How to use the Canon G11 Control Dial in an Underwater Housing

For a while now I have been under the impression you could not use the Control Dial on the Canon Powershot G11 when it was mounted in an underwater housing, but a recent review by Lawrence Alex Wu reveals a little known secret.

I was reading Underwater Photography Magazine (No 55 Jul/Aug 2010), and a review of the Canon Powershot G11 by Lawrence Alex Wu describes a key shortcut that allows the photographer access to the Control Dial functionality while underwater.

Out of the housing, rotating the G11 Control Dial next to the screen allows you to adjust settings that include:-

• Aperture size in Aperture Priority Mode (AV)
• Shutter speed in Shutter Priority Mode (Tv)
• Metering Modes
• Manual Focus
• Brightness Exposure Compensation
• Auto Exposure Bracketing

I often use the Canon WP-DC34 underwater housing with my G11 camera, but the problem is that once you close the housing you no longer have access to the control dial…. or so I thought….

Now thanks to Lawrence’s article I have all the functionality back while underwater….. the secret ????…..

The secret is the “S”-button …. the what button??  you ask …..

The S (Short Cut) button that sits quietly in the top left hand corner of your cameras back, and is normally used to quickly access a stored function, or print an image.

If you hold down the Shortcut button and click the left (macro) button , you will get the same effect as moving the Control Dial in the counter-clockwise direction. Likewise, holding the down the Shortcut button and clicking the right (flash) button will give you the same effect as moving the Control Dial in the clockwise direction.

I applaud the designer who came up with this function.

There is not a lot of information about this type of shortcut, and I and not sure if it’s available on other G series camera such as the G9 or G10, so if you have any other info, it would be great if you could share it with a comment below.