G5 X circular edge softness -- is this normal?

Thank you for your responses and shooting tips! I did not expect a learning curve with 1" sensor coming from the G11 and 10 years of working with full frame EOS 5D bodies. With the G11 I could easily take a 1 cm macro shot and photo would turn out sharp. Now with the G5 X I don't see the point of having f/1.8 aperture and 5cm focusing distance when you're going to expect fuzzy images.

Jan_Shim wrote:

Thank you for your responses and shooting tips! I did not expect a learning curve with 1" sensor coming from the G11 and 10 years of working with full frame EOS 5D bodies. With the G11 I could easily take a 1 cm macro shot and photo would turn out sharp. Now with the G5 X I don't see the point of having f/1.8 aperture and 5cm focusing distance when you're going to expect fuzzy images.

Both f1.8 and "macro" mode have their benefits individually, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will work great to use them both together.

Shocking! Some years back I naively wished that someday Canon would release a Powershot model with a full frame sensor from the 5D Mark III. I was only thinking about how great IQ would be back then, completely dismissing the issues I'm now seeing with a 1" sensor.

Yes it's a problem for what I use the camera for: hand-held food close-ups, and I think you can already picture the problems I am facing. It's easy for anyone to hold the camera at a distance and capture the entire plate or even the entire table but I take artistic close-ups of food and both the G11 and Note 5's sensors have been straightforward to shoot with.

Stopping down the G5 X to get acceptable sharpness across, I may end up with shutter speed I cannot reasonably hand hold to avoid camera shake. In which case, I may need to shop for a mini tripod to overcome that and we all know once the camera is mounted on a tripod, it's another story to get creative with angles etc.

For everything else, the G5 X makes a great all rounder. I also take pictures of my daughter using the 5D Mark III + 70-200mm when she competes in 400m track events. Looking forward to seeing how well the G5X Servo and continuous AF handle this.

Thank you for your responses and shooting tips! I did not expect a learning curve with 1" sensor coming from the G11 and 10 years of working with full frame EOS 5D bodies. With the G11 I could easily take a 1 cm macro shot and photo would turn out sharp. Now with the G5 X I don't see the point of having f/1.8 aperture and 5cm focusing distance when you're going to expect fuzzy images.

Ever shoot a 150mm macro lens at f/2.8 at minimum focusing distance ? Most of your image will be out if focus. You need to read up on depth if field before making such ill informed statements.

Yes it's a problem for what I use the camera for: hand-held food close-ups, and I think you can already picture the problems I am facing. It's easy for anyone to hold the camera at a distance and capture the entire plate or even the entire table but I take artistic close-ups of food and both the G11 and Note 5's sensors have been straightforward to shoot with.

Stopping down the G5 X to get acceptable sharpness across, I may end up with shutter speed I cannot reasonably hand hold to avoid camera shake. In which case, I may need to shop for a mini tripod to overcome that and we all know once the camera is mounted on a tripod, it's another story to get creative with angles etc.

For everything else, the G5 X makes a great all rounder. I also take pictures of my daughter using the 5D Mark III + 70-200mm when she competes in 400m track events. Looking forward to seeing how well the G5X Servo and continuous AF handle this.

I suggest you sell your G5 X and continue to use your phone for pics. Problem solved!

damian5000 wrote:

The nice thing is that hi-ISO is going to be far cleaner without heavy processing than the g11 or mobile. And you can handhold easily up to 1/13, if you've got very steady hands, 1/5. I don't think you'll have any issues at f4-f5.6, even in rather dim lighting.

Yes, the G5 X is vastly superior to the G11 in every respect and Canon bringing back the vario-angle LCD is the very reason I waited years to finally find a worthy successor.

RedFox88 wrote:

I suggest you sell your G5 X and continue to use your phone for pics. Problem solved!

You seem to have gotten the idea that I've come here to give the G5 X a bad review. Quite the contrary I like the camera very much and nothing but praise for finally giving me a successor to the G11. The 1-inch sensor turned out to be a learning curve for me and I greatly appreciate the responses (before yours) that helped me understand the fuzziness isn't a defect.

RedFox88 wrote:

Ever shoot a 150mm macro lens at f/2.8 at minimum focusing distance ? Most of your image will be out if focus. You need to read up on depth if field before making such ill informed statements.

As a matter of fact, I have shot original EF100mm f/2.8 and later the Hybrid IS version for a total of 10 years. It is comment from rpm40 that answered it for me "Both f1.8 and "macro" mode have their benefits individually, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will work great to use them both together." along with the DOF Calculator screenshots from Richard Daugaard that made sense right away.