Canon G7 X Mark II Test

 We tested advanced compact Canon G7 X Mark II with a matrix of 20 megapixels, clear lens and movie recording at 60 fps.

Recently tested among other things, the PowerShot SX540 HS (new superzoom Canon), but the Japanese manufacturer has released this year a new, advanced compacts. Is one of them, Canon G7 X Mark II, will be able to stand in the lists of competitive models? About this in our test. 

Design and Ergonomics

The quality of the immediately attracts attention. The camera seems to be very reliable. All the elements are a good fit, buttons were made of good quality material, not cheap plastic. Of course, your model weighs – nearly 320 grams with battery and memory card – but this is just standard for compact high-end Canon and in this respect no different from the rest. Compact, if necessary, hide in his pocket, but certainly we will weigh it.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

In terms of the style of camera fits in the standard known Panasoników or Nikonov – a simple, modern solid black color of both the housing and buttons. The manufacturer decided not to retro styling, but the camera still looks quite nice. For many, however, more important than appearance it is what directly affects the service. And in this respect Canon works well, because the number of buttons is limited to the minimum necessary but does not lack what most necessary. At the top we find so button to turn the camera shutter button and the mode dial, among which we find P A, S, M, Auto, Intelligent Auto mode, Scene, and Movie mode marked the letter "C", under which lies the ability to save your own settings. Around the mode dial placed the ring to adjust the exposure compensation – definitely useful solution, because often only exposure we will control – other settings easily choose for our camera. The front part of the display is devoted to the menu buttons and shortcut menu, and what's interesting – the REC button.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

It's just rare solution, most manufacturers puts it in the upper part of the body. Non-standard placement of the Canon is not a good idea, because the button is not "at hand" and enable the recording is not very convenient. Speaking of comfort you have to admit that the camera fits comfortably in your hands, and specially contoured rubber grip and serving as supporting the thumb makes the camera will not slip out of our hands. On the right side of the body manufacturer has placed the direct access to WIFI, as well as HDMI and micro USB version. On the left we find yet releasing the flash (it was not permanently installed, and pops up when you need it). The lens has a movable ring, which can zoom in, but we will use it to focus in manual mode.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

disappointing performance of the battery. The manufacturer declares that a single charge will do about 240 shots (which in itself is not optimistic – the standard result is closer to the threshold of 300 photos), but we did not achieve even that. Battery refused to cooperate after a little more than 200 pictures. Of course, this happened several short films and a little digging in the menu, but it is not the best result. Interestingly, the battery capacity in G7 X Mark II is as high as 1250 mAh, so it is really large for such a small camera. Among the additional features include, among other things WIFI-enabled NFC. Thanks to send images to a computer without hooking cable. More importantly, after installing a special application you can control the camera using a smartphone or tablet. The connection is as stable and sticking too much, but the application could give a little more manual exposure options.

Display and menu

Canon G7 X Mark II is equipped with a 3-inch display with a resolution of 1.040 million points. These standard parameters provide us with good quality preview. Importantly, the screen features a touch, and is currently a very useful feature. This will allow us not only to choose various options from the screen, without having to delve into the menu, but perhaps most importantly – give us the ability to select the focus point the finger.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

The display can tilt up to 180 degrees, which makes it successfully, we can do it ourselves selfie, and use it to vlogowania. Binding screen is relatively thick and slightly protrudes from the body, which of course is not a problem, but spoils the style – a much better idea solution to a panel of "hide" in the camera. You can not have for objections to the brightness of the display – even strong sun does not interfere in framing. And this is the thing necessary because the camera ran out of the viewfinder. The compacts is rather rare, but many of the advanced models, it exists.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl

A few words must also be given to the menu. It is quite rich in options, but it was well organized and divided into categories, so that it is easy to find what interests us. A definite facilitation is shortened menu, so that the most important options is selected by touching the screen at the right place and you will not need to search menu. We can also use the automatic and manual rule only on the exposure and the effect will also be good. You can see that the manufacturer is trying to make his device could handle even a layman in the field of photography.

Photography

Canon G7 X second generation is part of a group of advanced compact cameras, so as most of them have a 1-inch display in CMOS technology. A big plus is the fact that the manufacturer decided to put the camera its latest image processor, so DIGIC 7. It makes the burst mode can take 8 images per second, and the quality is really good. The resolution, in turn, may be up to 20 megapixels, though for good pictures even just half of that. ISO minimum is 125 (I wish we had 100), while the maximum we can conquer them up to 12 800 (in the extended mode 25 600). There is no secret – far higher image quality will deteriorate, although as compact, G7 X II with higher ISO and so does a good job. Amazingly, even at ISO 3200 noise still acceptable, which is a good result. You can see it on the table below, and the full-resolution can be found in the gallery .

fot. fotoManiaK.pl

 Canon G7 X Mark II in automatic mode adapts very well to the conditions and can do nicely lit photos. Copes with setting the white balance, though as each model has problems with incandescent. If the outside is clear, it sometimes tends to screen shots, but that we can deal with slightly lowering the exposure, turning the ring in the upper part of the lens. As for the lens, it can boast a high brightness. His light is variable and full hole is f / 1.8, and when you bring a little more, because f / 2.8. Not bad work too flash, which, despite its small size is able to nicely illuminate personnel – on a full hole up to 7 meters, and tele to 4 meters.

When you turn the light is too much certainly useful function ND filter. This is a 3-stage and can significantly reduce the amount of light falling on the matrix. The lens offers a 4.2-fold optical zoom, which translates into a range of focal lengths of 24-100 mm per full frame, however, an additional 4x digital zoom allows significantly closer picture, with surprisingly a small loss of quality. You can see this in the example below – of a non-zoom with optical zoom and digital.  

As for the image quality, you have to admit that it can not be accused of many. Canon optics and the good quality matrix and modern image processor allows staff to get the full clarity and at the same time with attractive colors. Automatic mode works well, not bad copes well stabilization – is a 5-axis, and its performance the manufacturer determines to 4 EV, which actually translates into real-world performance.

Reservations can have for it to autofocus, which seems to be working too slowly. Often, in order to quickly capture an item as a result of getting blurred personnel, because the camera needs time to adjust the focus. Tedious This is especially the use of longer focal lengths, because then precision grinding is not ideal. The upside is that we can finger to indicate which part of the frame should be sharp.

filming

In terms of the film Canon G7 X Mark II loses to competitors – for example in the form of the Panasonic. Despite this, we get the bare minimum – Full HD at 60 frames per second in an efficient and easy to install MP4 format. Recorded movies are nice – a clear, detailed and clean (ie without noise), if, of course, do not overdo the ISO.

However, there is the quality of 4K standard today in the higher-end models, which can definitely put a compact Canon. Too bad there is no function of slow-motion. But enough about cons. The upside, however, is the fact that the camera allows us to manually control the settings – you can set the aperture, shutter, ISO and white balance, and exposure compensation. As a result, we can get good results. Autofocus continuously doing or not bad, though, as I have already mentioned – AF is not just forte tested model. It gives a lot for the presence of 5-axis stabilization matrix.

In movie mode the picture becomes a bit narrower than the photo – so we have to reckon with the fact that we are losing a part of the frame, and instead get some 24 mm 28 mm. The upside is the action of the lens. This works very quietly, so that will not be drowned out much of our movies. At the same time it allows for a smooth approach, which is also not without significance.

Summary and evaluation

Disadvantages

Assessing G7 X Mark II, in the eyes of throws me mainly mediocre AF – may not be bad, but definitely expected more after the camera with a higher league. Also, movie mode deviates from what is now the competition offers. The list closes weak battery – or rather the camera high demand for energy, because the same cell has a large capacity, which does not translate into longer battery life on a single charge.

Advantages

Nice image quality, 5-axis stabilization, ease of use – Canon G7 X Mark II definitely has a lot of advantages. This is one of those models, which makes nice pictures without much help from the photographer. This feels very solid and feels good in the hand. The camera targets the segment of advanced compact and well in it finds.

Canon G7 X Mark II / photo. FotoManiaK.pl