I was looking at the Canons actually. Has anyone ever taken a G11 out in the field? Is it pretty bulky? Feels like it would break easily?
I go out in the backcountry for snowboarding a lot and really like the ability to grab and shoot quickly without worrying to much about the camera but also getting the shot.
My wife has a G9 which I use occassionally. Bulky? Yep, compared to the credit-card size point-and-shoots - but there is definitely more creative control with the Canon, and it's still way more compact than my Olympus (the smallest DSLR made). It seems pretty hefty and well built.
Not sure what they've done with the G10 or G11, but I will caution this - the manual focus on the G9 is so difficult to use that it's not worth trying. But if you're more interested in playing with aperture and speed, it's great.
postscript
Also, as a point-and-shoot it's far better than my Olympus, which is pretty poor on automatic.