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You will love the photos from the G1X,
When you pick up the Canon G1X, your first thought will probably be “Wow– this thing is SOLID.” There is a lot of glass and high quality components stuffed inside this little package, and it all adds up to SUPER photos. This camera is a terrific addition to a photographer’s arsenal. It is a perfect companion camera to have when you do not want to tote around your DSLR and all of the accessories that comes with that. But, do not think that this is a pocket-sized camera– while it will fit into a large coat pocket, you will likely be wearing this camera around your neck when you have it out for your day of shooting.
The G1X takes incredibly good photos. It rivals my Canon 60D in that regard. Its low-light sensitivity is top notch for a camera this size, due mainly to the fact that the sensor is nearly as large as the 1.6 crop sensors in many consumer/prosumer DSLRs. I get great photos at ISO 1600, and usable photos all the way up to ISO 6400. (Note that if you shoot RAW, then you will not get as great photos until you apply noise reduction in your software of choice.)
This camera also supports full 1080P digital recording, although I have not yet had a chance to put that through its paces, so I cannot yet comment on the quality and ease of use. However, from the little that I have done, it seems very good. You can record at different aspect ratios (e.g. 16×9), you can zoom while recording, and the camera has a built-in “wind” noise filter.
In addition to the standard set of “creative modes” (portrait, landscape, kids & pets, sports, night, beach, underwater, foliage, snow, fireworks, face-detect) that come with digital cameras these days, the G1X also has numerous digital affects built in such as HDR, miniature, toy camera, fish eye, nostalgic, among others. Additionally, the G1X can also be operated 100% automatically or 100% manually, or somewhere in between, allowing you to shoot in (P)rogram mode, Av, Tv, and M. In my opinion, the camera performs best when you take over most of the decision making. Like most cameras, this camera does not do its best work in 100% Automatic mode.
The knocks on this camera, and the reason it does not get 5 stars from me, are its sluggish auto focus, its poor view finder, and its relatively high price. While the auto-focus is a bit slow, I think it compares reasonably to other compact cameras in this price range, especially if you do use a creative mode so the camera “knows” what to look for in your scene. However, if you want to spend a bit more, you can still get superior performance from something like the Fuji X100. The optical view finder is nearly useless– you cannot see what the camera is focusing on and the lens obstructs the lower left-hand corner of the view, even when not zoomed. For these reasons, I quickly abandoned using it altogether. Another knock would be the Macro capabilities of the G1X, or lack thereof. While there is a Macro shooting mode, the minimum focusing distance required does not allow you to get anything near Macro images. As far as the price is concerned, the quality warrants the price, but the shortcomings take away from the perceived value. The same camera at $599 would be a no-brainer. Fix the auto-focus speed, viewfinder, and macro ability and charge the $799 and it is also a no-brainer. As it is, you will have to decide if the features warrant the price for yourself.
If you are deciding whether or not to purchase the G1X or a DSLR, I would opt for a DSLR unless your #1 concern is size. The DSLR will offer much more customization that the G1X. However, if you are looking for a camera that allows you to leave your DSLR at home, but still gives you fantastic photos and allows you full control, then this camera may be exactly what you are looking for.
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|Very Good Camera with Flaws,
A few years ago Thom Hogan posted a “Compact Camera Challenge” ([…]) in his excellent blog, in which he lamented the lack of compact cameras with a large sensor. Despite the development of digital photography technology for the past two decades, stated Hogan, “the camera makers simply don’t have any idea of what many of their customers really want.” In Hogan’s view, consumers will be well served if there was a compact camera with a larger sensor that met certain standards he deemed essential for a serious photographer.
I stumbled onto Hogan’s challenge as I was looking for the same thing. And since that time I have been waiting and hoping for such a camera. I use a DSLR (Canon EOS 10D and EOS Xti) almost exclusively, but grow tired of lugging the camera and those heavy lenses on each trip as well as the lens changing for those casual outings. The end result is that I now don’t bother to even bring a camera with me on some of my trips. I know there are those mirror-less cameras, but the prospect of buying a whole new set of lenses and change them during shooting had discouraged me from jumping into them.
The Canon Powershot G1X is exactly the camera I have been waiting for. It has in fact exceeded all the criteria laid out in Hogan’s challenge. So I immediately bought it, even though the $800 price tag is on the high side.
After playing around with it in the past few days I have gained a better picture of what this camera is (and isn’t). I’m still very pleased with it. In the mean time I also feel that depending on what you use your camera for and what your level of enthusiasm is, there might be better alternatives. I’ll try to summarize what I have found below in more details.
1. Image Quality (Sensor). The greatest strength of this camera is its ability to take SUPERB quality images. The lens is very sharp. The quality of images taken under low light situation (which is pretty much the case if you take indoor pictures) is UNSURPASSED by any other compact camera. I have shot several images at ISO 3200, something I had never done even with my DSLR, and the images are completely usable. In fact, up to ISO 1600 the noise level is negligible. Numerous reviews have confirmed this experience. You can find various sample images online, including a large number of them on DPReview. You may also find some of images I have taken at
[…]
2. Lens Quality. So far I’m very pleased with it. It is a very sharp lens. The 28-115mm zoom is practical for most shooting situations. I find the lens to be very sharp overall. However, at the widest setting of 28mm the barrel distortion is quite evident — in fact it is very pronounced. If you shoot in JPEG at 28mm the images looks far less distorted because it has been corrected in the camera firmware. Of course, this means you do see some softness away from the center of the frame. But when you shoot in raw and open it in Photoshop (after converting it to Adobe dng format), you see the pronounced distortion. This is something most of the “official” reviews have missed.
The lens, other than at its widest setting, is quite slow. I do understand that this is a limitation of the compactness of this camera.
3. Features. As an advanced compact camera, like other Powershot G-series cameras, the G1X comes with all kinds of user controls that are essential for enthusiasts. I will not go into details. DPReview ([…]) has just posted its full review of the camera, and many features are discussed there. There are also a number of features that people who don’t care for user controls will find intriguing. For example, there is a “smile detection” setting that will take three pictures automatically if it detects a smile. I have tested this feature, and it seems to work fine. If you want a camera packed with features that suit both novices and professionals, the G1X will not disappoint you. I highly recommend one to go through the full manual (downloadable from Canon website) to get to know all the features.
4. Focus. The G1X has been criticized by just about every review for its slow autofocus. But I find this to be an overreaction. I certainly have not noticed that the focus is slow or inaccurate. If anything, I find it to be quite good. Sure it is no match for an SLR, but I have used many compact cameras, and the G1X stacks up pretty well. In lab testing the G1X is slower than the state of the art compact cameras by a fraction of a second on average, but to most people, even seasoned professionals, I don’t believe this is an issue. The G1X also has a very useable manual focus, conveniently controlled with a dial and viewed on the LCD with a digital “magnifying glass.”
A bigger problem is its inability to focus in close range, so one must often switch between normal focus and macro focus modes. Fortunately this is not so difficult for the G1X.
5. Macro. Like everyone else…
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|Not for everyone but …,
If you want GREAT IQ this is it. MY G1X came in on 2-9-2012 and have taken over 1000 pics with it. If you want a FAST camera then its not for you, the focus is not fast but it does the job, I would not call it slow. Shot to shot is slow and dont even talk about macro. I have a 7D for speed and macro but the funny thing is the G1X has as good if not better IQ at high iso it really is that good.
The 4 stars and not 5 is for the speed of focus and MFD. I do weddings and portraits and this is now my backup camera to my 7D. Its far from perfect but the reason for a camera is the picture and for this its very very good. The video is good and it will focus while in video mode, you can also zoom in video and its nearly silent. I use raw with my 7D but I am finding that may not be needed with the G1X the jpg’s out of the camera are as good as I can get with LR4. The lens hood will not fit the G1x reversed, I use a Lowepro Apex 100aw. It will hold the Gx with the lens hood attached.
Dave
4/16/2012
Adding data on frame rate. Did a bit of testing on how fast you can take continuous shoots. All testing was done while shooting at a clock for 10-11 sec and then counting the number of pictures taken. Also tested with int and ext flash.
AV mode, auto white bal,4:3 large jpg, DR off, 28mm 1/60 @ 2.8.
no flash:
Single shot ~ 5 / 10 about 5 shots in 10 sec, frame rate = (shots – 1) / time = 0.4 shots / sec, 2.5 sec / shot
Cont-with focus ~ 8 / 10 = 0.7 & 1.43
Cont-no focus ~ 18 / 10 = 1.7 & 0.59
int flash
Single shot ~ 4 / 11
Cont-with focus ~ 7 / 10
Cont-no focus ~ 13 / 11
ext flash 320ex
Single shot ~ 4 / 10
Cont-with focus ~ 7 / 10
Cont-no focus ~ 17 / 10
Beause of the faster operation in cont/focus I have changed to that as my std. I would rather have extra shots then miss one. This also shows the huge advantage with an ext flash in faster shooting. The problem with cont/focus is the the screen is black for about 80% of the time 🙁
Dave
6/11/2102
In my view the 320EX is to big a flash for the G1X, its bigger then the camera. I picked up a 270EXII last week and really like it on the G1X, I think the size is a better match. I wanted to pass on one thing I found that is nice, the 270EXII with Eneloop’s in cont-no focus mode the flash would keep up with the camera as fill light AV mode. I stopped at 32 shots with no delay from the flash. Will add more as I do more testing.
I think that most people know that an ext flash helps because of the bounce feature but there are a few other good reasons for an ext flash. One that I like is it has its own battery so you dont use the camera battery. Another is the remote flash you can do with the 270EXII.
One more little thing, the Video Light on the 320ex will work in the auto mode with the G1X. It will turn on when needed in a video and it wont turn off till the end of the video, so it wont be flashing on and off.
Dave
8/31/2012
Wanted to add some data on SD cards. The G1X does NOT support UHS1 sd cards, it can still use a UHS1 card but will not be as fast as the card is rated for. To test this I used a Scandisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s sd card and had only a 10% better frame rate then the Amazon basics 16g sd class 10 card. I also tested card speed in two different card readers one an older model USB2 and NO UHS1 support, the Scandisk Extreme Pro only did 20MB/s with this reader and the Amazon basics did 17. In a new USB3 & USH1 (USpeed Y3201) reader the Scandisk Extreme Pro did 86MB/s and the Amazon basics did 18.
Dave
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