Canon G7X Review

The Canon G7X is my most recent camera purchase, and one that I am quite happy with.

At least half of the time I use my camera for taking photos and filming people snowboarding, and the rest would be mainly landscapes.

I previously owned the Canon 700d/t5i, which was a great camera, but I ended up not using it as much as I wanted, as the bigger size was sometimes annoying to carry around, especially snowboarding or hiking. Although I had a nice Dakine Mission Photo backpack to hold the lenses and body, it still didn’t get used as much as I wished I did.

For the past couple of years that I had been interested in the idea of a camera that took high quality images, similar to a DSLR, but in a small package. I was impressed with the micro 4/3 cameras that I looked at, and although they were a nice step in between a DSLR and a compact camera, there were a few downsides.

Although the body is nice and small, by the time you add a lens on them, they gain a lot of size. Although there were a few nice pancake lenses, that was one of the potential downsides. If it wasn’t going to fit in my pocket, I might as well just keep my t5i.

After a lot of researching and watching YouTube videos, I narrowed my choice down to the Sony RX 100 III and the Canon G7x.

Overall both of these cameras are quite similar in size, look and features. It is only when you take a good look at them do you notice the difference.

What I was looking for in a camera

Small size

The size of both the Sony and the Canon are very similar, and both will fit easily into a pocket.

Burst mode

It is always handy to have a good burst mode options, especially when taking photos of people skiing and snowboarding. The Sony has a slightly faster burst mode, it can get 10 frames per second compared to the Canon’s 6.5. Not a huge deal, as 6.5 is pretty good, but more is better.

RAW

I like taking photos in RAW rather than JPEG, as you can do so much more editing with a RAW file than you can with a JPEG. Also, being realistic I am unlikely to get my settings perfect while I am out taking photos, so having the options to completely fix my mistakes (exposure/color balance etc) later on helps me save a few pictures that would be been no good.

One thing to note, is that if you use the Auto mode on the Canon, it will only take JPEGS. As long as you are using one of the creative modes (Av, Tv, P, M etc) then it will will take in RAW or RAW+JPG.

It isn’t a huge problem for me, as most of the time I use one of those modes, but on my older cameras (t5i, XSi) I did get used to leaving it in Auto when I was just wandering around snapping photos.

Decent zoom

The further the camera can zoom, the better for me. I am not interested in digital zoom, I can do that later editing, but the further it can optically zoom is a big plus.

Both cameras are pretty good, but in 35mm terms, the Canon zooms to 100mm equivalent, while the Sony zooms to 70mm. Although it is a little extra on the Canon, playing around with both cameras the zoom is good on both, and enough for what I wanted them for.

HD Filming

Although it is something that I didn’t plan on using much, I did want the option. It wasn’t a huge feature for me, but from everything that I read the Sony was a clear winner on the video side.

Although, after using it in a whole bunch of different situations, I was pretty impressed with the quality of video from the G7X, so it must just mean that the video from the Sony is really good.

Some things I really like about the Canon G7X

Flip up screen

Although the screen only pivots from the top of the camera, I find that I use it much more than I expect I would have. I end up shooting a lot of shots at waist height, and just have the screen rotated so that I can see it. It also helps to get steadier video footage when you are filming, I can keep the camera steadier using two hands at a lower height, and still keep an eye on what is in frame.

Touch to focus (or whatever its real name is)

I really liked shooting with a 50mm lens on an DSLR camera, for the nice shallow depth of field when taking photos of people. Getting a similar looking shot isn’t hard on the G7X, I would generally just choose Av mode, set the aperture wide open and touch the area that I want focused. Nice and easy.

Battery life

Apparently compared to the Sony, apparently the G7X doesn’t have a great battery life, though it can get about 300 pictures on a charge. Maybe my expectations are too low, or I don’t take enough photos, but that hasn’t been my experience. Even leaving it for more than a month, the battery still stays at full charge, so I haven’t had to worry about running out of battery.

Before I knew what it was like, I bought a second spare battery just incase I was going camping or somewhere without power for a few days.

On top of that, the G7X comes with a separate charger (unlike the Sony which charges in camera through USB), which means that I can always have a battery charging if I needed it.

Price

I bought mine in Canada, and at the time it was around $150+ cheaper than the Sony RX100 III, which definitely helped sway my decision.

Features of the Canon G7X

• 20.2 Megapixel 1″ CMOS sensor
  Takes large images, gives you plenty of options for printing without losing quality. Pretty big sensor for the size of the camera.
• 4x optical zoom
  The zoom is quite handy, you can zoom quite a bit for a camera this small.
• 4.2x digital zoom
  I don’t use the digital zoom, as I can just zoom in later while editing, but I’m sure it is useful for some people.
• 3″ Touchscreen TFT LCD
  The touch screen is surprisingly useful, and easy to use. The touch to focus works nicely, and you can drag it to smoothly adjust focus, which is definitely noticable when you are filming.
• HD Filming
  Films in 1080, which is nice and clear.
• Digic 6 image processor
  No idea how the processor affects how I use the camera, but it can handle burst mode well, I don’t often seem to have to wait for the camera to “catch up”.
• Intelligent optical image stabilizer
• Scene Modes
• White Balance
  Aas you would expect from a a camera like this, you can change the white balance to suit the light you are shooting in.
• Flash
  Has a little pop up flash, that I never use.
• Special Effects
  Almost useless to me, it basically copies a photo a bunch of times, and crops them in different ways, while going crazy in Instagram like filter effects.
• High Speed Autofocus

Links to buy the Canon G7X

Amazon.com