Re: will the g9x iii ever come?
1
Sigh. There are genuine reasons why Canon would probably sell more units if they launched a G9 X III, but judging solely by # of reviews at major e-tailers, the G9 X II sold quite poorly to the G7 X, so Canon will have needed to work miracles for a worthwhile G9 X III.
Or it'll be like the G9 X -> G9 X II, with mostly cosmetic & background upgrades.
A market already exists for the G9 X. It's smallest prosumer zoom cameras with a 1" sensor. Everything else in this segment (including Sony's entire RX100 lineup) are not pocketable for the younger crowd. 30 mm is far more pocketable than 40 mm, but seemingly the market for prosumer+truly-pocketable has been slaughtered by high-end phones.
Today (and for the past few weeks/months?) on Canon's official store, the G9 X II is at a steep 17% discount. Corporations don't do factory store discounts to products that are selling well: either the market has changed significantly since the 2017 launch and the G9 X II can't sell at its original prince or there's stock to be cleared out for new segmentation (so either the G9 X line is cancelled or the G9 X III).
To be clear, this is a market-wide change: the 17% discount is also reflected at major e-tailers: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Best Buy, etc. are all selling at the new $399 price as of 12/27/19.
There are easy upgrades and hard upgrades that would make a possible G9 X III sell better to the crowd it's ostensibly marketed at:
- DIGIC 8 (before you comment...the R&D for DIGIC 8 has been paid, times over)
- Wider-than-28mm on the front-end (likely via sacrificing some zoom)
- A contoured grip
- Longer battery life: efficiency in the display, processor, or better batteries
- Hard: a tilting screen
- Hard: anything beyond 1080p60 (you'll need a dash of luck for 4K video, like the SX740 got)
- Hard: a wider aperture at telephoto (in body & price this small...it seems impossible)
EVF, APS-C zoom, etc. just cannot fit in this body or its price. Canon does add a few mm in its generational upgrades, but even that won't be enough for those. Maybe enough for a tilting screen.
But, again, the G9 X II has far, far fewer reviews than its G7 cousin on every retailer I've looked at. Either Canon can work wonders in 30mm to make a G9 X III sell far better or 40mm is now the new minimum for prosumer zoom cameras beyond 1/2.3".
Then again, Canon still updated the G5 X, which seems to have even fewer sales than the G9 X!