No car, as the snow prevented delivery of my new springs to the garage where it's squatting on it's broken ones, so a good day for a walk, and to try out the Canon G11. The picture quality is fine, light meter is uncanny, and so on, but if you take hold of it like a normal camera your right hand presses anything up to nine of the prominent control buttons on the back at once, activating manual focusing, macro mode, self timer, flash on, or any number of other things that you really don't want when you're just about to squeeze the shutter. You find yourself holding it delicately between two fingers and two thumbs to avoid the unwanted controls. It's really not a camera for reliably taking pictures quickly, especially when your hands are cold and clumsy. A huge amount of technological excellence has gone into a camera whose exterior design makes it barely useable at times. I certainly wouldn't use it on an assignment except as an emergency backup, but it's a nice one to have in your pocket.
