Canon PowerShot G11

Handling (8.00)

Although the G11 is on the chunky side, it fits into the hand well, with the raised grip on the front of the body providing sufficient room for the fingers to hold on tightly, and a textured rubber coating on this grip means that it won’t slip from sweaty fingers. Another level of security is provided by the inclusion of a wrist strap with the camera.

Buttons & Dials (7.00)

There are a lot of buttons and dials on the G11: a total of 14 buttons and and 5 dials in all. This number of buttons could be confusing for newcomers, but it does make these controls much easier to access than other cameras. To change the ISO level on the G11, you just twist the ISO dial. On other cameras, you have to dig into the on-screen menu and find the ISO option, then change it.

The bulk of the G11 does mean that you have to use both hands to access the controls of this camera. Although the controls are near the shutter, you can’t change the shooting mode or ISO level with one hand. The same is true of the exposure compensation dial and other controls on the back of the camera.

One interesting addition to the standard set of controls on the back is the control dial. Located around the 4-way directional pad, this makes it much easier to quickly scroll through menus and set options such as shutter speed. Rather than using the up and down of the directional pad, you can quickly scroll through the options with the control dial. It’s a definite plus in manual modes, where it makes choosing a shutter speed or aperture much quicker.

Menus (6.50)

The G11 has two separate menu systems: the function menu for the basic functions of the camera and the main menu for the other controls. The function menu is accessed by pressing the func. button in the middle of the directional control pad, and contains the controls for the shooting features of the camera. The features that can be accessed here depend on the shooting mode, but in most they include the size of the images, white balance, bracketing, the burst mode and the neutral density filter.

The main menu is accessed by pressing the menu button, and contains the other functions of the camera. It’s divided into three tabs: shooting settings, camera settings, and the customizable my menu settings. The shooting settings tab is for features such as enabling/disabling the digital zoom, setting the AF mode, etc. The camera settings menu is the home of features such as formatting the memory card, the power saving settings and others. The My Menus tab allows you to create a customized menu that contains commonly used features for quick access.

Manual & Learning (7.00)

The G11 comes with a 195 page manual that does a very good job of explaining the features of the camera, starting with the basic features and covering all of the more complex ones as well.