Luckypenguin
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Brisbane, Australia
- Name
- Nic
We don't really seem to have an appropriate forum for this camera, so the Small Sensor Canon Forum will have to do, lol.
I've had my G1X for about a week now, and so far the relationship is progressing well. This camera is quite significant for me since it is only the third time in my life that I have bought a brand new camera, with the last time being a Canon EOS 350D back in 2005. I've been waiting for a large sensor Canon compact for almost two years now and despite some initial doubts about it being a fixed-lens camera I decided to take the plunge. The best way that I can describe the G1X is that it is not a baby EOS but rather a hotted-up G Series with a big engine under the hood. In a sense that is something of a disappointment since an EOS is a camera that just gets on with the job without any fuss, whereas a G Series is still a compact camera at heart.
Two thing really stand out for me which make the camera's foibles easier to forgive: Handling/ergonomics and image quality. I've always loved the feel and handling of the G Series and the addition of the fully articulated screen made it close to perfect for me, but I have to profess that I never could quite reconcile the sensor performance with the promises made by the body. The G1X blows all of those doubts away.
I wasn't really intending this to be review and there are already plenty of them out there (including Amin's review here at Seriouscompacts). Instead I'll just add some various thoughts about the camera and post some of the images to go with them. I should add that I won't be posting OOC images here. For me I find it just as instructional to see how a camera responds to processing as much as I do to see the images that come directly out of it. More so actually, since I will literally process every image I choose to keep to varying degrees.
Some colour to start with...
1.
View attachment 51722
2.
View attachment 51723
3.
4.
5.
6.
So far the only direct RAW support I have available is the proprietary Canon DPP software. This is reasonable good if basic software and the images can be exported as tifs for further editing, but there are few tricks I've found in using it. Being Canon's own software, DPP knows exactly what camera a file came from and applies it's own profile based on the camera settings used. In my opinion DPP uses too much noise reduction, and I could probably say the same about the in-camera jpeg engine as well. The difference is not great, but I prefer to wind back the NR sliders by half and retain a bit of grain, of which there is very little at reasonable ISOs anyway. Doing this also unleashes the detail that this camera and lens is capable of producing. I'll also post a few 100% crops as well.
I don't know if the G1X will turn out to be quite as popular as it's cheaper forebears, which would be a shame because aside from the excessive mimimum focus distance it is a better camera in almost every way that matters to me. For what it's worth it is receiving not quite as bad a reception on the DPReview forums as the Nikon 1 did, but not by much. My favourite so far is claiming the camera will cause you to miss opportunities compared to various other compact cameras because you have to remove the lens cap manually. Oh, dear...
So far, so good
I've had my G1X for about a week now, and so far the relationship is progressing well. This camera is quite significant for me since it is only the third time in my life that I have bought a brand new camera, with the last time being a Canon EOS 350D back in 2005. I've been waiting for a large sensor Canon compact for almost two years now and despite some initial doubts about it being a fixed-lens camera I decided to take the plunge. The best way that I can describe the G1X is that it is not a baby EOS but rather a hotted-up G Series with a big engine under the hood. In a sense that is something of a disappointment since an EOS is a camera that just gets on with the job without any fuss, whereas a G Series is still a compact camera at heart.
Two thing really stand out for me which make the camera's foibles easier to forgive: Handling/ergonomics and image quality. I've always loved the feel and handling of the G Series and the addition of the fully articulated screen made it close to perfect for me, but I have to profess that I never could quite reconcile the sensor performance with the promises made by the body. The G1X blows all of those doubts away.
I wasn't really intending this to be review and there are already plenty of them out there (including Amin's review here at Seriouscompacts). Instead I'll just add some various thoughts about the camera and post some of the images to go with them. I should add that I won't be posting OOC images here. For me I find it just as instructional to see how a camera responds to processing as much as I do to see the images that come directly out of it. More so actually, since I will literally process every image I choose to keep to varying degrees.
Some colour to start with...
1.
View attachment 51722
2.
View attachment 51723
3.
4.
5.
6.
So far the only direct RAW support I have available is the proprietary Canon DPP software. This is reasonable good if basic software and the images can be exported as tifs for further editing, but there are few tricks I've found in using it. Being Canon's own software, DPP knows exactly what camera a file came from and applies it's own profile based on the camera settings used. In my opinion DPP uses too much noise reduction, and I could probably say the same about the in-camera jpeg engine as well. The difference is not great, but I prefer to wind back the NR sliders by half and retain a bit of grain, of which there is very little at reasonable ISOs anyway. Doing this also unleashes the detail that this camera and lens is capable of producing. I'll also post a few 100% crops as well.
I don't know if the G1X will turn out to be quite as popular as it's cheaper forebears, which would be a shame because aside from the excessive mimimum focus distance it is a better camera in almost every way that matters to me. For what it's worth it is receiving not quite as bad a reception on the DPReview forums as the Nikon 1 did, but not by much. My favourite so far is claiming the camera will cause you to miss opportunities compared to various other compact cameras because you have to remove the lens cap manually. Oh, dear...
So far, so good