G1X Brief Hands-On

Just played with my friend's brand new G1X tonight over dinner.
Hmmm I had one on order, but I am having second thoughts.
A few observations:

1) Auto ISO limited to ISO 1600

2) AF was surprisingly bad. I do not recall using a canon with worse AF. It wouldn't lock in the restaurant (not that dark) in many situations, sometimes it would hunt, then fail. Faces are mostly ok, but e.g, it had trouble locking onto most dishes (food) I tried to focus.

3) The adv of the large sensor is really 'canceled out' by the slow lens. As soon as you touch the zoom lever, f stop goes to f3....then f5... f5.8. It creeps out pretty fast. I did not look at exactly what f value at what focal length (btw you cannot tell what focal length you are zoomed at).
4) The barrel ring has a little play, feels flimsy.
5) The OOC JPG is ok... ISO3200, or even ISO6400 look like they will be usable

But I can't help to think that a faster lens would be much wiser to have in most situation.

It is interesting to compare it to the Fuji X10. Other than the DOF difference, the cameras are actually similar imho. I have no doubt the G1X will have stellar IQ in good shooting conditions, better than X10, but it is ironic that under poor lighting condition, it may not be any better than the X10.

My 2 cents.

(Disclaimer, I own and shoot Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Leica, and Panasonic, most certainly not brand loyal.)

http://ink361.com/#/photos/121486507621760369_2009878

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A CPS & NPS Member
Digital is not Polaroid. Shoot RAW.