Canon PowerShot G1X.3 A new user review 14 January 2022

All photos Canon G1X.3 Raw

However the original built in lens correction profile for Raw files left considerable complex color fringing in some photos which proved very difficult to correct. Sometimes the fix produced grey fringing which was almost worse than the original problem.  

This blighted my entire experience of using the camera.   So I let the G1X.3 go and used other cameras for a while.

In due course I got another copy with the aim of using it for street photography, a genre for which the G1X.3 is well suited. But then the curse of Covid struck and with it prospects for street photography in a city (Sydney) perpetually constrained by lockdowns and other restrictions.

But I found other uses for the camera and have accumulated enough experience with it to post this new review.

Description   

There is a tendency for sales people to over-use the word “unique”,   some even resorting to  the meaningless “very unique” description.

However as far as I can tell the G1X.3 is the only compact camera available today with all the following features:

* It is really compact, not a bridge cam.  It is made in Japan along with Canon’s high end bodies and lenses and has a very solid, well made feel about it.

* It uses a Canon 24Mpx crop sensor with a diagonal of 27mm.  This is a well known entity which appears in many Canon crop sensor DSLRs and EOS-M system models.

* There is a 3x zoom lens of very good quality with image stabiliser and thread for a standard screw-in 37mm filter and lens cap and lens hood if desired.

* There is a handle, admittedly a small one but it gives a decent grip and a good thumb support.

* Above the monitor there is an always ready, good quality EVF over the optical axis DSLR/MILC style with a proper eyepiece and good eyecup.

* There is a fully articulated touch screen monitor of good quality.

* We find a coherent triple dial control layout with sufficient set function dials and configurable buttons to fully control camera operation.

* Canon’s excellent DPAF autofocus system functions very reliably in one shot or  servo mode with well implemented manual focus capability.

* Exposure is reliable and image quality very good.

* The body is dust and weather resistant with built-in flash and hotshoe able to accept accessories.

In other words this is a proper camera with all the features and capability of a mid range crop sensor DSLR or MILC.

I note that four years after introduction the price of this model is holding up suggesting ongoing demand for a camera of this type. Maybe the death of the compact camera genre has been slightly exaggerated.  In Australia camera prices are all over the place but a current price in the AU$ 1300-1400 range is close to the price on initial release towards the end of  2017.

Specifications and features

The G1X.3 has the sort of specification set you might expect in an enthusiast ILC. It has the usual array of capture modes, can shoot Raw or JPG or both, has one shot or servo autofocus, single or continuous shooting with two speeds, face detect AF with tracking, Wi-fi, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity, comes with a separate charger or can be charged via USB and does  in camera auto-panoramas.

Video specs are limited to 1090p of decent quality. The camera is primarily intended for stills photography but is good for occasional video clips.

Image quality

I rate this as about average for a camera with an APSC crop sensor. That is not a criticism just an observation from experience which is supported by technical analysis such as you find on DP Review, Photons to Photos or DXO Mark.

The lens does a very good job overall, delivering crisp, sharp images in most circumstances. There is a bit of softness towards the periphery of the frame at 15mm (full frame equivalent 24mm) which is not altogether resolved by closing down the lens aperture. You need to be pixel peeping to see this however. In his review of the G1X.3 for  DP Review Carey Rose observed that he found the lens rather soft especially at the wide end. Both my copies have a very good lens with excellent sharpness at all focal lengths except as noted above. So there could be a sample variation issue which is unfortunately all too common with lenses from all brands.

The multi-color fringing in Raw files which was such  a problem initially is much less apparent this time around. I can only conclude that Canon appears to have quietly revised the built-in lens correction profile. Thank goodness for that. I now need to exercise only minor corrections where fringing appears at high contrast boundaries towards the periphery of the frame.

Overall color rendition, tonal gradation and clarity are very good.

High ISO noise is clearly less than you find in cameras with smaller 15.9mm (“one inch”) and 21.5mm (Micro four thirds) sensors but just slightly  more than can be seen from cameras such as the A6xxx series which use one of the Sony APSC sensors.

I find the Raw files quite responsive to adjustment in Adobe Camera Raw enabling a very good level of highlight and shadow detail to be rendered in landscapes and similar subjects with a high brightness range.

Performance

Overall the camera feels quick and responsive in operation with no significant lagginess  at any stage of the capture process.

The Dual Pixel AF system is very effective and reliable in single shot and AF Servo modes on still or moving subjects.  (Human) Face detect and tracking are available and they work well enough if the subject is fairly close but not at the same level as the latest RF mount Canons.

AF acquisition is fast enough that I am not aware of any significant lag in use.

Shot to shot time in single shooting with AF and AE on each frame is about 0.5 seconds.

AF can follow focus on moving subjects at up to 8 frames per second with a high level of accuracy.

The camera can fire 19 Raw frames in high speed or low speed continuous drive before the rate drops indicating the buffer is full. Buffer clearing takes 11 seconds with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 170MB/s card.

The image stabiliser in the lens is effective allowing me to get sharp hand held shots on average about three EV steps of shutter speed slower than is possible without the stabiliser. In addition the stabiliser steadies the preview image in the EVF and should make AF more reliable although I have not seen direct evidence of this.

Ergonomics

I give the G1X.3 an overall ergonomic score of 58 which makes it the highest scoring compact camera. On my initial review I found the EVF color  over saturated  with reds tending to orange. It would seem Canon has toned this down such that I now leave both EVF and monitor at default settings and find they both provide a pleasing user experience.

Compared to a larger camera the handle is small, the marked dials are a bit fiddly and the buttons are all very small, making the overall experience of using the camera just  satisfactory rather than very good. It gets the job done albeit not as elegantly as some of the better large cameras.

Manual focus is well implemented with a nice dual range analogue scale displayed on screen.

Idiosyncrasies

The NB-13L battery is very small so the number of shots available per charge is a low  CIPA rated 200. At least one and preferably two spare batteries are an almost essential investment.

Shutter speed will not go slower than 1 second in Av Mode.

The firing solution (aperture/shutter speed/sensitivity) in P Mode is unpredictable with the ISO setting jumping from 100 to 800 for no apparent reason. I do not use P Mode because of this.

Functions of the shutter button and [*] button are linked. Their functions cannot be assigned independently.

The G1X.3 retains the old Powershot “Rate of change” setting which has never made sense to me in the 20 years I have been using cameras with this feature. I just leave it at Standard.

The Macro setting is useless.

The lens cap. Oh my goodness, the stupid lens cap.

Setting up for still photography

As supplied the lens cap is a real pain to remove because the gripper grooves are too high and too sharp. And if you forget to remove the cap before turning the power on you will be wrestling with the cap at the end of the extended lens raising the possibility of damage to the mechanism.

So the first thing to do on acquiring the camera while the battery is charging is file down the gripper grooves on the lens cap with a nail file until the threads are about half their original height.

Next comes a 37mm screw-in uv or clear protect filter. I fit a B+W mrc nano protect  and leave it mounted permanently. It keeps dust, water, salt spray and the like off the front element of the lens and is easier to clean than the unprotected lens. My tests show no detectable loss of optical quality if a top quality filter is used.

One or two spare batteries, a microfiber cloth,  a wrist strap (leave the neck strap in the box) and one or two spare memory cards (formatted in the camera) complete the kit which fits nicely into a Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 10 carry bag.

The camera is compatible with UHS-1 cards. I use SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDXC, 170 MB/s.

Dial and button function assignments

[Function Assignment] appears on screen 2 of the Camera Red menu.

I will describe my settings with reasons. There are lots of options with which to experiment.

* Shutter/AE lock button: I leave this at default which is AF/AE Lock, the topmost option.

I have experimented with the other settings but none fit with the way I want to use the camera.

* The unmarked dials. Be aware that dial functions change with capture Mode.

Note that sensitivity (ISO) cannot be set directly with the dials in M Mode, yet another of this camera’s little idiosyncrasies.

* Movie button. To give me a button which can always get to ISO with one press I allocate ISO to the movie button. Video is still possible with the Mode Dial turned to the [Movie] icon.

* AF frame button (5 dots in a box) I leave this at default as it is handy for re-centering the AF frame with a long press and activating an orange boundary condition around the box at which time box size can be toggled between the two available with the lens ring and the frame can be re-centered with a short press on the Menu button. There are screen prompts for this.

Menus   If I do not mention a menu item assume the default setting.

Camera Red

* Image quality. I use Raw capture always for best results.

JPG users will need to experiment. I have found the following settings do a good job.  Go to the Q Menu and Picture Style then [Standard] then fine tune with 6,1,1,0,0,0.  There are many options and no single combination of picture Style (JPG) settings works for all subjects. In the long run I find Raw files much easier to work with.

* Shooting information display: Follow the prompts to set personal preferences.

* Expo. Simulation, Enable. This allows the EVF and monitor image preview brightness to increase with overexposure settings and decrease with underexposure settings.

* Image review Off. Leaving this On just slows down the capture process.

* Touch shutter Off.

* Touch and drag AF settings. Enable/Relative/Top right. When the camera is in use I turn the monitor to face out and move the active AF area with my thumb using these touch and drag AF settings. This is fast and accurate.

* Quick setting menu layout, There are 12 items any of which can be excluded if preferred.

* Continuous AF. Note this is not the same a Servo AF. Continuous AF has the camera hunting for focus even when the shutter button is not pressed. Set this Off.

* AF assist beam. Off. It is not required and is annoying.

* MF point zoom and Safety MF Off.

* MF Peaking. I don’t bother with peaking which smothers the screen in color. But experiment anyway.

* IS (stabiliser) settings. Allocate this item to My Menu for quicker access.

* Bracketing. I never bother with this anymore. I find a single well exposed Raw file almost always does the job.

* Highlight tone priority and Auto lighting optimiser are features designed to increase dynamic range in JPGs.  Jpg users will need to conduct experiments to evaluate their usefulness.

* I use Evaluative metering always as it is the most reliable.

* For the occasions when I might want to use fill in flash I set Flash Exposure Compensation to minus 1 stop. The very annoying red eye lamp is off.

* High ISO speed NR. Set this to the minimum allowable.

Wrench (yellow) Menu

I leave most of these at default.

* Custom Shooting Mode. There are two custom Modes available.

To use a Custom Mode, set up the camera with all adjustments as required for a specific set of conditions. For instance My C1 is for tripod/landscape use. So I set ISO 100, self timer on, Av Mode, stabiliser off, aperture f5.6, 1 point AF.

To allocate these settings to C1 go to Custom Shooting Mode in the yellow wrench menu > Register setting s> follow the prompts.

On C2 I am experimenting with a Manual exposure mode for occasions when I want control over both aperture and shutter speed.  I set M  Mode, 1/1000sec, f8, Auto ISO, AF servo, Hi speed continuous drive, 1 Point AF.  On the day I adjust shutter speed and aperture to the prevailing light level.

Using Custom Modes saves having to adjust many settings for the prevailing conditions.

My Menu [green]

The idea is to have on My Menu just the items to which quick access is often required and which cannot be accessed more readily via a dial or button. I have on My Menu:

IS settings, Self timer, Format, Wireless settings.

Note, switch Bluetooth Off when not in use, to save battery drain.

Hints and tips

* To re-center the active 1-Point AF area, when the bounding box is white or orange, long press the AF Frame selector button. If the bounding box is orange a short press on the Menu button will also re-center the box.

* To establish AF and AF lock. This can be useful when photographing in a situation such as a group of people moving around when we want focus to stay put and not be put off by people moving between the camera and the main part of the subject.

There are various ways to achieve AF lock. AF/AFL can be assigned to a button but the lock self cancels after each shot. AFL can also be assigned to the [*] button (Function assignments > Shutter/AEL > third option down) but this only works while the [*] button is held down.

The third and my preferred way is to half press the shutter button until the AF box goes green indicating focus achieved, then while holding the half press, press the left cursor key (Macro/MF button) on the 4-way controller. This activates Manual focus with the distance setting retained. I can now make as many shots as I like with focus fixed. The setting will self cancel when the camera is powered off.

Analogue distance scale

* Using manual focus. The G1X.3 has a well implemented manual focus capability with a dual range analogue scale for usability in the normal photographic range. I have tested this and found the scale indicated distance is accurate.

Activate MF by pressing the left button on the 4-way controller. You can then change focus using the up/down keys or half press and hold the shutter button and then the lens ring can change focus.

If at any time the analogue distance scale is not showing just press the left key to bring it up. There are on-screen prompts but some useful actions are not indicated.

* Experiment. This camera has several “hidden” button/dial operation sequences which can be used to perform various tasks. I have discovered  some more or less by accident but I bet there are others. Some sequences of short press/long press dial and button combinations can sometimes reveal useful functions.

* Focussing for landscape. Some of my experiments led me to a ridiculously simple solution to the landscape focussing question which is Manual focus at 5 meters and f8.

Seriously, that covers almost everything with the lens in the 24-50mm (equivalent) focal length range. If the foreground is very close I might come back to 4 meters and f11.

Sharpness distribution in landscape type photos

Most lens testers utilise flat test targets of some kind, then go out and photograph three dimensional subjects. Those flat test targets can not tell us about the three dimensional distribution of sharpness produced by the lens. My tests using mown flat grassy fields as a subject have taught me that there is huge variation between lenses and between focal lengths and apertures of the same lens with respect to three dimensional distribution of sharpness. This can greatly affect optimal focussing with subjects requiring substantial depth of field such as landscapes.

G1X.3 at 15mm f4. Darkest=sharpest. You can see the complex distribution of sharpness at this focal length. You can also see that the right side is a bit sharper than the left side and there is an area top left in the frame which has the least sharpness.  Knowing all this can help with suject, focal length and aperture selection and selection of the best focus position.