It was about this time last year that I was absorbed in deciding what camera gear to take with me to Germany.  We had a family vacation planned for a one week cruise on the River Rhein – from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

I knew I was going to take my Canon PowerShot G11, my don’t-leave-home-without-it camera.  The big question was would I take the big Canon with its retinue of lenses.  And would I take my laptop with Lightroom and Photoshop?  It came down to one simply stated problem – how could I safely get them over there and back?

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Here’s something I’m liking a lot about the G11.  There may be images I’m interested in but don’t want to go to the trouble of setting up the tripod and big Canon.  So, with the G11 on a pouch on my belt, I can just whip it out, turn it on and snap a few.  These can be those documentation shots we like to take like signs of places we visit or those cool interpretive signs scattered about all the interesting places in national parks and state parks.  I can also grab a quick shot of whatever the interpretive signs are expounding on.  In other words, it’s great for grab shots because it’s so easy.  And I feel like a tourist except for the fact that the G11 is much thicker than most of theirs and it shoots RAW and aperture priority and, well, it’s a really powerful camera.

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I’m getting some use from the G11 here in Zion National Park.  I was out shooting all morning and the surprises continue.

For example, the control dial on the back of the camera, well, I expected it to work by pressing up, down, left and right (which it does).  I didn’t expect it to rotate like its bigger dSLR cousins.  But it does and what a pleasant surprise that was.  It didn’t take long to get into the habit of spinning the dial instead of repeatedly pressing the direction buttons.

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