A Day in Seattle

We were wandering around downtown Seattle today so I thought I’d post a few pictures. Most of these are cropped a bit. They were shot with a Canon G11. I was a bit disappointed in the flatness of the color. I added a bit of saturation to all of them. Perhaps the cloudy white balance would have been a better option. It does give a slightly warmer feel. Or I could have bumped up the saturation in the custom color settings. Maybe next time. Overall, I must say I’m slightly disappointed with my G11. Dynamic range really sucks (I hate to say that about a $500 camera), colors are a bit flat (with default settings), the video’s lame and auto mode royally sucks. I might have to spring for the Canon 550D in a month or two.

I’m going to have to rant about the auto mode before I post my pictures. To all those who say, “Nobody buys a G11 for the auto mode,” I would respond:

“Yes, you do. You buy it for all modes.”

People who want to be creative with their photography will love the flexibility of this camera. That’s not what I’m complaining about. Once you figure things out you can get the results you want. But there are times when you just want to pull it out and shoot. There are times when you want to give it to your wife and say, “Point it over here and shoot.” There are times (like at parties) when you’re just trying to capture memories, not get that perfect shot. If you’re messing around with the settings, you might miss your opportunity. All I’m saying is that for a $500 camera, the auto mode should be brilliant. It should be better than most any other digicam’s auto mode. You shouldn’t have to figure out all the settings all the time. This camera should be the ultimate hybrid of automatic and manual.

Why do I complain about it? Well, when my wife says, “Why is there a red hand blinking in the screen?” I have to wonder the same thing. I run over to look at the settings the camera’s choosing. I see a shutter speed of 1/15, an ISO of 1200, no flash and a red blinking hand (signifying that the shutter speed’s too slow for a handheld shot). I switch the camera to “program” mode, set the ISO to 100 and the flash to “auto” and the picture comes out perfect. Good colors, nice and sharp . . . what more could you ask for? Well, an auto mode that doesn’t choose ridiculous settings, that’s what. Not only that, in auto mode the focus is often way off (or else it’s camera shake). Not only that, but whatever the camera is doing produces a kind of pasty, washed-out look to skin tones.

I have to keep telling my wife, “Never use auto mode. It sucks.” And while she’s plenty smart enough to figure it out if she wants to . . . photography just isn’t her thing.

She shouldn’t have to ask me questions like, “Why does everything look blue?” Then I have to tell her that I changed the white balance to tungsten lighting because I was taking some indoor shots. She should be able to throw everything on “auto” and come out with good, if not great, shots. But with the G11, she can’t, and we miss some great photos as a result.

Anyway, I’m always looking for an opportunity to get a new camera. The 550D looks pretty amazing. I’ll sell this one, buy a little Panasonic with a decent auto mode for my wife then buy the 550D for myself.

Sorry about all that. Here are the pictures from today.