G1 X ii - excellent go-anywhere camera

My new "go everywhere" camera.  I love it.  it is like a G12 on steroids.  It is a bit bigger, but has a similar layout of controls, a faster higher quality lens, two control rings on the lens, a pop-up flash and a great EVF.   Unfortunately the EVF is an expensive extra but at least it is removable so not likely to be damaged in transit. In any case the old optical finder on the G-series was next to useless.  The rear screen is large, clear, tiltable and touch sensitive.  THe only feature that the G12 had that the G1Xii lacks is the fold-out and swivel feature of the screen, but that is no bad thing as it was a weak point of the G12 and often resulted in the connections failing, which meant sending the camera back to Canon for repair.

The 1.5" sensor is only fractionally smaller than APS-C and delivers top quality images of 12+ megapixels (size varies depending on the image format).  Reviews compare the high-ISO performance unfavourably with Sony and other MSCs, but it is more than good enough for me.  1600 ASA is almost as good as 100. Only at 3200 does noise become objectionable, but with Noise-Ninja the images can be repaired, and even 6400 and 12,800 become usable with careful composition and post-processing.  I am, of course, referring to Raw files.  The out-of-camera JPEGS I don't consider acceptable, as even at low-ISO they show halos and other artefacts when printed larger than A4.

The only drawback (for me) is that I cannot get support for the new version of Canon's raw files (.CR2) in LightRoom or other Adobe tools unless I "downgrade" my Mac from the excellent OS X 10.6.8 to any of the inferior versions of OS X (10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11) that have followed it!!

Fortunately a version of Iridient is available for Snow Leopard that does recognise the files and does a better job than LightRoom 4 of the basic demosaicing.  I can choose to process the images completely in Iridient, then import them to a Lightroom catalogue for management, or I can just convert to TIFF in Iridient (it has  batch processing option) and then both work on them them and manage them in Lightroom.

You would not buy this camera if you want something really tiny and lightweight. It is only a pocket camera if you have very big pockets, like on a winter overcoat.  But I wanted images comparable in quality to those from my DSLRs, and a tiny compact can only deliver that in excellent light.

That's an interesting comment. I've owned both and still have the G1X. It's a love /hate relationship with the camera. I have bought and sold new and used 3 different times. So what do you mean ?

Good review, but the mk2 is fantastic for landscapes!

I have been eyeing this camera for a long time now , just waiting to the price to go down .

NWT wrote:

Wonderful picture, great demonstration.

I have the camera, and I have never had any problem with focus.  It is always quick and accurate.  Love the camera!

Dale Buhanan wrote:

I have the camera, and I have never had any problem with focus. It is always quick and accurate. Love the camera!

Same here I have used that little gem overseas for video and snapshots so many times,  it has never disappointed me, the 1.5" sensor is really something to be proud of and it complements my DSLR beautifully. I can’t see myself replacing it for the moment.

Scott Skinner wrote:

Good review, but the mk2 is fantastic for landscapes!

Could not agree more, it is the best compact I have ever owned which is not far from a DSRL, photo quality wise. Anyone who cannot get top photos with this camera would either have a bad copy or user error issue.

800 ISO

The amount of details you get with indoor shots is amazing.

Both shots are straight out of the camera.

loitokitok wrote:

The twin control rings around the lens are a great idea but they can be very laggy in use. I've set one of mine to alter the focal length, the idea being that it should be quicker to select a particular focal length than using the zoom control around the shutter button. It works, sort of, and it's useful being able to go straight to a specific focal length such as 28mm, or 85mm, but sometimes it 'thinks' about it before responding.

I have the focal lengths assigned to the ring around the 4-way controller on the back, and that works excellently in my opinion, very snappy. This leaves the twin control rings on the lens available to change aperture and exposure compensation.

I haven't personally noticed significant lag when operating the twin control rings around the lens. I remember reading this is due to some camera setting - could it be switching to a single AF area or something like that?

lanefAU wrote:

Scott Skinner wrote:

Good review, but the mk2 is fantastic for landscapes!

Could not agree more, it is the best compact I have ever owned which is not far from a DSRL, photo quality wise. Anyone who cannot get top photos with this camera would either have a bad copy or user error issue.

800 ISO

Both shots are straight out of the camera.

This two examples don't looks like top photos to me, they are actually dissapointing.

Ktrphoto wrote:

The 1.5" sensor is only fractionally smaller than APS-C

Thanks for the write up. Looks like a great camera and one I'm thinking of buying for myself.

It's not a 1.5" sensor though. It's a "one inch" sensor. And that's just its name, not its size. The sensor is not 1" across. The name has its root in transmission camera tubes and is the sensor area one would get in a 1" tube, not the size of the sensor area itself. It seems odd camera manufacturers use the "one inch sensor" designation for digital cameras that have nothing to do with old picture tubes, one suspects it's disinformation and to make people think the sensors are bigger than they really are.

1" sensors are 13.2mm x 8.8mm

APSC sensors (for most, Canon are slightly smaller) 24mm x 16mm

Anyway, the result is that a 1" sensor is merely 1/3 of the area of a APSC sensor. But as you have discovered there's plenty you can do with a little 1" sensor and it looks like a great camera, thanks again for the review.