Yes, I have followed the Luminous Landscape for a long time and can only agree with your comments. When it comes to gear Michael Reichmann is definitely a good ressource. As for the review sites, agreed, often long and boring, but of course they are good if you want to get down to the nitty gritty details on specs and tech.

Hands-on reviews by photographers are the type of reviews I like. Some web sites like to post 20 pages of detailed specs and pictures of the menus – I hate them!

I don’t know if you ever read http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ ? It won’t win any awards for looking slick, but the guy tells me the things I want to know as a photographer.

I think I might have inadvertently misled you here. I have not replaced my G9 with the new G11, but just meant to make a reference to the fact that there is a newer model than the G9.

In other words I have not tried to shoot with the G11 at this stage, but suspect that it will be much like the G9 just with some of the technical improvements mentioned in this post.

If I ever was to review something I think it would be more of a hands-on type review than a technical one, as there are so many technical review sites out there.

However, I can say that I’m very happy with my G9, but should point out that I do find the files to be a bit too noisy at ISO 400 and up, but it’s my understanding that this issue has been addressed in the G11, so I think it’s leaps and bounds better in that department than the G9.

The G11 would have to be one of the most serious compacts on the market today. I wouldn’t hesitate.

However, if I was to mention one other camera that might be worthwhile taking a closer look at it’s Panasonic’s new LUMIX DMC-GF1.

I don’t know the prices in Japan, but it sounds like it might be worth giving yourself that early Christmas present if there is a saving to be had.

Good luck with it.

Yes, there were several really good shots from the city. These shots are a lot more spectacular than my ‘memory’ shots, simply because it makes the whole dust storm a lot more surreal when see it ‘over’ such famous icons like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It really gives the storm a perspective.

Oh, well at least I experienced it and got a few ‘memory shots’. It was an interesting morning to say the least, even now where the dust has settled