I know several clients who use Canon G10/11/12 cameras as a lightweight addition to their dSLRs. Very handy for capturing pictures adhoc when taking the usual kit out would be a pain or draw unwanted attention.
It has been possible to get the best of these images through Getty quality control but a lot of the time image quality can be an issue.
Canon have announced a possible solution. Its a little larger than the older G series (only a bit), but the sensor inside is 6x bigger. This will mean less noise on the 14MP sensor. Its on pre order at the moment and will cost approx £700 inc VAT.
DP have a review here
No sample images as yet but if your about to buy a G12 you may want to wait and see.
Update
Things are looking good, early pre production sample images are available here:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/canon-powershot-g1-x-preview-samples
Not quite Canon 1Ds MkIII / 5D MkII quality but pretty impressive for a small 14mp compact, particularly at high iso. Nice.
The HD video samples look very fragile with quite bad moire, lets hope this improves on the production model, less important than the stills quality though…