Canon PowerShot G7 X test: inspiring the next step

More recently, there was an interesting event: Canon has begun to develop a new segment of the market by introducing its first camera with a 1-inch sensor. The youngest form factor on the market, just over two years old, but already used by several manufacturers.

Canon PowerShot G7 X

Technical specifications

Sensor – BSI CMOS sensor 13,2 × 8,8 mm, form factor1″ resolution up to 20.2 million. pixels.

Lens – built-in zoom, 24-100mm, F1.8-2.8

Built-in optical Intelligent IS system for image stabilization

No viewfinder

Display – diagonal 7.5 cm, rotating, 1 040 000 pixels

Focus – automatic by contrast and manual, 31-point focus normal/macro , 1 point in the center or anywhere, face detection, AF frame/serial/tracking/sensor

Shutter speed range – 1/2000 to 250 seconds

Shooting modes – P, Tv, Av, M, custom, Smart Auto, Hybrid Auto, Creative Shot, 7 scene modes, 10 effect filters, video

Exposure metering is estimated, center-weighted, spot metering

Flash – built-in, short sync time 1/2000 s

Sensitivity – from 125 to 12800 ISO incl.ch. for auto settings

Picture formats are RAW CR2 , RAW+JPG, JPG 2 levels of compression

SD, SDHC, SDXC UHS-1 memory cards

Continuous shooting – up to 6.5 fps up to 692 frames , 4.4 fps in autofocus and Live View mode

Video recording – Full HD 1920×1080@60fps with auto, manual focus, manual and auto modes, exposure and white balance. Final MP4 format MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

Interfaces – miniUSB, microHDMI, Wi-Fi, NFC

Power – battery 3.6 V, 1250 mAh

Dimensions – 103×60,4×40,4 mm

Weight of 304g including battery and memory card

Approximate retail price – 32 990 Dollars.

Introduction:

Conventional compact cameras with small sensors are actively superseded by smartphones and are becoming uninteresting to potential buyers. But cameras equipped with a 1-inch sensor are a different matter, because they can provide a very tangible increase in quality and seriously expand the scope of the camera.

Ergonomics and controls

The camera is housed in a durable aluminum alloy body, which has a premium austere design with original red trim elements. Its compact thickness is made possible because it almost completely retracts into the camera and has the same metal shutters as the G1 X Mark II, the eldest model in the family.

Camera in off state.

The front panel of the body is smooth, so to hold it with one right hand helps only a thumb rest on the back. Attaching the hand strap to the strap eyelet and slipping the hand into it lets you quickly stop worrying about the camera slipping out of your hand. In addition, there are already on the market additional protrusions-grips that are attached to the front panel of the case and remove the question finally.

With all the compactness of the model, the developers managed to keep the balance between convenience of carrying the camera in a pocket of any size and shooting in a cold season. The buttons are “almost flat” and have protective edges on the one hand and are large enough for operating the camera with gloves on the other.

Admittedly, in this situation, the slim multi selector ring on the back panel becomes an object of torment, but this is not an insoluble problem, because the G7 X has an alternative and very convenient control tool – a ring located at the base of the lens.

Much more convenient to use, not only because of its larger size, but also because its function can be quickly changed using the special RING FUNC button. In addition to adjusting standard settings aperture, shutter speed, and ISO , it can be charged with white balance, manual focus, step zoom, dynamic range, and aspect ratio. The ring switches with a light but distinct click, which increases the accuracy of the selected setting.

For photographers who shoot mostly in semi-automatic modes aperture priority or shutter speed the second most important control is usually exposure compensation. The G7 X has it in the form of a separate dial below the mode dial. Not only is this method of adjustment clear and quick, but it’s also the most convenient, again, when shooting with gloves on.

The touch screen is also a very useful tool for speeding up camera setup. For example, when shooting, with just one touch, you can not only change the position of the focus area, but also perform autofocus and even shoot. Also, with the on-screen arrow tools you can manually control both aperture and shutter speed when shooting video. Touch control, in addition, offers a virtual version of the control ring. True, you have to remove your gloves to access all of these functions.

The LCD screen is also worth mentioning because it is movable – it can be tilted upwards. It makes it easy to take pictures in non-standard situations, and the ability to rotate the screen upwards 180 degrees, facing the photographer, provides comfortable sighting when taking self-portraits selfies and selfie videos.

Optics

The G7 X has a 4.2x zoom lens with a focus range of 24-100mm – a zoom lens that covers everything from architecture and landscapes to portraits and reportage.

Taken at the smallest focal length of the zoom lens.

F4.0, 24 mm, 125 ISO, -0.67 EV, 1/2000 s

Shot at medium zoom lens focal length.

F5.6, 50 mm, 125 ISO, -0.67 EV, 1/2000 sec

Shot at the maximum focal length of the zoom lens.

F5.6, 100mm, 125 ISO, -0.67 EV, 1/2000 s

At the same time the zoom is fast, allowing the camera to focus even in low light and the photographer to get a shallow depth of field in creative shots.

The lens works well against light, even sunlight: contrast remains high, and glare appears only in the most extreme cases.

Keeping the sun or other bright light source away from the lens by partially blocking it with an obstacle will allow you to take good colorful, high-contrast photos. Backlit shot of Arbat evening shows good transfer of warm evening light and rendition of details in the shadows. F3.2, 77mm, 200 ISO, 1/1250s

The zoom aperture has nine blades, which gives the lens a nice out-of-focus bokeh in the vast majority of situations with the aperture left open and just slightly closed.

Example of bokeh in the picture taken at the maximum focus distance with the diaphragm open.

F2.8, 100mm, 200 ISO, 1/200s

Example of a bokeh image taken at the maximum focal length with the diaphragm one stop closed. F4.0, 100 mm, 320 ISO, 1/200 s

The G7X’s aperture has another lovely feature: when the aperture is very closed it draws bright light sources in the form of 18-beam stars.

F10, 45 mm, 125 ISO, – 1 EV, 1/1 sec

The G7 X has a minimum focus distance of 5cm, which is good enough for close-up shots.

Functional and creative features

The shutter performance isn’t too impressive when you look at its fastest shutter speed of 1/2000 seconds. In bright sunlight it would hardly be possible to shoot with the aperture open at the whole sensitivity range, if it were not for the neutral filter function that can be easily switched on in the menu. Built-in ND filter has a magnification of 8x, t.e. Varies exposure in 3 steps.

Another typical problem of taking pictures in bright sunlight is the extremely high contrast of a scene, which cannot be fully processed by the sensors of digital cameras, especially small ones. But in modern cameras various “special tools” help to extend the dynamic range DD . The G7 X offers two separate functions in what’s known as the Quick Menu – one to tone down the brightest tones of the image, and one to brighten deeper shadows. Besides, you can turn on the HDR High Dynamic Range function in the effects menu creative filters .

The list of creative filters offers both common effects “fisheye”, “miniature”, “toy camera”, “nostalgia” muted colors , “Relief”, “poster”, “super bright” and proprietary – “soft focus”, and “unfocused background”.

Fish-eye superimposed effect.

A superimposed “vivid colors” effect.

Two effects superimposed: Emboss and HDR.

Two overlay effects: Art Bold and HDR

Proprietary night shooting programs are probably the most attractive for night photo enthusiasts: “starry sky”, “portrait against a starry sky”, “star trails”. The camera also offers interval video recording of stars.

Wireless features

The G7 X is equipped with wireless connectivity Wi-Fi , allowing it to connect to a variety of external devices, and as a result, several useful functions. There is a special button on the camera body for activation of the wireless functions.

In order for the camera to be able to pair with mobile devices, the Canon Camera Window app must first be installed on them. The camera’s built-in NFC module makes this procedure as easy as possible. If you bring NFC-sensors of your smartphone and camera to each other, then on your mobile device connected to Internet application store will automatically open and you will be offered to install the mentioned application.

What Canon Camera Window is good for? The app enables you to download your photos to your phone or tablet, assign geotags to them immediately after shooting, and remotely control camera settings and the shooting process using your mobile device’s screen.

Wi-Fi-enabled sharing options

.

In addition, Wi-Fi connection allows you to send your footage to other Canon cameras, computers and printers, publish photos to popular online resources. Canon offers Image Gateway online service to camera owners, including cloud storage and automatic synchronization of photos not yet saved online and on computer .

Daytime Photo

The G7 X excels in good light, with reasonably saturated, natural colors, t.e. You get an “as is” image as soon as it comes out. The only correction you might have to make is a small negative exposure compensation. The auto white balance function works without problems, moreover, the automatics is able to recognize and correctly transmit warm shades of morning and evening illumination.

True-to-life portrayal of warm evening light with Auto White Balance. F4.0, 53 mm, 125 ISO, 1/640 s

Judging by the test images, the working range of sensitivity ISO in daylight photography is up to 6400 if the main criterion is the ability to keep small contrasts e.g. branches against the sky . However, in areas with medium contrast e.g. dense crowns of trees, hair , you may notice a degradation of the picture already after exceeding 800 ISO.

Samples of daytime shooting, handheld shooting at different ISO settings: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800.

When shooting in bright sunlight, the above mentioned Highlight/Darkness Auto Correction functions help reproduce all the halftones in the image. Together they do it just as well as HDR. I should add that unlike the latter they are more suited for capturing scenes with dynamics, but at night they lose out to HDR in some respects, as will be described below.

Taking pictures indoors

I also found the White Balance function to be very good when shooting indoors in different lighting conditions. The camera reacted very well to light from halogen and energy-saving lamps, including with warm light. It is well adapted to the mixed lighting daylight + artificial light . It was also not confused by light sources with very bright colors.

Under halogen light, the camera is confident of getting the colors right. F4.0, 70mm, 640 ISO, 1/160s

Example of how Auto White Balance works in mixed lighting.

F4.0, 51 mm, 800 ISO, 1/125 s

Bright and saturated colored light sources keep auto white balance working. F2.8, 31 mm, 1600 ISO, 1/60 s

When studying photos taken in a dark room with contrast lighting, it turned out that the HDR function can be useful not only for widening the dynamic range, but also for careful selective noise reduction smooth surfaces and preserved fine details and simultaneous improvement of color rendering especially in deep shadows . This was especially obvious when comparing three pictures taken with different modes of the dummy, with highlights and shadows turned off and on, and with HDR turned on.

Aperture priority mode, highlights and shadows correction functions are disabled.

F4.0, 84 mm, 2000 ISO, 1/200 s.

Aperture priority mode, highlights and shadows correction included.

Compared to the previous image, the shadows look slightly brighter, but there is still bright digital noise and the color rendering in the shadows is equally unconvincing.

F4.0, 84mm, 1600 ISO, 1/200s.

This shot was taken in HDR mode, and differs from the first two in the lack of bright digital noise while preserving fine detail, and well highlighted shadows, which are much better at detailing and preserving hair color tones.

F2.8, 84mm, 1000 ISO, 1/200s.

Once again it is worthwhile to make some important remarks about HDR mode. First, it automatically controls the aperture, which can sometimes interfere with the creative plans of the photographer. Second, this mode has limitations when shooting moving subjects. So, HDR can be used in a café with dim lighting to create a romantic portrait that won’t suffer from digital noise. However, you have to ask the model to freeze for a while, which can affect the naturalness of her facial expressions.

So, when you want to shoot something moving, you should choose the highlights and shadows correction functions to extend the dynamic range.

Night Photography and Optical Stabilization System

The IS system of the G7 X is Intelligent IS, not only because it reacts to camera shake, but also because it detects different situations such as horizontal walkover photography, fixation on a tripod or other stationary objects. When shooting video, the camera additionally recognizes nuances such as shooting at close range macro or while walking, using the teleposition zoom. And for all these situations, there is a special stabilization mode.

Intelligent IS modes

The Intelligent IS system performed very well in night photography. For example, when shooting in aperture priority mode with an equivalent focal length of52mm and the aperture open F2.5 , at a safety shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, which was selected by the automation, a value of 1000 ISO. The result was that the fine details were blurred due to digital noise, not camera shake.

However, after switching the camera to shutter speed priority mode and using 1/4 s or even 1/2 s for the sake of shooting at 125 ISO , I managed to get several clear shots in a row, which corresponds to the stabilization system efficiency of 3 and 4 steps respectively.

Handheld shots with shutter speeds of 1/2s, 1/4s, 1/8s, 1/15s, 1/30s, 1/60s.

Viewing was performed with the screen held horizontally.

Later, a special traditional test of the stabilization system confirmed these conclusions at maximum FFR of the zoom, 100mm . Of course, getting these results on the fly requires a certain skill from the photographer. So when shooting a night scene, it’s always a good idea to take a few takes of each scene.

Other test night shots confirmed that the camera hedges itself and when shooting in aperture priority auto ISO mode picks up the shutter speed fast enough to get clear shots when you’re “running” or your subject is moving.

Shooting in aperture priority mode with high sensitivity. The sky and the smallest details suffered from the digital noise. F4.0, 55 mm, 3200 ISO, 1/125 sec.

In those cases when a photographer doesn’t want to capture the night landscape down to the smallest details and you’re shooting on the move it’s worth using Handheld NightScene Night Scene shooting without a tripod . It always uses slow shutter speeds and high ISO settings, but by combining the information from several shots taken in one burst, produces beautiful night shots with almost no digital noise, with rich colors and a smooth night sky.

Night Scene in Handheld Night Scene mode. F2.5, 42 mm, 2500 ISO, 1/125 sec.

When your goal is a static night landscape and you have time to shoot thoroughly, the stabilization system allows you to lengthen the shutter speed by three stops and lower the ISO value proportionally thereby reducing the effects of digital noise , as in the examples above. And if you record the image in RAW format and work with it in a photo editor, the results are even more pleasing.

Shutter priority mode. The picture was recorded in RAW and processed in Adobe Camera RAW. F2.8, 67 mm, 250 ISO, – 1 EV, 1/15 s.

Taking pictures indoors with a low light level, and taking pictures during the night, we can draw the following conclusions regarding the working ISO range: for uniformity of the night sky it is better to choose 1600, for preserving contrast details values up to 3200-6400 can be considered working, and for good reproduction of low contrast zones, similarly to daytime shooting, values above 800 should not be selected.

Shooting in aperture priority mode with medium-high sensitivity. The smallest details on the dynamics of the retro TV are well preserved. F2.5, 43mm, 1000 ISO, 1/100sec.

Shooting through glass with high sensitivity. Fine detail and uniformity of non-contrast areas of the image were well preserved. F4.0, 72mm, 3200 ISO, 1/320s.

Aperture Priority mode shoots with high sensitivity. Digital noise started to “dissolve” the fine details of the film projector. F4.0, 24 mm, 6400 ISO, 1/50 s.

Samples of night shooting with a tripod, taken at different ISO values: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800.

Continuous Shooting

The Canon PowerShot G7 X can shoot continuously at full resolution 692 frames or less at up to 6.5 fps. If autofocus or Live View is used during the action, it drops to 4.4 fps, although even at that speed you can capture a lot of interesting moving objects.

Shooting video

The maximum quality the camera is capable of recording is Full HD 1920 x 1080 at 60 fps. In most situations, it’s enough to smoothly display even fast-moving objects, like cars. While shooting, special modes of the optical stabilization system prevent sudden jumps in the video image caused by camera shake in your hands.

Not only can you zoom while shooting video, but you can also control shutter speed and aperture. Pretty quick auto response to changing scene brightness. True, sometimes during night photography if the camera moves too fast, it can be staggered. But the camera is not confused by oncoming car headlights and other moving lights – the autofocus does not show “nervousness.

Conclusions

After getting to know the features of Canon PowerShot G7 X and testing it, there is no doubt that it is a very handy tool in many situations for everyday creative shooting. The camera looks stylish and lavish. It’s quite unencumbering in size and weight, and very attractive in capability.

Scene programs and creative filters offer a wide field of experimentation, the results of which can be sent immediately to the Internet thanks to wireless communication. And of course, I am pleased with the results of shooting, especially at night, when you can see all the advantages of the built-in stabilization system. In this situation, the Intelligent IS is a worthy asymmetrical response to the ability of professional cameras with large sensors to capture quality images at high sensitivities.

In short, the PowerShot G7 X is Canon’s debut into a new camera class, and a further reason to hope for a successful development of the class. In fact, cameras with a one-inch sensor can be considered the rebirth of the compact at a new, higher level.