Considering an upgrade to Canon G7X – but have a concern about shooting sunsets.

[AdkPaddler]

I currently own a Canon G11 and am looking to upgrade.

I am mostly looking for improved image quality and ease of use. I do a lot of kayaking in the Adirondacks, and my G11 usually resides in a waterproof case on the floor of my kayak, right in front of me. If I come across a camera worthy scene, it takes just seconds to open my waterproof case, pull out the camera, turn it on and take the photo. Mostly, I just use the Auto mode or the sunset scene mode.

I have a very good eye for photos. But my camera-control and post-processing skills are not the greatest - nor do I have a strong desire to improve these skills. (You see, I already have far too many hobbies and this old dog does not want to learn many new tricks.) Also, I don’t want to shoot raw.

I think I’ve narrowed my search down to these three cameras:

1) Canon Powershot G7X

2) Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 III

3) Canon Powershot G1X Mark II

This is my analysis so far. All three have very comparable image quality in auto mode (realistically, this is how I would mostly use the camera). The Canon G1X Mark II is quite a bit bigger in size but may offer better image quality for people with better camera control skills than I have. At today’s prices, both the Canon G1X Mark II and the Sony RX100 III cost about $150 more than the G7X. The Sony RX100 III offers a sunset scene mode and appears to have slightly better performance (speed, battery, etc.). I do have a bit of Canon brand loyalty. The bottom line is that I am leaning toward the Canon G7X.

Regarding sunset mode: In my opinion, regular mode does not reproduce the colors that I see. The sunset scene mode of the G11 does a decent job. (You see, I am mostly interested in producing photos of what I see.) The Canon cameras do not have a user selectable scene mode for sunsets.

Questions:

1) Based on the way I use a camera, do you have any other recommendations or suggestions for other things I should consider?

2) Can I easily reproduce sunset scene mode with the GX7 (by selecting white balance or something)? Please remember, based on how I use a camera, I want a simple quick way of doing this. (And I want to minimize post processing.) What about the Vivid Red Color Tones setting?

3) The Canon GX7 manual mentions a sunset shooting mode that may be automatically determined by the camera. It’s not clear to me how this works - can someone explain? Can I somehow force this selection manually?

Thanks for your time!

 

[ECDC]

Hi. The sunset mode works like this -- put the camera into AUTO mode. Point it at a sunset. If it recognizes a sunset (5 times out of 10 in my unscientific test this evening), a sun will appear in the top left of the screen and it's in sunset mode.

JPG, straight out of the camera, sunset mode:



Camera screen, sunset mode:



Sunset mode isn't that much different than regular. Here's a RAW image, saved to JPG without any changes:



And the RAW image after 30 seconds in Lightroom (overdone to make a point that you can do pretty much anything you want to a RAW sunset picture):

Bottom line -- if you want great sunset pictures, you'll have to put a modicum of work into it in post.

Cheers,

-Erik

 

[AdkPaddler]

Thanks for your information. You are pointing to all this additional post-processing work that I don't want to do.

With the G11, I was satisfied with most sunrise/sunset shots that I took in sunset scene mode.

Too bad for the G7X.

It sounds like I will be going with the Sony!

 

[AdkPaddler]

I’ve been doing some additional research and think there is a solution that would work for me. But I would like to first run it by others that are smarter than me when it goes to cameras.

It appears that auto-white balance (as you have in automode), when presented with sunset conditions, gets confused and tries to correct the white balance away from the reds we naturally see. (Let’s assume that the camera does not detect a sunset and automatically transition itself into a sunset mode.)

So with automatic white balance, the camera “washes” out the red colors. The way to correct for this is to force “Day Light” white balance. This should bring the colors back towards the way you actually see them. And if you want to artificially deepen the colors, you could instead select “Cloudy” white balance - which goes beyond Day Light white balance, adding additional warm tones to the image.

Does this make sense?

 

[Donthuis]

Isn't the camera supposed to select the sunset option in the Auto or hybrid automatic position? A pictogram with an orange background color should come up if the sunset is properly detected.

One would expect in the SCN/scene sunset it to be one of the selectable options, but the manual does not show it. In the mean time I checked the menu in practice: indeed n.a. in SCN mode..

So if you want sunsets automatically set the mode dial to AUTO. If not change the White balance in any of the other modes from Auto to daylight and the red of the sun will remain as it is.

Of course one can go one step further and define a custom white balance value for this situation. But IMO this is overkill, fine-tuning the color of the sunset picture in Lightroom in post is easier!

--
Longterm photographer from way back in the 50's via analog SLR's, three generations of video equipment towards present 2 high end compacts both with (F)HD-video included (Canon 300HS & G7X).

 

[damian5000]

Thanks for your information. You are pointing to all this additional post-processing work that I don't want to do.

With the G11, I was satisfied with most sunrise/sunset shots that I took in sunset scene mode.

Too bad for the G7X.

It sounds like I will be going with the Sony!

The Sony will do no better. And obviously it will depend on the sunset in regards to how it comes out without PP. What was done with the raw above can just as easily be done with jpg.