In summary
The G9 X is the model to choose if you want a genuinely pocketable camera and are prepared to accept the limitations its small size imposes: no viewfinder, fixed monitor and a touch-screen interface that takes a while to get used to. Once you’ve figured it out, the controls are reasonably user-friendly and the small number of button controls provide handy assistance.
Full review
Pursuing the goal of a genuinely pocketable camera with high resolution and superior performance to smart-phones and similarly-sized compact digicams, Canon’s PowerShot G9 X competes head-to-head against Sony’s RX100 cameras. It’s smaller than the Sonys, about 30% lighter and significantly cheaper than the RX100 III and RX100 IV. But, unlike the Sony cameras, the G9 X lacks any kind of viewfinder, which might put some potential buyers off.
Angled view of the PowerShot G9 X, black version. (Source: Canon.)
The G9 X is the latest in a series of five models, released over the last couple of years, beginning with the large-sensor G1 X. The four models released after the G1 X have the same 20.2-megapixel, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, which may have been the one used in the Sony RX100 Mark II and Mark III (but not in Mark IV).
Image data from the sensor is handled by the same DIGIC 6 processor in the G7 X, G3 X and G5 X (which was released concurrently with the G9 X). This means all these models support an ISO range of 125 to 12,800 and continuous shooting speeds of around 6 frames/second ““ but only for JPEGs.
The fastest the camera can record CR2.RAW files is a disappointing one frame/second. With autofocusing engaged for continuous shooting, capture rates for JPEGs slip back to 4.3 frames/second, while for raw files it is roughly one frame every 1.5 seconds.
Who’s it For?
The G9 X is the model to choose if you want a genuinely pocketable camera and are prepared to accept the limitations its small size imposes: no viewfinder, fixed monitor and a touch-screen interface that takes a while to get used to. Once you’ve figured it out, the controls are reasonably user-friendly and the small number of button controls provide handy assistance.
The 3x optical zoom lens in the G9 X has a shorter range than its siblings and isn’t quite as fast. In addition, it doesn’t cover such a wide angle of view. The monitor is fixed in place, which won’t please selfie shooters. But that’s the price you pay for a pocketable camera body.
Build and Ergonomics
The G9 X’s body is somewhere between the PowerShot S120 (which has a smaller 7.6 x 5.7 mm sensor) and the PowerShot G7 X, which we reviewed in June 2015. It has the same ‘bar-of-soap’ shape and feel and has a high percentage of metal in its construction. It is offered in two colours: black and silver, the latter with tan faux-leather accents.
The two colour options for the PowerShot G9 X. (Source: Canon.)
There’s no front grip moulding; just a tiny thumb rest on the rear panel. Sections of the front panel and thumb rest are textured to prevent fingers from slipping. It’s a bit better than the G7 X’s surface but no substitute for a decent grip.
The retracting lens dominates the front panel. Technically it’s relatively modest, with a 10.2 x 30.6 mm zoom range (equivalent to 28-84mm in 35mm format) and a maximum aperture range of f/2 to f/4.9, which isn’t particularly fast. The control ring around the lens is the same as in the G7 X but, by default, it adjusts exposure compensation in P mode, rather than ISO. Like the G7 X, this ring can be programmed to handle other settings.
The optical design of the lens comprises eight elements in six groups, with two double-sided aspherical UA lenses and one single-sided aspherical element. Built-in optical image stabilisation provides roughly three f-stops of shutter speed compensation. Aside from the lens, the only feature on the front panel is the embedded LED, which doubles as an AF-Assist and self-timer lamp.
The top panel of the PowerShot G9 X with power switched on. (Source: Canon.)
The top panel is noteworthy for it prominent mode dial, which sits at the right hand end. It carries settings for two Auto modes (Auto and Hybrid Auto, which includes movie capture), P, Tv, Av and M modes plus a C mode for storing favourite control combinations. There’s a separate Movie setting, a Creative Shot mode that automatically applies special effects and recomposes the shot and a Scene mode with 17 pre-sets, including a number of special effects.
Left of the mode dial is the shutter button with surrounding zoom lever. To its left and lying flush with the top panel is the power on/off button. Three tiny speaker holes lie between the on/off button and the playback button, which is also flush with the top panel and a centimetre or so further left. Slightly larger microphone holes are located in front of the power and playback buttons.
A pop-up flash is embedded in the left hand end of the top panel, its top lying flush with the camera body. The flash is raised by pressing a button just behind it on the top panel and lowered by pressing it down. There’s no hot-shoe for adding accessory flashguns – or an EVF.
The rear panel of the PowerShot G9 X, silver version. (Source: Canon.)
Most of the rear panel of the camera is covered by the LCD monitor, which is fixed in place and has a touch-screen interface. The button controls are squeezed into a narrow strip below the thumb rest and include (from the top) the movie button, the Quick Set Menu/Set button, the Menu button and the Info button.
There’s no arrow pad and no control dials, aside from the ring around the lens. Consequently, you’re forced to rely on the touch-screen when adjusting most functions. Fortunately, the screen supports the standard gestural controls.
The battery and memory card share a compartment in the base of the camera, just beside the metal-lined tripod socket which, is on the optical axis of the lens (unlike the G7 X). The N-Mark interface for the mobile device connection (NFC) is next to the tripod socket.
The USB (digital) and HDMI terminals are located beneath a lift-up flap just below the neck strap hook on the right hand side panel. Although Canon provides a separate battery charger with the G9 X, this camera can also be charged directly via a USB cable. Sadly, battery capacity is limited to around 220 shots/charge.
Sensor and Image Processing
The sensor in the G9 X has the same sensor and image processor as the G7 X and details of image and movie resolutions and file sizes are provided in our review of that camera and also in our review of the G5 X. Performance statistics are slightly different from the G7 X, however, with the G9 X having a maximum continuous shooting speed of 6 frames/second (fps) for JPEGs, which slows to 4.3 fps with AF active. The maximum recording speed for raw files is one frame/second.
Shutter speeds are also restricted for long exposures, with a maximum of 30 seconds applied. In addition, the highest ISO setting usable for exposures of one second or longer is ISO 3200, which limits the scope of the camera for low light shooting. Automatic in-camera corrections for rectilinear distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration are applied to JPEG files. So is noise-reduction processing, which can’t be disabled.
The G9 X offers most of the same in-camera adjustments as the G7 X and includes the same built-in ND filter with three stops of intensity reduction. The Star settings introduced in the G7 X are also provided.
Connectivity options are similar to those offered by the G7 X and based upon an app that must be downloaded to a smart device. NFC (Near Field Communication) makes it easy to link the G7X to Android devices by simply bringing them together.
Playback and Software
Playback settings are similar to those provided by other Canon cameras and accessed via the button on the top panel. Users can scroll through shots by swiping across the touch screen with a fingertip. The screen also supports the standard tap, drag, pinch and spread gestures, the latter being used to determine how many thumbnails appear on the screen.
Movies are identified by an arrow-shaped icon and can be played back by pressing the Quick Menu/Set button. Creative Shot Movies and Digest Movies can also be played back by touching the relevant icon. An icon on the lower right hand corner of the screen enables users to adjust the volume of audio playback.
Four display options are accessed via the Info button: no information, simple information, detailed information with a brightness histogram and detailed information with an RGB histogram and GPS data. The camera can also display over-exposure warnings for blown-out highlights.
Slideshow playback is also supported, along with Smart Shuffle, which displays shots in randomly-selected groups of four and Story Highlights, which combines theme-related images into a slideshow that can be saved as a short movie with background music. A limited range of editing controls is available for JPEG files (not raw files), including the ability to overwrite Face ID information and erase names as well as the usual crop, resize, re-colour, i-Contrast and red-eye correction options.
The review camera was supplied with a printed ‘Getting Started’ manual that was reasonably comprehensive and contained links to websites that provide electronic copies of the more comprehensive Camera User Guide for downloading. It also contains a link to Canon’s website where users can download Digital Photo Professional software for converting raw files from the camera into editable formats as well as the ImageBrowser EX, EOS Utility, Picture Style Editor and PhotoStitch applications.
Performance
Still images appeared nice and sharp straight out of the camera and also relatively contrasty. Colours showed the usual slight increase in saturation we’ve come to expect from compact digicams. Imatest showed colour accuracy to be generally very good, with a slight boost to warm hues to yield ‘healthier-looking’ skin tones.
Autofocusing was acceptably fast and accurate in most types of lighting, including on a very rainy day where contrast was particularly low and at night in very low light levels. In adequate lighting the camera had few problems focusing for still shots and continuous refocusing during movie recording was comparatively fast for a digicam.
The CR2.RAW files from the review camera weren’t supported in the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw so we had to convert them into 16-bit TIFFs with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software. Based on these files, converted raw files from the review camera were well able to meet expectations for the sensor’s resolution, with the best performance at the longest focal length with the maximum aperture. JPEG files shot at the same time fell short by 15-20%.
Resolution held up well until about ISO 3200, where a gradual decline in sharpness became apparent. The graph below plots the results of our tests across the review camera’s sensitivity range.
Edge softening was less than we expected and greatest with the shortest focal length setting (10.2mm). Interestingly, the lens loses ‘speed’ rapidly as it is zoomed in, sacrificing 1.6 f-stops between 10.2mm and 14.5mm. The effects of diffraction became visible at f/8, with a rapid decline to the minimum aperture of f/11. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.
Lateral chromatic aberration was negligible at all lens apertures and focal length settings, because it’s automatically corrected in-camera. We found no evidence of coloured fringing in test shots. The graph below shows the results of our tests, with the red line indicating the boundary between negligible and low CA.
Auto white balance performance was typical of many digicams, with close-to-neutral colours under fluorescent lighting and with the camera’s built-in flash but insufficient correction with incandescent lighting. The tungsten and fluorescent pre-sets tended towards slight over-correction but no adjustments appeared to have been made with the flash pre-set. Manual measurement produced neutral colours under all three types of lighting.
Long exposures at night were generally clear and sharp, as you would expect from the ISO 3200 limit placed upon exposures of one second or longer. Some noise could be seen in shots taken at ISO 3200 but they were printable up to A4 size.
Flash performance was generally good and the review camera delivered consistent exposure levels across the sensitivity range from ISO 125 to ISO 12800. Shots taken with the two highest ISO settings showed very slight softening but retained most of the same contrast and colour saturation contained in images from lower ISO settings.
Video performance was similar to the G7 X and rates as satisfactory, rather than outstanding. Clips tended to be a little contrasty and the camera had difficulty balancing exposures when subjects contained a wide brightness range. Autofocusing locked quite quickly onto the main subject at the beginning of a clip but we found slight delays in re-focusing on moving subjects and when the camera was panned across a scene. Soundtracks were of average quality without much stereo presence.
Our timing tests were carried out with a 16GB SanDisk Ultra SDHC UHS-1memory card, which claims write transfer speeds of 40MB/second. The review camera powered up ready for shooting in approximately one second and shut down marginally faster. With the lens at medium zoom we measured an average capture lag of 0.2 seconds, which was eliminated with pre-focusing. It took 0.9 seconds to process each high-resolution JPEG image and 1.2 seconds for each RAW+JPEG pair. Shot-to-shot times averaged 0.8 seconds without flash and 5.2 seconds with.
When shooting Large/Superfine JPEGs in the normal continuous shooting mode, the camera recorded 19 frames in 2.5 seconds before slowing. It took 3.3 seconds to process this burst. When continuous autofocusing was engaged, we were able to record 17 frames in 2.4 seconds before capture rates slowed. Processing was completed within 3.6 seconds of the last frame captured.
With raw files, capture rates slowed to 1.1 seconds and we were able to record eight frames in 9.7 seconds before the first sign of hesitation. Processing appeared to be on-the-fly as the indicator light went out roughly a second after the last frame was captured.
Conclusion
The G9 X appears to be the lightest and most compact of cameras with one-inch type (13.2 x 8.8 mm) sensors currently available. Its nearest rival is the Sony RX100 Mark III, which measures 101.6 x 58.1 x 41 mm and weighs 290 grams with battery and card.
Like the G9 X, the Sony camera is designed to be pocketable. It has the advantage of a small, pop-up EVF with high resolution and slightly better wide-angle coverage (though a shorter zoom range) but the RX100 Mark lll costs quite a bit more than the G9 X.
It’s not worth importing the G9 X from the USA since, after allowing for currency conversion, the difference between the US and Australian RRPs is negligible. And since discounting has already begun in the local market, interested buyers are likely to do better at their local camera store.
SPECS
Image sensor: 13.2 x 8.8 mm sensor with 20.9 million photosites (20.2 megapixels effective)
Image processor: DIGIC 6 with iSAPS technology
A/D processing: 14-bit
Lens: 10.2-30.6mm f/2-4.9 (28-84mm in 35 mm format)
Zoom ratio: 3x optical, up to 4x digital
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (DCF / Exif 2.3), CR2.RAW, RAW+JPEG; Movies – MPEG-4 (AVC/H.264) with AAC-LC [Stereo] audio
Image Sizes: Stills – 3:2 aspect: 5472 x 3648, 4320 x 2880, 2304 x 1536, 720 x 480; 4:3 aspect: 4864 x 3648, 3840 x 2880, 2048 x 1536, 640 x 480; 16:9 aspect: 5472 x 3080, 4320 x 2432, 1920 x 1080, 720 x 408; 1:1 aspect: 3648 x 3648, 2880 x 2880, 1536 x 1536, 480 x 480; Movies – 1920 x 1080 at 60/50/30 fps, 1280 x 720 at 30 fps, 640 x 480 at 30 fps
Shutter speed range: 30-1/2000 seconds plus Bulb
Self-timer: 2 or 10 seconds delay plus Custom setting
Image Stabilisation: Lens-shift type; approx 3 stops correction
Exposure Compensation: +/- 3EV in 1/3EV steps; +/-2EV for flash
Focus system/range: 31-point contrast-based TTL AF with AiAF (31-point, Face Detection or Touch AF with Object and Face Select and Track), I-point AF (any position is available or fixed centre); ingle, Continuous, Servo AF/AE, Touch AF modes; range 5 cm to infinity; macro 5 to 35 cm
Exposure metering/control: Evaluative, Centre-weighted average, Spot
Shooting modes: Smart Auto (58 scenes detected), Program AE, Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE, Manual, Custom, Hybrid Auto, Creative Shot, SCN (Portrait, Star (Star Nightscape, Star Trails, Star Portrait, Star Time-Lapse Movie), Handheld Night Scene, Fireworks, High Dynamic Range, Nostalgic, Fish-eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Toy Camera Effect, Background Defocus, Soft Focus, Monochrome, Super Vivid, Poster Effect), Movie
Photo effects: My Colours (My Colours Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Colour)
ISO range: Auto, ISO 125-12800 in 1/3 EV steps
White balance: Auto (including Face Detection WB), Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash, Custom (x 2), Multi-area WB correction available in Smart Auto; White Balance Compensation; Colour adjustment in Star mode
Colour space: sRGB
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, Manual Flash On/Off, Slow Synchro; range: 50 cm to 6.0 metres
Sequence shooting: Max. 6 frames/second; 4.3 fps with AF
Buffer memory depth (based on tests): JPEGs, raw files, RAW+JPEG
Storage Media: SD, SDHC, SDXC memory cards; UHS-I compatible
Viewfinder: No
LCD monitor: 3-inch TFT capacitative touch screen LCD with approx 1,040,000 dots; 1005 coverage, 5 brightness adjustment levels
Interface terminals: USB (Micro-B), HDMI (Type D), A/V output (PAL/NTSC), 3.5 mm stereo microphone jack, 3.5 mm headphone jack
Communications: Wi-Fi IEEE 802. 11b/g/n with WEP, WPA-PSK (AES/TKIP), WPA2-PSK (AES-TKIP) security; GPS via mobile
Power supply: NB-13L rechargeable battery pack; CIPA rated for approx. 220 shots/charge with Screen On, 320 shots with ECO Mode
Dimensions (wxhxd): 98.0 x 57.9 x 30.8 mm
Weight: 209 grams (with battery and memory card)
TESTS
Based on Large/Superfine JPEGs.
Based on CR2.RAW files converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Digital Photo Professional.
SAMPLES
Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.
Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.
Auto white balance with flash lighting.
ISO 125, 30-second exposure at f/2.8; 23mm focal length.
ISO 400, 20-second exposure at f/4; 23mm focal length.
ISO 1600, 8-second exposure at f/4.5; 23mm focal length.
ISO 3200, 4-second exposure at f/4.5; 23mm focal length.
ISO 12800, 1-second exposure at f/4.5; 23mm focal length.
Flash exposure at ISO 125; 1/60 second at f/4.9; 30.6mm focal length.
Flash exposure at ISO 800; 1/60 second at f/4.9; 30.6mm focal length.
Flash exposure at ISO 3200; 1/60 second at f/4.9; 30.6mm focal length.
Flash exposure at ISO 6400; 1/60 second at f/4.9; 30.6mm focal length.
Flash exposure at ISO 12800; 1/60 second at f/4.9; 30.6mm focal length.
10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/640 second at f/4.9.
1.6x digital zoom; 30.6mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/400 second at f/4.9.
2x digital zoom; 30.6mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/500 second at f/4.9.
Closest focus in Macro mode; 10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/30 second at f/3.5.
Closest focus in Macro mode; 30.6mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/100 second at f/4.9.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/200 second at f/5.6.
Crop from the above image at 100% magnification, showing edge sharpness and the absence of coloured fringing.
16:9 aspect ratio; 10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/200 second at f/6.3.
3:2 aspect ratio; 10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/250 second at f/6.3.
4:3 aspect ratio: 10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/320 second at f/6.3.
1:1 aspect ratio; 10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/250 second at f/6.3.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 640, 1/200 second at f/5.6.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 2000, 1/100 second at f/5.6.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 1250, 1/250 second at f/5.
30.6mm focal length plus 2x digital zoom, ISO 500, 1/200 second at f/6.3.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/250 second at f/5.6.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 320, 1/200 second at f/7.1.
10.2mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/250 second at f/6.3.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/800 second at f/4.9.
30.6mm focal length, ISO 320, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
10.2mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/20 second at f/2.
Still frame from Full HD 1080/50p video clip.
Still frame from Full HD 1080/25p video clip.
Still frame from HD 720/25p video clip.
Still frame from VGA/25p video clip.
Rating
RRP: AU$729.00; US$529.99
- Build: 8.7
- Ease of use: 8.5
- Autofocusing: 8.7
- Image quality JPEG: 8.2
- Image quality RAW: 9.0
- Video quality: 8.4
