PowerShot G11

One of our regular blog readers and forum posters sent me an email today asking about the PowerShot G11 and movie mode shooting. With all new EOS cameras seemingly featuring Full HD movie shooting due to a DIGIC 4 processor (among other additions) he was curious why the G11, despite having a DIGIC 4 processor, didn’t shoot full HD, instead ‘only’ capturing 640 x 480. Surely he reasoned, not unreasonably, that if cameras like the IXUS 120 IS can shoot in 720p HD, surely the G11 should be able to?

This all makes sense, and the only reason I can see why is to provide some differentiation in the range.  

All that said though, he claims to still be interested in the G11, but is wondering whether the lack of full HD really makes too much difference or not. Well, the answer is simple – if you have a high def TV and want to make use of it, or you have designs on being the next Simon King, then yes, high def is where it’s at. However, if you are looking to simply shoot some clips of your holiday to add into a DVD of stills as a multimedia presentation, then SD 640 x480 is more than good enough – and actually still looks pretty impressive. 

So what’s this all about? Well, jut because the G11 doesn’t have full HD shooting, don’t write it off immediately. It’s still a very capable camera and with the multi-faceted approach to noise reduction with the lower resolution and DIGIC 4 processor, early reports are that it is turning in some pretty impressive image quality as well.