You don’t want good pictures from your new Canon PowerShot G10/G11—you demand outstanding photos. After all, the PowerShot G10 and G11 are the most pocketsized digital cameras that Canon has ever introduced. They boast 10 and 14 megapixels of resolution, blazing fast automatic focus, and a dozen and a half Special Scene modes that make it easy to take pictures under any type of conditions. But your gateway to pixel proficiency is dragged down by the slim little book included in the box as a manual. You know everything you need to know is in there, somewhere, but you don’t know where to start. In addition, the camera manual doesn’t offer much information on photography or digital photography. Nor are you interested in spending hours or days studying a comprehensive book on digital camera photography that doesn’t necessarily apply directly to your G10/G11.
What you need is a guide that explains the purpose and function of the G10/G11’s basic controls, how you should use them, and why. Ideally, there should be information about file formats, resolution, aperture/priority exposure, and special autofocus modes, but you’d prefer to read about those topics only after you’ve had the chance to go out and take a few hundred great pictures with your new camera. Why isn’t there a book that summarizes the most important information in its first two or three chapters, with lots of illustrations showing what your results will look like when you use this setting or that?
Now there is such a book. If you want a quick introduction to the G10/G11’s focus controls, flash, how to use the focal lengths available with the 5X zoom lens, or which exposure modes are best, this book is for you. If you can’t decide on what basic settings to use with your camera because you can’t figure out how changing ISO or white balance or focus defaults will affect your pictures, you need this guide.