Small Is The Next Big

With the introduction of Canon PowerShot G1X Mark III, this APS-C sensor compact takes the top position in the company’s legendary G-series line-up.

- Shridhar Kunte

Over the years, the G series, placed as a premium line of small, high quality compact cameras from Canon, served photographers extremely well, with a large number of users becoming staunch loyalists. With the introduction of the new PowerShot G1 X Mark III, the company is making a foray into a whole new segment of users, while retaining older afficionados as well. The game changer here is the sensor. While earlier models of the G series flagships had large sensors, the Mark III supercedes them all. It has the same APS-C sensor found in the Canon EOS 80D and the newer mirrorless M series of cameras as well. The first thought that struck my mind was to see whether the performance of the new G1 X Mark III comes close to these cameras.

For a rather long time, Canon had stayed away from entering the mirrorles camera market, but the last year has shown them make steady progress. With the form factor of a compact camera, the company is trying to build a new parallel to mirrorless. Only time will tell if Canon will sustain this approach.

Features

The G1 X Mark III is based on a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor, which is about 36% larger than the 1.5-inch sensor of the Mark II. This sensor delivers an ISO range from 100 to 25,600 (same as the EOS 80D). The camera is equipped with a 3x lens with optical stabilisation, and covers a practical focal range of an equivalent of 24-72mm, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at the wide-angle end to f/5.6 at the telephoto end. With larger sensors, this is always the trade-off between keeping a camera compact and sacrificing maximum apertures. The G1 X Mark II, for instance, had a 24-120mm equivalent lens, with a maximum aperture range of f/2 (wide) to f/3.9 (tele). The Mark III has five-axis Advanced Dynamic IS for video recording. It offers a close-focusing distance of just 10cm in the macro mode. A nine-bladed aperture helps maintaining pleasing bokeh.