Canon Powershot G11, Panasonic LX3 & Sigma DP2 Digital Camera Review

Features and handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification

Sigma have decided to focus on picture quality using the exclusive Foveon X3 sensor with the DP2. Panasonic have opted for colour reproduction  and features, while Canon is a home away from home for the regular DSLR user.

These top end compacts all produce DSLR quality images in a camera half the size. Review by Matt Grayson

Three cameras aimed at the serious enthusiast audience and designed to give the performance of a DSLR without the size. Ranging in price from £350 - £480, one  is big on zoom range big, one  majors on sensor performance and one is big on features. Which will get our vote?

Prosumer compact comparison: Features
Canon continue the G series lineage with the G11, released in August 2009, sporting everything that a DSLR user needs except the larger sensor. How does it compare against the Sigma DP2 and it'sFoveon sensor designed for superior picture output, or the popular Panasonic Lumix DMC LX3 with its Leica lens and many filter effects?

Canon boast the largest camera on test and is solidly built.	Older G series cameras took CF cards, these days smaller SD cards are accepted.
A command dial on a command dial actually works really well.	The menu is brighter, streamlined and easier to use.

The Foveon X3 sensor differs from the Bayer filter sensors that the Panasonic and Canon  (and everyone else) use because it uses three stacked layers of photodiodes that are responsive to  all three primary colours of light, red, green and blue. In contrast, Bayer filter sensors have separate diodes that are only sensitive to each colour with usually twice as many green diodes compared with red and blue. Because of this, some may argue that the Foveon'sensor's resolution is only a third the listed amount but because three amounts of information can be taken from each site, this essentially means each photosite is outputting three sets of information.

All three cameras on test have PASM modes for ultimate control, which are available on a command dial on top of the camera. Canon have updated the menu system for the recent models, taking away the unnecessary theme menu and making the graphics brighter and more appealing. Panasonic have the same white background menu and large fonts while Sigma has a more complicated menu system that takes some time to get used to.

The DP2 looks quite elegant and is the second largest in the test.	SD cards are slotted into the memory card bay in the battery compartment.
A simple command dial has only seven options with no pre-programmed modes.	The menu isn't the easiest to use but is clear enough to get the job done.

All three have a quick access function menu to get at useful features that you will use the most often. Features such as resolution, white balance and ISO are present here but depending on the camera, there's also other features available. Canon have put a neutral density filter to the function menu for use in bright light or for longer exposures of flowing water. Panasonic have decided to place metering a focusing modes into the function menu while the Sigma has a more simplified version, sticking to the core modes that you need.

Prosumer compact comparison: Handling
All cameras are built to a good standard and while the Canon is the largest of the three, it certainly doesn't feel too bulky unless it's being carried in the palm of the hand. Dials and switches are firm on Canon and Sigma but less so on the Panasonic. A couple of times we removed it from the bag and it had switched modes because the dial got caught.

Panasonic have the smallest camera on test and sports a Leica lens.	SDXC is due in 2010 and could mean a big change for cameras such as this one.
I like the power switch over a button as it's more definite but the top plate is cluttered.	I like the Panasonic menu but could be laid out better without five pages of options.

Canon have fitted an articulating screen to the Powershot G11 and it works really well. It allows for high or low level shooting without the need for stooping or taking a ladder. The G11 is also the only camera to provide a built in optical viewfinder. Sigma and Panasonic offer one separately but this has to be attached to the hotshoe meaning you can't use external flash at the same time.

We love the feel of all the cameras, they're solid with firm buttons which are responsive. However, the Canon is possibly the least responsive of the three and we think it's down to the ease of use. Because it's so easy to navigate, coupled with being able to use the wheel on the back to glide through menus, the camera simply can't cope with the commands of a user that knows where they need to be.

Prosumer compact comparison: Performance
All three cameras were put through their paces in a variety of conditions and tests. All pictures were taken at exactly the same time to ensure fairness and were taken in RAW/JPEG where possible.

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Exposure
Throughout the test, I've been constantly amazed at how well the Panasonic performs. It records colour really well and the exposure is spot on to my tastes. Objectively, it could be argued that the camera is ever so slightly underexposes  and does a great job of bringing the blue of a sky but sacrifices some detail in darker areas. Luckily this isn't a problem because even with the sun directly in the lens, the Panasonic still manages to retain detail in the subject. It will burn out the area surrounding the light source, but that's to be expected, so it's acceptable.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
The Canon suffers from lens flare on this picture.	On the Panasonic, there's lots of detail.	The Sigma has some lens flare in the form of the white bar down the middle.

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Sigma seem to be in a league of their own when it comes to colour reproduction on the DP2. To say the images from the camera are cool-looking is an understatement and there's a distinct lack of warmth in the pictures that the Sigma produces. That is until a white balance preset, such as shade is added and that punches a little extra warmth through.

The Canon takes the middle ground in this test producing an okay result of decent colours and respectable exposure. The Canon has a wide dynamic range which can be bolstered with the iContrast feature if necessary and the good news is that there's detail in the low and high key areas.

Should the picture require a boost of light to the shadows or a prevention of burn out in highlights, Panasonic and Canon both have a dynamic range compensation. The Sigma doesn't offer this, but the results of out test photographs suggests that in most cases it won't be necessary.

The built in lens
High contrast areas can create a phenomenon known as chromatic aberration. Shown as a coloured line along the edge of the darker area, the fault usually lies with the lens but not exclusively. The lens on the Canon is good quality but does suffer from flare when the sun is in the frame. It suffered from chroma in our test but only in very high contrast areas.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
You can see a little chroma on the branch tips.	Punchy colours are produced by the LX3.	Lacklustre results from the Sigma gives a flat image.

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Panasonic have fitted a Leica specification lens to their camera and the quality shows through with no flare evident in a similar situation. The lens on the Panasonic is branded Leica, but they don't actually make the lenses. They're manufactured by Panasonic to Leica's specification. Some would brand that as cheating, but the proof is in the pudding and this lens is proving to be very good so far, which is what it's all about.

Sigma are well known for their lens making so great things should be expected from one of their own. There's certainly no distortion at the edges although with the sun in the frame, I got a white streak of flare cutting across the frame. Chroma isn't evident on the test pictures that I took outside with the Sigma DP2.

Focusing
On the Canon Powershot G11 is an excellent focusing tool for off centre subjects or for focus stacking which is a technique to create wide focused images that are also ultra sharp. You can see that technique by following the link for focus stacking on ePHOTOzine.tv. The Canon can help by using an adjustable focusing square enabled by pressing the focus point button above the navigation wheel. Pressing the star button will scroll through the focus options which also include face detection and standard.

Delving into the menu of the Panasonic reveals several focusing modes such as face detection, tracking, multi area, 1 area high speed, 1 area and spot focusing. The high speed focusing system does what it says on the tin but the screen freezes while focusing in this mode but doesn't do anything else special, so I can't see why it wouldn't be the default setting.  Still, it's fast and accurate with little hunting for focus.

Sigma's autofocusing system is the loudest and slowest of the three cameras on test and also vibrates slightly as the internal lenses pull themselves into position. It's only slightly slower but can cause problems with faster moving subjects or candid photography. I do like the manual focusing system of the DP2, though. Pressing the focus button on the navigation pad scrolls through the options and when manual focus is selected, the wheel on the left shoulder manipulates the focus. It's a lot easier to use than the manual focusing systems on the other cameras.

Colour and sharpness
The outdoor performance tests have shown Panasonic hurtling ahead with the Lumix DMC-LX3 when it comes to recording and boosting colour. The Canon Powershot G11 has proven to be a little less saturated while the Sigma DP2 has shown a lackadaisical approach to injecting colour and they're quite flat as a result.

In controlled lighting, the Sigma shows a distinct improvement with a decent result although I think JPEGs should be boosted more by the processor. Still, it leaves more scope for playing around on the computer, giving more control over to the photographer, albeit after the picture taking has ended.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
I like the colour results from the Canon and level of detail. It's not the best of the bunch but it's nothing to grumble about.	The Panasonic hasn't produced as good a result as when it was outside and noise lets down the clarity which is a shame.	Primaries look good but earth colours could be better from the DP2.

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Thes Sigma's skin tones appear a little warmer than I expected when shooting portraits, but exposure is bang on with no burn out on the highlights or loss of detail in the low key areas. Primary colours look nice although in light, but I'd like to see an improvement in earthier colours such as brown and forest greens which come out a bit tepid.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Canon has the easiest white balance to set and has warmed skin nicely. The eyes are tack sharp.	The LX3 has reproduced the hair colour more accurately and has given the most balanced exposure.	Sigma's portrait result has warm skin and is sharp.

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

The Canon works well in controlled lighting as the custom white balance is fairly easy to set up and use. Primary colours are boosted by the camera and pop out of the frame while pastels also get a gentle push. In fact all the colours are well rounded and while this isn't something that really should be criticised, I still keep having a thought in the back of my head that the camera's not really trying. In a bid to prove me wrong, it produces portraits with warm skin tones, although maybe a little too warm, with a balanced exposure and sharp eyes.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2

The last images were taken in flash white balance to see how the camera coped. All did well although the LX3 gives a slightly warm cast to the background.

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After the colours seen in the outside shots, I'm expecting great things from the LX3, so I'm a little disappointed to see the results. Primary colours, while punchy, aren't as good as previously seen although pastel colours fare better when recorded by the Panasonic. Red is a little darker than the Canon, which I prefer but I do like the earthy colours.

The G11 is on a close par with DP2 for sharpness and I think the Sigma just clinches it due to consistent results. The Panasonic is let down by noise which breaks the sharpness of the image down and in some cases, the Canon was too. The Sigma didn't suffer which is why it's crept ahead.

Noise
All three camera have roughly the same range of ISO with Canon and Panasonic going as low as ISO80 while Sigma trumps that with a lower setting of ISO50. They all go to ISO3200, although ISO1600 - 3200 and auto can only be accessed when using RAW on the DP2.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Canon ISO80 test.	Panasonic ISO80 test	Sigma ISO50 test
Canon ISO100 test	Panasonic ISO100 test	Sigma ISO100 test
Canon ISO200 test	Panasonic ISO200 test	Sigma ISO200 test
Canon ISO400 test	Panasonic ISO400 test	Sigma ISO400 test
Canon ISO800 test	Panasonic ISO800 test	Sigma ISO800 test
Canon ISO1600 test	Panasonic ISO1600 test
Canon ISO3200 test	Panasonic ISO3200 test

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Canon controls noise well and it doesn't start to get to be a problem until around ISO800 where it's noticeable at normal viewing size. At ISO1600, the problem is simply amplifying and at ISO3200, black noise is breaking the image down a lot. That type of noise can be advantageous on black & white images but on colour just serves to detract from the quality.

It's a similar story in controlled lighting but displays more clearly where colour invasion begins which is at ISO1600 on the grey card and ISO800 on black. It's quite an aggressive invasion of colour as ISO800 shows next to nothing.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Canon ISO80 test	Panasonic ISO80 test	Sigma ISO50 test
Canon ISO80 test	Panasonic ISO100 test	Sigma ISO100 test
Canon ISO200 test	Panasonic ISO200 test	Sigma ISO200 test
Canon ISO400 test	Panasonic ISO400 test	Sigma ISO400 test
Canon ISO800 test	Panasonic ISO800 test	Sigma ISO800 test
Canon ISO1600 test	Panasonic ISO1600 test
Canon ISO3200 test	Panasonic ISO3200 test

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

The Panasonic tells a different story and controls noise really well until ISO400 where a noticeable shift in picture quality can be detected.  In the full review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, I mentioned that they should have left it at ISO1600 and I still reserve that judgement. At higher sensitivities, the camera seems to start adding a greenish cast to the lighter areas.

With a larger sensor, this should be Sigma's time to show its true quality and the DP2 certainly performs well at low and mid-range ISO settings. At ISO800, which is the highest JPEG sensitivity setting, noise is starting to come through although I don't think it's as bad as the Canon or Panasonic at the same stage.

However, the higher settings which can only be shot in RAW are much worse than the other two cameras, but then no noise control will have been applied to a RAW image. Comparing these against the RAW files from the Canon and Panasonic needed updates for Adobe RAW downloading first and that's the beauty of the Sigma. They haven't changed the RAW settings in the DP2, so the files still open even with an older version.

White balance
The Canon handles shade well, with a slight boost of warmth that can be seen in midtones. The auto setting copes well with gentle casts such as daylight and fluorescent, but seems to struggle with stronger casts such as tungsten.

This is typical of all the cameras, though, as the Panasonic also copes well with the more gentle types. However, the Lumix DMC-LX3 doesn't warm the image up as much as the Canon but there's still a definite boost there and it can be seen more in grassy areas.

The Sigma also has a slight warmth in modes such as daylight but the camera has such little colour in it that it's difficult to tell but there's a definite boost there.

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Shade
Canon auto white balance	Panasonic auto white balance	Sigma auto white balance
Canon white balance	Panasonic white balance	Sigma white balance

Fluorescent
Canon auto white balance	Panasonic auto white balance	Sigma auto white balance
Canon white balance fluo	Panasonic white balance fluo	Sigma white balance fluo
Tungsten
Canon auto white balance	Panasonic auto white balance	Sigma auto white balance
Canon white balance	Panasonic white balance	Sigma white balance

Click on any of the thumbnails to open the full size images.

Flash modes
All three cameras have a built-in flash as well as a dedicated hotshoe for adding external flash. Canon has the upper hand at this stage with the built-in optical viewfinder while Panasonic and Sigma have decided to add one to fit to the hotshoe. THis means you can't use a flash while using the viewfinder or vice versa.

The Sigma DP2's flash has a range of 28cm to 3m and features red eye reduction, slow sync and a combination of the two along with auto. There's no flash compensation and I think this is to urge you to use an external flash to increase your creative ouput. It stands to reason that if you don't have the possibility to do something with the camera on its own, you'll add an accessory to produce better shots.

Canon have added quite a few flash functions to the Powershot G11. There is a number of flash modes such as auto, manual, slow sync and red-eye. The camera also has flash compensation +/- 2EV and has a range from 50cm - 7m at wide angle.

Panasonic have added the most options to the LX3 with auto, forced on, slow sync, forced off and flash sync 1st curtain/2nd curtain along with hybrid versions of those settings. There's flash compensation of +/- 2EV and has a range of 80cm - 8.3m at wide angle.

A mixed performance from all three with Sigma not doing well at the top end but performing better with closer subjects. Canon again go middle of the road while Panasonic manage to outstrip them on the distance but has more of as chance of over exposing at close range.

Battery life
Throughout the test, the cameras were used reasonably and the batteries all managed to cope well without loss of battery power. The screen on the back was used all the time in an attempt to run the batteries down, but all three cameras took the abuse and shouted for more.

Prosumer compact comparison: Verdict
It's been an interesting test. With its innovative technology I was really hoping that the DP2 would excel. It is better than the previous DP1 but I actually think the Sigma takes flatter images in JPEG to make you shoot in RAW and that's what the camera is created for.

Part way through, I was leaning towards the Panasonic with its many features and solid build quality. One area that annoys me about the LX3 is the Intelligent Auto (iA) mode.
I know Panasonic are proud of the feature but this is a camera that's aimed more at users who know how to expose an image and enjoy striving to get it. iA takes that fun away from picture taking and is all very well for point and shoot types.

Overall, I was most happy with how the Canon has performed. While sitting in the middle of the road in a few areas, it prevailed in key areas such as ISO, white balance and colour control. These are the most important parts of picture taking and is why the camera has won this group test.




Prosumer compact comparison: Pros

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Good build quality Large amount of features Easy to use Best noise control	Punchy colours Leica lens Good dynamic range	Good ISO performance Larger sensor Good lens Same RAW format as DP1

Prosumer compact comparison: Cons

Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Mild chromatic aberration Wheel on back slow to respond	Joystick on back could work better Noise comes in early	Loud, slow focusing Flat colours in JPEG

	Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
FEATURES
HANDLING
PERFORMANCE
VALUE
OVERALL

The Canon Powershot G11 costs around £469 and is available from Warehouse Express here:

Canon Powershot G11

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 costs around £ and is available from Warehouse Express here:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

The Sigma DP2 costs around £475.49 and is available from Warehouse Express here:

Sigma DP2

Prosumer compact comparison: Specification

	Canon Powershot G11	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3	Sigma DP2
Zoom	5x optical	2.5x optical	None
Resolution	10Mp	10.1Mp	14.06Mp
Sensor size	1/1.7in	1/1.63in	20.7x13.8mm
Sensor type	CCD	CCD	Foveon X3, (CMOS)
Max. image size	3648x2736		2640x1760
File type	JPEG, RAW		JPEG, RAW
Sensitivity	ISO80 - 3200	ISO80-3200 (max ISO6400 in High ISO mode)	ISO50 – 800 (JPEG), 1600 & 3200 (RAW)
Media type	Internal, SD, SDHC	Internal 50Mb, SD, SDHC, MMC	SD, SDHC
Focus modes	Single, continuous, servo AF/AE	Auto, macro, quick AF, continuous, manual, one shot, selective, tracking	Auto, landscape, manual
Normal focusing	50cm - infinity	50cm - infinity	28cm - infinity
Close focusing	1cm - 50cm	1cm	None
Metering types	Multi, centre-weighted, spot	Multi, centre-weighted, spot	Multi, centre-weighted, spot
Exp comp	+/- 2EV in 1/3 step increments	+/- 2EV, 1/3 EV step	+/- 3EV in 1/3 step increments
Shutter speeds	15sec - 1/4000sec	60sec - 1/2000sec (manual mode)	15sec - 1/2000sec
Flash	Built-in, hotshoe	Built-in, hotshoe for external flash	Built-in, hotshoe
Monitor	2.8in articulating TFT LCD screen	3in TFT LCD, 100% coverage	2.5in TFT LCD screen
Interface	USB 2.0		USB 2.0
Power	Li-Ion battery	Li-Ion battery	Li-Ion battery
Size	112.1x76.2x48.3mm	108.7x59.5x27.1mm	113.3x59.5x56.1mm
Weight	355g	290g	260g