I am doing some slow and painstaking research into which high end digicam to purchase sometime later this year. I wish to have something decent but smaller than my big dslr which I can take places where the big camera would be not allowed or would be awkward.

Anyway, my father kindly lent me his G11 for a few days to try out and see if I (and my wife) like it. I hope to give it a rigorous workout in all sorts of lighting conditions and in all sorts of locations in an effort to make up my mind about it. Should it work for the type of photography I intend to use it for, I will have to buy one (so, there will be no test charts, since I rarely find test charts while outside shooting with a camera or at family events... ;p) My wife has concluded that it would work for her and should "be possible to figure out".

I am not interested in out of the camera shots and how they look. I am a raw shooter with my Olympus gear, and would continue that trend with any digicam I get (not supporting raw is a deal breaker). Therefore, I will only show pictures that are processed to a standard that I can live with. For the purposes of full disclosure, I am not a pixel peeper (although I will do so to process) and am really only interested in how a picture looks when seen at a size and distance I intend it to be seen from.

So what is my verdict now that I have played with this thing a bit?

This thing is big enough to hold onto nicely, has a good screen (the flippy part is nice), and has excellent IQ. And not just for a small camera. Used as designed, it is just excellent period. The results speak for themselves I think. It is not a powerhouse for low light shooting, but does give useable results in my books up to ISO 1600 if care is taken in shooting and in processing. It is not a pixel peepers delight, but who cares? I don't. I rarely find myself looking at art with a magnifying glass and writing it off if I see dots. I like the fact that I can take impactful pictures in lousy light without straining the camera much.

I simply love the form factor. The metal dials on the top and all the control that goes along with it are really appreciated. I am not a fan of diving into menus to change things, and prefer a direct button or dial (one of the reasons I love the E-3 - it is literally festooned with buttons and I never have to go into the menus for things I change while shooting.) The little details please - the shutter button with its zoom control surround remind me of the ones used on old film cameras.

Do I have a wish list for it? Of course I do! A larger viewfinder (not likely to happen) would be great, or at least a viewfinder which more closely matched the screen. This is simply a matter of getting used to it though and I do like the fact that it has one at all. A control dial on the front would be great- the G12 fixes that (yay)! I would gladly, and immediately, sacrifice the ability to add lenses to the front of it in exchange for a dial on the front which surrounds the lens like the Powershot S95 and Olympus ZX1 have which would do different things depending on the mode chosen. That, coupled with a front control dial, would mean it would be possible to install a less fiddly four way controller on the back - one without a control dial integrated into it. A good thing if you ask me - what is there now works and works well, but due to its small size, is fiddly.

To conclude, since I like the ergonomics for the most part, like the size a lot, and am impressed with what I am getting IQ wise for the shooting I intend the camera for, I would get one.

Sadly, this has to go back to where it lives.