largely light image, here's a series at the Pro Football Hall Of Fame shot in a more moderately lit environment.

ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200

Additional Sample Images