Great for my use case to share snapshots online and make small prints
4
I love my Nikon DSLR, but I don't love hauling it around with me all day when I'm walking around sightseeing (and not out for a "serious" photography outing). I've been looking for a small, light camera that will be more capable than an inexpensive point-and-shoot or a phone. After lots of research, I decided on the G7 X Mark II. It wasn't easy to get my hands on one, but finally found a camera store with a few in stock. I wanted in time for a graduation lunch last weekend, and got a chance to test it out.
I've only had it a few days, but so far I like it a lot. To be clear, it doesn't handle like a DSLR and if you look at the images full size you can tell it wasn't taken by a DSLR. This is not a camera I expect to be using for photo club competition shooting or making enlargements to hang on a wall. That said, it fits nicely with my use case: A higher end, small, light camera that takes very good photos I'll enjoy sharing and perhaps making 4x6 or 5x7 prints to send to family & friends.
It turns on very quickly, feels well balanced in my hands and has a nice screen. It focuses pretty well in good light although has occasionally hunted around in less than bright light. The touch-screen focus does let me correct the auto focus. I'm able to blur my backgrounds when the lens is open, and the detail is decent at f/10 when I'm shooting a landscape -- something that was important to me since my other point-and-shoot tended to have muddy details in the distance. I haven't tried shooting fast-moving subjects -- I suspect that if I'm shooting a road race, I'll bring my DSLR.
I'm glad it's got built-in Wi-Fi. Sending photos to a phone or tablet is quick and easy. Setting up image sync with my Windows PC was not very intuitive, but now that it's set up, it's pretty easy to use. Canon's app does indeed send location information from my phone to the camera when both are properly set up, but it's pretty cumbersome to use (and the app was a big battery drain on my phone). If GPS is of critical importance to you, this may not be the camera for you.
I like having a ring around the lens to control aperture and a dial for exposure compensation, and the "quick menu" tends to have most of the other settings I want in the field by pushing a single button. It would have been nice to have a view finder and a bit more of a zoom, but most point-and-shoots are going to have compromises. I'd looked at the Sony RX100 IV and it seems to have an awesome lens and perhaps better image quality, but the 70mm zoom and near-thousand-dollar pricetag ended up sending me back to the G7X II.
Overall I'm pleased with the image quality and very happy with my purchase.