Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
With all of the rumors that have been floating over the past months of the “serious compacts” that were anticipated at Photokina, and with all of the excitement over the “LX8” (which became the LX100), the camera I absolutely didn’t see coming AT ALL and wouldn’t have expected to be of any interest to me if I had, was the Canon G7X. But when the announcements were all out and I took a real honest look at my wants for a camera in this category (which I absolutely didn’t “NEED”), damned if the G7X wasn’t the one that grabbed my interest and just kept grabbing tighter and tighter and wouldn’t let go.
Autumn Begins by ramboorider1, on Flickr
The primary reason the G7X made more sense to me than the LX100 or RX100 m3 is because it has a zoom range of 24-100. As impressed as I was with the LX100, I couldn’t see adding an all in one compact if it didn’t venture well into the portrait range of focal lengths. Since I already have small fixed focal length cameras at 28 and 35mm and since I nearly never shoot between 35 and 80, a 24-75 just wasn't gonna give me anything I don't effectively already have. The Fuji X30 has the range but I wasn’t prepared to buy a camera with that 2/3” sensor with the new larger sensor compacts now appearing. The G1X mkII takes it out to 120mm, but I just personally wouldn’t get along well with the outdated sensor in that camera either, even though it’s the largest of the sensors in these various cameras at 1.5”. It's good in low light, but the lack of DR would be frustrating to me under heavy processing. That this G7X lens extends from f1.8 to f2.8 over that 24-100 range, and is about a stop faster than the RX100 m3 through much of their shared range, makes it both more enticing but a bit riskier that it could maintain good quality.
Ever since the RX100 came out a couple of years ago, I’d been expecting a rash of new compact cameras using that 1” sensor but the G7X is the only one that has (not counting the RX10 and FZ1000, which aren’t compact). There’s still a chance that Olympus and/or Nikon may yet announce a compact built around this sensor, but with Fuji staying small and Panasonic going big, only Canon has so far. In addition to which, it seemed to have most of the features I’d want in a compact like this, with the exception of an EVF. But that was a weak “want” – I’ve never missed having one in my Nikon Coolpix A and rarely used them with the LX5 and LX7 I’ve had with them in the past.
West Chester Walk-37-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
So earlier this week I decided to join the early adopters and bought one from Hong Kong via ebay and rationalized it because it cost $70 less than it’s gonna sell for in the States once it’s release here in a few weeks. I’ve had insanely good luck with electronics products not failing on me, so I figured I’d press that luck and take my chances with a very limited “tourist warranty”. It got here early Thursday (I love “free expedited shipping”!) and I’ve been giving it a pretty good workout over the last couple of days.
I knew from the samples I’ve seen showing up that I’d be fine with the image quality. The lens is more aggressive than any Sony has used in any of the RX100 models so far, so I wasn’t expecting perfection, but the images I’ve seen have held up to anything but the most intensive pixel peeping. There’s some pretty notable softness in the corners wide open at the wide end, but that’s never bothered me and I wouldn’t let it bother me in a pocket camera. I'm sure the larger lens (and sensor) in the LX100 will do somewhat better, but again, not long enough zoom for me to benefit from it. And I took it on faith from having read through key parts of the manual that I was gonna like it reasonably well – certainly more than the RX100 that I never managed to like at all.
West Chester Walk-14-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
West Chester Walk-61-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
But after a couple of days working with it, I’m surprised at how many really great shooter’s features it’s got. Things like a dedicated exposure comp dial. A clicky wheel step zoom (or aperture ring or any of a bunch of other things), a distance scale for the manual focus system, auto-ISO available in manual mode WITH functional exposure compensation, an imperfect but surprisingly functional approximation of a minimum shutter speed with auto ISO in aperture priority mode, and a “custom” setting on the mode dial that remembers ALL of these details, down to manual focus distance, and recalls them almost instantly when you switch to that mode. It even has a touch screen with touch-shutter release that will focus and shoot for you at the point you touch in AF mode or will just trigger the shutter regardless of where you touch it in MF. This latter option was something I really liked when I used to shoot with an EM5 on the street and I’m really enjoying getting re-acquainted with it.
I don’t believe the RX100 has any of these features, or didn’t – maybe they’ve added one or two in the most recent versions. Not everyone would care about these details, but for me they’re the kind of features that make the difference between enjoying shooting with a camera, and being able to get it to do what I want quickly and easily, and always feeling like I’m fighting with my camera. I never got past feeling like I was fighting the RX100 no matter how much I customized it. I had the G7X set up to my liking within a couple of hours of playing with it.
West Chester Walk-13-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
West Chester Walk-11-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
I walked around my town this morning and shot a wide variety of stuff with it, switching often and seemlessly between my memorized street shooting settings (zone focus with a set MF distance and aperture, auto ISO with a fast minimum shutter speed, 24mm) and my more typical adjust-on-the fly settings for everything other than street.
Because there’s no raw support yet, I’m shooting in raw and converting to TIFF files in Canon’s proprietary processing app and then opening them in Lightroom. I’m looking forward to Adobe adding raw support – it’ll make my life easier and may improved IQ at the margins. But the IQ is fine for me as is. I’ve worked enough with this sensor in the past to know that it’s got plenty of latitude for most of my rather heavy handed processing. It’s not up to the standard of my Df or Coolpix A, of course, but it’s surprisingly close to most APS and m43 sensors. In any case, it was a known quantity to me and more than I’d have ever expected to see in a pocket camera just a few years ago.
Autumn Begins by ramboorider1, on Flickr
Autumn Begins by ramboorider1, on Flickr
The photos I’m showing here are nothing to write home about. They’re just sort of quick and dirty examples of the kind of stuff I do, with my usual emphasis on street work. I’m not surprised at how good a camera it is generally – I always thought the RX100 was too despite my antipathy toward it as a shooter. But I’m sort of shocked at what a good street shooter it is. Pleasantly shocked! I find it better for this shooting than even the LX5 or LX7, which I always found to be the best of the zoom compacts for street work. With this sort of capability and the ease of moving instantly between my highly specific street settings and my more general settings, this camera can easily be my ONLY camera on many days when I don’t feel like hassling with a bag or a lot of gear. I don’t know yet how well it will do in low-light street shooting, but I have a feeling it will do pretty well. With the huge amount of DOF that comes with this sensor size and lens, I should be able to shoot pretty close to wide open and limit the ISO to about 3200-4000, which this camera handles pretty well. With the Coolpix A I let it run up to 6400, which it handles well but the G7X wouldn’t. But the difference in aperture I can shoot at with the G7X should mostly if not totally compensate for the lesser sensor. I'll still take the Coolpix A for dedicated (or mostly) street shooting outings, but won't hesitate to use this for more varied shooting, even if it includes a lot of street work.
West Chester Walk-7-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
West Chester Walk-45-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr
Very happily surprised with this camera. Kind of shocked actually - I didn't see it coming from Canon, but it did...
-Ray
The primary reason the G7X made more sense to me than the LX100 or RX100 m3 is because it has a zoom range of 24-100. As impressed as I was with the LX100, I couldn’t see adding an all in one compact if it didn’t venture well into the portrait range of focal lengths. Since I already have small fixed focal length cameras at 28 and 35mm and since I nearly never shoot between 35 and 80, a 24-75 just wasn't gonna give me anything I don't effectively already have. The Fuji X30 has the range but I wasn’t prepared to buy a camera with that 2/3” sensor with the new larger sensor compacts now appearing. The G1X mkII takes it out to 120mm, but I just personally wouldn’t get along well with the outdated sensor in that camera either, even though it’s the largest of the sensors in these various cameras at 1.5”. It's good in low light, but the lack of DR would be frustrating to me under heavy processing. That this G7X lens extends from f1.8 to f2.8 over that 24-100 range, and is about a stop faster than the RX100 m3 through much of their shared range, makes it both more enticing but a bit riskier that it could maintain good quality.
Ever since the RX100 came out a couple of years ago, I’d been expecting a rash of new compact cameras using that 1” sensor but the G7X is the only one that has (not counting the RX10 and FZ1000, which aren’t compact). There’s still a chance that Olympus and/or Nikon may yet announce a compact built around this sensor, but with Fuji staying small and Panasonic going big, only Canon has so far. In addition to which, it seemed to have most of the features I’d want in a compact like this, with the exception of an EVF. But that was a weak “want” – I’ve never missed having one in my Nikon Coolpix A and rarely used them with the LX5 and LX7 I’ve had with them in the past.
So earlier this week I decided to join the early adopters and bought one from Hong Kong via ebay and rationalized it because it cost $70 less than it’s gonna sell for in the States once it’s release here in a few weeks. I’ve had insanely good luck with electronics products not failing on me, so I figured I’d press that luck and take my chances with a very limited “tourist warranty”. It got here early Thursday (I love “free expedited shipping”!) and I’ve been giving it a pretty good workout over the last couple of days.
I knew from the samples I’ve seen showing up that I’d be fine with the image quality. The lens is more aggressive than any Sony has used in any of the RX100 models so far, so I wasn’t expecting perfection, but the images I’ve seen have held up to anything but the most intensive pixel peeping. There’s some pretty notable softness in the corners wide open at the wide end, but that’s never bothered me and I wouldn’t let it bother me in a pocket camera. I'm sure the larger lens (and sensor) in the LX100 will do somewhat better, but again, not long enough zoom for me to benefit from it. And I took it on faith from having read through key parts of the manual that I was gonna like it reasonably well – certainly more than the RX100 that I never managed to like at all.
But after a couple of days working with it, I’m surprised at how many really great shooter’s features it’s got. Things like a dedicated exposure comp dial. A clicky wheel step zoom (or aperture ring or any of a bunch of other things), a distance scale for the manual focus system, auto-ISO available in manual mode WITH functional exposure compensation, an imperfect but surprisingly functional approximation of a minimum shutter speed with auto ISO in aperture priority mode, and a “custom” setting on the mode dial that remembers ALL of these details, down to manual focus distance, and recalls them almost instantly when you switch to that mode. It even has a touch screen with touch-shutter release that will focus and shoot for you at the point you touch in AF mode or will just trigger the shutter regardless of where you touch it in MF. This latter option was something I really liked when I used to shoot with an EM5 on the street and I’m really enjoying getting re-acquainted with it.
I don’t believe the RX100 has any of these features, or didn’t – maybe they’ve added one or two in the most recent versions. Not everyone would care about these details, but for me they’re the kind of features that make the difference between enjoying shooting with a camera, and being able to get it to do what I want quickly and easily, and always feeling like I’m fighting with my camera. I never got past feeling like I was fighting the RX100 no matter how much I customized it. I had the G7X set up to my liking within a couple of hours of playing with it.
I walked around my town this morning and shot a wide variety of stuff with it, switching often and seemlessly between my memorized street shooting settings (zone focus with a set MF distance and aperture, auto ISO with a fast minimum shutter speed, 24mm) and my more typical adjust-on-the fly settings for everything other than street.
Because there’s no raw support yet, I’m shooting in raw and converting to TIFF files in Canon’s proprietary processing app and then opening them in Lightroom. I’m looking forward to Adobe adding raw support – it’ll make my life easier and may improved IQ at the margins. But the IQ is fine for me as is. I’ve worked enough with this sensor in the past to know that it’s got plenty of latitude for most of my rather heavy handed processing. It’s not up to the standard of my Df or Coolpix A, of course, but it’s surprisingly close to most APS and m43 sensors. In any case, it was a known quantity to me and more than I’d have ever expected to see in a pocket camera just a few years ago.
The photos I’m showing here are nothing to write home about. They’re just sort of quick and dirty examples of the kind of stuff I do, with my usual emphasis on street work. I’m not surprised at how good a camera it is generally – I always thought the RX100 was too despite my antipathy toward it as a shooter. But I’m sort of shocked at what a good street shooter it is. Pleasantly shocked! I find it better for this shooting than even the LX5 or LX7, which I always found to be the best of the zoom compacts for street work. With this sort of capability and the ease of moving instantly between my highly specific street settings and my more general settings, this camera can easily be my ONLY camera on many days when I don’t feel like hassling with a bag or a lot of gear. I don’t know yet how well it will do in low-light street shooting, but I have a feeling it will do pretty well. With the huge amount of DOF that comes with this sensor size and lens, I should be able to shoot pretty close to wide open and limit the ISO to about 3200-4000, which this camera handles pretty well. With the Coolpix A I let it run up to 6400, which it handles well but the G7X wouldn’t. But the difference in aperture I can shoot at with the G7X should mostly if not totally compensate for the lesser sensor. I'll still take the Coolpix A for dedicated (or mostly) street shooting outings, but won't hesitate to use this for more varied shooting, even if it includes a lot of street work.
Very happily surprised with this camera. Kind of shocked actually - I didn't see it coming from Canon, but it did...
-Ray