G5X mark II owners - share your thoughts

I've had the G5X II for three weeks and used it on my trip to the UK. Blew through a 64GB card during that time. 99% were still shots so I have nothing to say about its video capabilities. Note that I have Sony's RX100V that was originally going with me on the trip. Bottom line, my Sony will be up for sale. Here are my initial thoughts.

There are a lot of positives about the camera and only a couple of disappointments. Out of the box, this camera has a great grip and the rubber finish means there is little chance of it slipping out of my hands. Externally, the finish is not even close to the Sony especially the ring around the lens which is out of character with the rest of the camera. I did buy the grip for the Sony but it did little to help with the handling - I always had to make sure the wrist strap was around my wrist before using that camera. Start-up is much quicker than Sony and it is generally a very responsive camera. Even after a long burst, it is easy to take too many shots, the camera was not held up by buffering. None of this is side by side comparison but I have missed shots with the Sony because of this. The lens is impressive, optically out to the 120mm equivalent and I love the fact that the ISO is still manageable indoors. I don't need to do much in LR which is a good sign.

Having two clickable wheels makes this a real still camera. I set the front ring for aperture, the video record button to ISO, and the C is set for Aperture Priority. I do a lot of panoramas but using a DSLR with the proper pano head is a real pain especially with family so I really wanted the pano option on this camera, so much so that if it sucked I would get rid of it. Well, it does a great job most of the time. You can use any focal length (unlike Sony) and do it in ladscape or portrait orientation and have the ability to use +/- settings. The stitching is also very good. The two problems with the pano feature: it was finicky on how fast or slow you moved it, especially when the scene lacked much detail. I would be half way through and it would stop telling me to move it quicker. I would repeat it again moving it quicker and I would get the same result. This was also dependent on the focal length so there is still much to be learned. I wish it could give me some guidance during the actual shot - like a little arrow to prompt me to move quicker or slower. The other issue was handling a pano with a large dynamic range. Over expose the sky and it turneds from deep blue to a strange turquoise. I liked the auto ND but it did favor bumping up the ISO before dropping the shutter speed but I think I can figure a suitable setting in the auto ISO feature. I liked that it has Canon's EOS menu but why only one C setting on the mode dial?  Battery life was remarkably good especially as I only had one battery on the trip (thanks Amazon Prime for not delivering on time yet again). Yet another stand alone charger but I did try any kind of charging via USB-C. I wasn't sure what would work and I certainly wasn't going to pony-up for the overpriced Canon USB-C charger. The viewfinder makes a big difference, that is why I invested in the Sony. Canon's is not as good as Sony's both in terms of optical quality nor finish but the eye-sensor that switch between the viewfinder and the rear screen works really well. And the face detect worked well, no eye-detect but not really necessary with this kind of camera.

I've not talked about focusing because there is little say other than Sony blows it away in just about ever department except one. Sure, the Canon will focus very quickly in good light with a contrasty scene but otherwise it is no different from previous Canon's contrast-based AF systems. I expected this and was not too disappointed but in 2019 I had hoped for more given Sony's AF prowess. One of my informal benchmarks is photographing from airplane window while flying over interesting scenery. Just about every camera I've used from Canon's 5DIV to Pany's GM5 have had few problems with this task. Not so this camera. It struggled. I did not try any tracking or action photography as I know the kind of results I would get. THis is not my action camera. The one area I really liked is the ability to move the focus point (which is still too big) with my finger on the rear screen and my eye in the viewfinder - something I cannot do with the Sony. The other negative again relates to colors and over-exposure. I've used Canon for many years and am very comfortable with the metering & colors. This camera is very sensitive to over-exposure with the blue shift happening too readily. I normally leave the +/- dial at +0.3 but this is too much for the camera. Not a show stopper but means I need to pay more attention to the exposure settings.

Definately my favorite travel-everywhere camera at the moment...