Have you ever been cruising in your car when suddenly you see something interesting going on
and you wish you had a camera with you?
-What are you doing don't make grabbing on me!
- I just asked!.. - You're gonna get tased if you don't sit down.
I'll get you b***!
Well, boy, do I have a camera for you to stick into the door pocket of your ride:
a Canon with a true American muscle car spirit - big engined heavy chunk of undrivable piece of sh***.
Hey yo, what up guys, it's Aperture Value again with another review
and today the villain of this episode is Canon G1X.
And I know at the time of the release this camera got more hate than Amber Heard
"...and I started crying and..." but hang on there - let me explain "...I, uh..."
So I was looking for a point-and-shoot camera to keep in the car at all times. After all - the best gun is the one you have with you.
No, wait.
My main priorities were mostly bigger sensor and the zoom lens.
Traditionally, point-and-shoots have tiny sensors with unremarkable lenses glued to them.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: I'm still broke, so it better be something cheaper than my rent.
Now Canon had his G-series PowerShots running since 2000s, but in 2010 this happened
"We're introducing iPhone 4, fourth generation iPhone!..."
iPhone 4 introduced a new 5 megapixel main camera and added a front facing camera for selfies. All
the point-and-shoots sh** their pants overnight 'cuz they couldn't compete with a phone that is
always there and photos are ready for you to post online instantly. The extinction of
small sensor compacts have begun. A response from Canon was logical - cram inside a bigger sensor,
so the difference in quality becomes more obvious. A while after, when I was stacking up my bunker with
canned food, they introduced Canon G1X in 2012. The newly developed 14 megapixel sensor was an
innovation in engineering; let me show you why this was a big deal at the time. So here is a
1/2.3" sensor, today you can find them in most drones and GoPros; back in 2010 almost all
compacts had this sensor: Fuji FInepix, Nikon Coolpix, Canon PowerShots, etc. After 2010, because of
"...this is really hot!.."
all of the compacts moved to this sensor: a slightly larger 1/1.7".
After that, a luxury segment of compacts moved to an even bigger 1" sensor, first presented in Nikon 1 series, Sony RX100 and later RX10 and some of the Panasonics and Canons as well.
First cameras with this sensor size cost up to $1000!.. Even bigger sensor was m4/3, a baby brought up by Olympus and Panasonic together. Now this is the sensor of G1X - a 1.5" 14 megapixel beauty.
Just for comparison - this is Canon's APS-C sensor. I must remind you that at the time, APS-C and m4/3
sensor cameras were chunky and heavy DSLRs. Well, they put almost same size sensor inside a
camera just a tad bigger than other compacts! Here is where I stopped reading - and started shopping!
I got mine like half a year ago for a little over $100 and you must be asking yourself
a reasonable question: how f*** come? Well, the answer lies in spec sheet: even before the official
introduction, G1X was doomed. It was too heavy and big for a compact, the battery life was just
250 shots, the the lens, although great, was very slow with 2.8 to 5.8 aperture, the sh***y tiny OVF didn't
make any sense and was basically useless, and later on people found it to be too slow in operation .
So even professionals, who were the main target of G1X didn't really put love into this camera...
But hey - it did have some fun point-and-shoot kind of thing, besides crappy pop-up flash, -
if you hold the SET button, it would show up a freaking screensaver with current time!
Even more - you can choose the background color by turning the control wheel!
The good news is - at least you can use it as a desktop clock when the shutter goes south.
The main rivals of G1X on used market aren't really rivals: at this price point nothing beats
it, even interchangeable lens m4/3 cameras, but first m4/3 sensors were not
very good anyway... (crap) You can look at Sony's RX100 series, but they have a much smaller 1" sensor,
not to mention that the first decent lens appeared only on Mark 3, which is at least twice
the G1X money. There is also a Panasonic LX100 with excellent fast lens and a m4/3 sensor and to
be honest, if money wasn't an issue, I would rather choose Panasonic, but again, the price.
And here is where I should do a little gear talk: in my opinion, it's better to have many
cheaper cameras with different purposes, than the one with a price tag of a car,
that would kickass at everything... and then die of overheat. The same for G1X here -
actually, other options I mentioned before would mean overpaying for features I don't
really need. Now after six months of using it I feel like I can talk about this Canon gem.
For me, all that matter really was the sensor: I feel confident about APS-C,
but I doubt I can photoshop what I need out of tiny point-and-shoot sensors. This
one, on the other hand, was quite promising. Just like this new Godzilla vs Kong movie.
G1X has a CMOS type 1.5" sensor with a resolution of 14 megapixels, and don't forget
the iconic Canon colors! The lens is also great, although it seems to me, that wide angle is on
the weaker side. 28 to 115 mm equivalent range gets you covered for basically any situation;
it won't focus anywhere close though, so for the d**k pics you'll still need your iPhone...
On the other hand, for being in a car for random shots - all the negatives of this camera just become
irrelevant. I don't carry it with me all the time, so size and weight don't matter; battery
life also not a problem - I can charge it in the car, if i need, plus, as you understand, you won't
use it all the time, only when an opportunity comes, so 250 shots really gonna last you for
a long time. Slower lens doesn't seem to be an issue as well: anyway I shoot around f8 normally,
but at dusk, when there is not enough light, I could go for a bit higher ISO and optical image
stabilization helps out a lot as well. If you're into masochism, there's a built-in three-stop
ND filter, like the lens ain't slow enough already... The close focusing fail also doesn't
bother me since I'm not planning on shooting close-up portraits of homeless from my car window.
Admittedly there are some disadvantages that are pain in the ass even in my case.
First, I like the exposure compensation dial being present, but the position is
not where it should be, and the values aren't easily readable from underneath the mode dial.
Second, it is horribly slow, especially lens motors. Oh yeah, and also they sound like AK-47 bursts.
Startup time and overall responsiveness requires P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E, so if you see a shot
coming - better prepare beforehand. One stupid quirk of this camera is the filter thread: it has one,
bravo, but it's a unique custom size... It means you can't just use filters you might already have:
you need to use one specifically made for this model, like mine, or use adapters, good luck finding.
On the wide end at the smaller aperture the filter gets into frame and creates
slight, but very dense vignette, which is another thing to take care of in post.
Weird filter size also means you need to hold on tight to your lens cap because you probably ain't
gonna find replacement so easy. And yes, unlike most point-and-shoots, it does need a lens cap, since the
chunky lens cannot house a curtain cover in the front. And, unlike most point-and-shoots, that ring
around the lens ain't gonna zoom anything; guess what - it's just a damn metal ring!.. It was supposed to
cover a mount for possible accessories but... nope. On the bright side, after shooting with
ND filter on, masochists can make some use of the ring as well. Talking about lens, like most
point-and-shoots, it collects dust in the barrel over the time, and mine had a tiny piece right in the f*** middle.
So there's a life hack for you: unscrew the top ring and you will see that the front lens
element is glued, but there are accessible holes around it. I think you know what to do with them
holes: blow 'em! Dust blower gets rid of all the possible dust. Worked like charm, now it's all good.
But other than that, it gives wonderful results, love the colors, although I see that the only
profit of shooting it is in bright sunny weather, otherwise it doesn't look as good.
Resolution is okay, after some sharpening and noise reduction files look pretty clean.
14 megapixel size of 14 bit raw file allows you to work heavily on it in Photoshop.
Did I mention it's made in Japan? You don't get it that often nowadays...
The build quality and sturdiness is top notch, Canon's choices for
rubber grip and body shell materials have always been superior to those of Nikon...
I'm not sorry, Nikon.
Bottom line: if you've been looking for a reason to get another camera - you can go for a car camera, do you have one yet?
That's right, you're welcome! I'm pro in finding reasons to buy new gear...
If you can utilize this camera overcoming its weaknesses, it is a great and cheap choice for such a sensor and the lens.
Nothing comes close in terms of price/value ratio.
And in my opinion - it's time to get over the G1X hate and just find it the right purpose!
Oh, and: f*** Amber Heard!