Canon Powershot G1XMk3 User review 21 February 2018

The G1XMk3 makes a good street and documentary camera with its reliable exposure and focussing and overall good picture quality. Picture quality is not noticeably better than that achievable with the much smaller Sony RX100Mk4 but the Canon is nicer to hold and operate particularly with EVF viewing or if the fully articulated monitor screen is desired.

This is a brief user review after 2000 exposures in a variety of conditions. I used the camera mostly for street, documentary and general photography, indoors and outdoors.

Specifications and features  The G1X3 has almost all the features an enthusiast photographer might wish for. These include a good EVF in the optimum location, a fully articulated monitor of good quality and twin dial control layout and much more.

At last Canon has given one of its cameras sweep panorama capability. This works reasonably well on the G1X3 and unlike many compacts can be used at any focal length. Unfortunately I noted a lot of poor stitching with multiple imaging with some subjects particularly foliage.

Missing are 4K video and zebras.

Unique selling point ?  I guess from Canon’s perspective fitting their 27mm (diagonal) dual pixel AF sensor into a compact barely larger than the G5X (which has the much smaller 15.9mm sensor) is a pretty big deal and no doubt a considerable technical achievement. But I wonder if many potential buyers care about this, especially given the modest imaging capability of the sensor and the price point which Canon has set for the G1X3.

Picture Quality  This is generally good but not class leading for a 27mm diagonal  APS-C  sensor.  On my tests the G1X3 had just half an EV step less noise at ISO 3200-6400 than my little Sony RX100Mk4 and almost one EV step less noise than the RX10Mk4. Both these models have the much smaller 15.9mm diagonal sensor.

In low light the RX100 is more capable as its lens is 1-2 stops faster (wider aperture, lower f number) than the G1X3. 

My copy of the G1X3 lens is very sharp at all focal lengths and apertures. There is no need to stop down for sharpness. This is a good thing because the lens’ maximum aperture is a rather pedestrian f2.8-f5.6.   

Red/purple and green fringing can be quite noticeable at high contrast edges in Raw files.

When this is corrected in Adobe Camera Raw  grey fringing can sometimes result. Please see my previous post for discussion about this and how to prevent it.

Performance  The camera is generally responsive to user inputs. It does not impede picture taking in most circumstances. EVF blackout is brief enough that I did not notice it in general photography. Shot to shot times are short enough that they are not an issue most of the time although current model Sony and Panasonic models are faster.

The camera can follow focus on a moving subject at 4 frames per second with commendable accuracy.

Overall with still or moving subjects I found the autofocus to be very accurate and reliable.

In general photography the camera produced an almost 100% perfect rate of sharply in focus pictures provided the AF area was positioned over a suitable part of the subject.

I used [1 Point AF] for best consistency and control of the AF area position.

I found exposures to be reliably accurate in almost all circumstances.

I did notice however that in P Mode with auto ISO and the [Rate of Change] at Standard, the camera would often flip between ISO 100 and ISO 800 not infrequently producing an exposure of 1/1000 sec at f2.8 and ISO 800 for a well lit outdoors scene, when something like 1/60 at f4 and ISO 100 would have been more appropriate.

I did not notice this odd behaviour with Auto ISO in A Mode.

Unfortunately write-to-card times are slow, particularly after a burst of exposures. For instance after a burst of 17 frames with RAW+JPG capture the camera took 35 seconds to write all the files to the card with most functions being locked up during that time.

Ergonomics  The G1X scored 68/100 on my standard schedule. This is the best score I have given to a compact camera but it could easily have been higher with some relatively minor design changes. These would include a more prominent handle, better located front control dial (behind the shutter button where Canon DSLR users expect to find it), larger and more prominent buttons all round.  

A more user friendly approach to the actual functions of the buttons would be appreciated also. For instance there is no direct way to allocate one of the buttons to AF-ON without this also impacting on the function of the shutter button.

Summary  The G1X3 is a competent and reliable picture taking device which produces good results in a wide variety of photographic conditions. It has no serious faults or defects of the kind which might make it a “no-buy”.

That is all fine and good but I suspect that enthusiast photographers might find it a bit uninspiring.

With the G1X3 Canon appears to have elected to play it safe and not to push the capability envelope too much in any direction.

In this respect the G1X3 is similar to all Canon’s consumer camera models in recent years.

The strategy is certainly working well for them with respect to sales and profits and I guess that is the manufacturer’s bottom line.

IF Canon dared to go for the high ground with a larger but still reasonably compact model  having an f2.0-4.0 lens, a proper handle and better located and designed controls, a much faster processor and less high ISO noise, and if they got it all working properly,  that could become a cult classic and very attractive to those enthusiasts prepared to pay for it.

Further reading  For further reading about the G1X3 including several posts about setting up the camera and one about the grey fringing issue readers can find the fixed zoom camera page on this blog at http://cameraergonomics.blogspot.com.au/p/fixed-zoom.html    and scroll down to the Canon G1XMk3 listings.  There is plenty to read there.