what’s up guys to gear and welcome to another tech gear talk today we’re gonna take a look at the g1 X mark 3 which is a high-end compact camera from Canon and I just took this camera with me on a two-week trip to Italy and I used it for both photography and video we’re gonna talk about why this is a nice compact camera for beginner photographers or for anyone who’s creating YouTube content or just wants to shoot video with a very small camera [Music] the g1x mark 3 is canons flagship compact camera and it’s the only one that includes both an aps-c sensor and a built-in zoom lens now there are some great features to this camera but there are also some things that I don’t really love so make sure you watch this video to the end to get a complete overview and with new mirrorless cameras like the m6 and the m50 and other compact cameras like the g7 X Mark 2 you wouldn’t think that there is room for the g1 X mark 3 but can make sure to include some features that would attract buyers to this higher price point now compact cameras have
always been really popular because it has small and light they are and its really nice to have one with such a big sensor my goal with every product review is to give you an overview of the features of the product but in a way that relates to real-life use and if you find it helpful please let me know by giving it a like and then hitting the subscribe and notification buttons for more camera and tech reviews there’s actually a great deal going on right now and you can actually get $200 off the g1 X Mark 3 if you use the links in the description and if you do end up buying this camera or another one I would appreciate if you use the links in the description or on my website to help support my channel and then help me create more helpful content for you I’m going to get into the details of each aspect of this camera but let’s start off by looking at some key features the g1 x mark 3 has a 24 point 2 megapixel aps-c CMOS sensor and it uses canons super nice dual pixel autofocus system it uses the digit 7 processor which improves speed and performance as well as image quality it has a 3-inch fully articulating touchscreen and it can shoot video at up to 1080p at 60 frames per second it’s got a built-in 24 to 72 millimeter equivalent lens that also incorporates dual sensing
optical image stabilization and there’s a really nice oh let you find er it has Wi-Fi with NFC and Bluetooth so you can easily move images to your mobile device and you can also control the camera remotely for both photography and video but there are some limitations which on and later on in this video I’ve been really excited about trying the g1x mark 3 especially after how much I love the g7x mark 2 so let’s go ahead and jump into these features in a little more detail as I mentioned the g1x mark 3 has a twenty four point two megapixel aps-c CMOS sensor and it’s something that you don’t really see in compact cameras and normally if you wanted an aps-c sensor you’d have to go into a mirrorless camera or a DSLR so right off the bat that’s a major score for the g1 X Mark 3 but it does come at a price and the retail price right now for the g1 X Mark three is twelve hundred and ninety nine dollars but remember that I mentioned that there is a special discount going on right now and you can get $200 off the price so that ends up being right under $1,100 now in general a bigger sensor is better because a bigger sensor can use more information to create an image with more detail better dynamic range and better low-light performance and this aps-c sensor is excellent if you’re going to be shooting portraits landscape if you’re
doing street photography if you want to take this with you while you travel or even just do family and lifestyle photography and it’s also a great choice if you want to create content for YouTube or if you’re just a hobbyist and you want to shoot some video it’s gonna give you really nice and crisp video again especially from such a compact camera and as always canons color science is awesome so that was the sensor let’s talk a little bit about the processor and here canon used the digit 7 processor which is the same one that’s used on the g7 x mark to the SL to the m6 5d mark ii and a bunch of other models so this combination of the aps-c sensor and the digit 7 processor gives you really nice and crisp images and pretty good low-light performance again for this type of camera and the digit 7 also makes the camera very fast to operate so the g1 x mark 3 starts up really quickly and it’s very nice and responsive for both photography and video and general menu operation is fast and then things like previewing images and video playback all those things are really fast and for photography the digit 7 lets the g1x mark 3 shoot it up to nine frames per second in burst or continuous mode so basically that
means that if I hold down this shutter to get focused and impress it the camera just continues to fire I don’t know if you could hear it but it just shoots at nine frames per second so this is a really nice feature if you’re photographing kids running around if you’re at a sporting event if you’re trying to get pictures of your pets or any time where your subject is moving around because you can just hold the shutter down take a whole bunch of pictures and then just pick the one that you like best and you don’t have to worry about getting it just right with one shot so next I want to talk about resolution and frame rate and the g1x mark three can shoot 1080p or Full HD at 24 30 and 60 frames per second and you choose between 24 30 and 60 frames per second based on what you want your final video to look like so if you like a softer or more cinematic look then you’re gonna want to shoot at 24 frames per second if on the other hand you want everything to look super sharp and crisp you can shoot at 60 frames per second and I like a little bit of both so I shoot and edit my videos at 30 frames per second so if you choose to do what I do
you can shoot some video at 60 frames per second and then when you’re editing at 30 frames per second that lets you do slow motion at up to two times so you can slow things down by 50% one thing that I would have liked to see at this price point is maybe a hundred and twenty frames per second at 1080p that would have been awesome cuz that that would have let me slow things down five four times and some other people have mentioned that at this price point at $1,300 they were hoping to get 4k out of this camera especially because competitors do offer 4k video at even lower price points and of course we all want our cameras to do everything but everyone has a budget and I always like to evaluate how important each feature is to me and that’s how I make my decision okay so let’s move on to the lens the g1x mark 3 has a built-in 15 to 45 millimeter 2.8 to 5.6 lens and with the aps-c crop factor we’re getting a 35 millimeter equivalent of 24 to 72 millimeters and if you’re not familiar
with crop factor let me explain this a little bit because the sensor is an aps-c sensor and not a full-frame sensor what we have to do is take the focal length of this lens and multiply it by 1.6 and that’s how we go from 15 to 45 to 24 to 72 and that just gives you the 35 millimeter equivalent of this lens meaning that this lens as far as how wide it goes will be the same as a 24 to 72 on a full-frame sensor camera so the focal length of this lens is actually pretty good but what’s most disappointing is the speed or aperture so the g7x mark 2 for example has a much faster 24 to 100 equivalent lens at 1.8 to 2.8 so that means that on the g7 x mark – even when you’re shooting at 100 you could still shoot a 2.8 and get a shallow depth of field and more light onto the sensor so you just heard me refer to it as aperture and speed and the reason for that is the aperture is actually how big the lens can open and how much light it lets in and the reason why that’s related to speed is because the more light you let into the camera the faster your shutter speed can be because your shutter doesn’t have to stay open as long to let enough light for you to get a good exposure and I have a video that explains exposure and photography and I’ll put it in the description if that’s something that you’re interested in so again as I mentioned I would have just like to see a faster lens at this price point now having said that the lens works great it gave me really sharp pictures it’s fast and smooth to zoom in and out even while I’m doing video another feature to mention is that the lens does incorporate a dual sensing optical image stabilizer system and that helps minimize the appearance of camera shake but up to four stops so
ultimately that gives you sharper footage and images while you’re shooting handheld alright so next let’s talk about autofocus and that’s something that I suggest that you don’t over when you’re looking at cameras and the good news here is that the g1x mark 3 uses canons awesome dual pixel autofocus system so for photography the dual pixel autofocus system works really well to acquire focus quickly and accurately and this really makes a difference when you’re shooting and tracking moving subjects because you’re able to get that critical focus for every shot for video the g1x mark 3 has really smooth focusing when you change between different subjects or different distances in the frame and this is definitely one of the best autofocus systems on the market at any price point and with face tracking priority it does a super nice job at identifying and tracking faces as they move through the frame and what’s cool is that even if the person is moving and gets closer or farther away
from the camera but to do a pixel autofocus system has no problem keeping them in focus and this is really important if you’re gonna use this camera for vlogging or even if you’re just shooting video your subject is usually moving if you’re holding the camera and it’s facing you it gets a little bit closer and farther away from you and people sometimes don’t understand that those very small movements could impact your focus look pretty drastically and you don’t want to come in and out of focus while you’re in the middle of a shot and what’s nice about this system is it tracks your face and you can pretty much completely forget about focus like you will be in focus so one last time for video or creating YouTube content good continuous autofocus is definitely something that you’re gonna want and another cool thing that I can do is I can set up a scene with multiple items and then click on a different items on the screen and it will easily change focus so I can get this really cool
transition where in my video I talked about one thing and then I want to shift the viewers attention to something else and I can bring it into focus and I never have to worry about pulling focus or messing around with the focus ring I just click on it and the focus changes and it does this really fast and smooth and there is no hunting for focus you know when like the camera tries to figure out what you want to be in focus and it keeps looking like it’s doing this there’s none of that junk with the dual pixel autofocus for photography you can use the dual pixel autofocus system just by clicking anywhere on the screen and setting that as your focus point and if you want to use the electronic viewfinder while you’re shooting you can use the touch and drag system so basically you can use your thumb and drag it around this screen and when you’re looking through the viewfinder you’ll see the focus point move you can put that right over your subject take a picture reframe it and move it and you can do this really fast so you don’t have to bring up a focus point menu and
then selecting a spot and then closing it and then taking your picture you can just use your thumb move it right over the subject take the picture and again change that really really fast that’s an awesome feature and that feature wasn’t enabled by default so if you need it go to shooting setting which is the camera icon in the menu page – and then touch and drag autofocus setting and just enable it and again what’s really nice here is for example if you want to use the rule of thirds so you don’t want your subject to always be in the center of the picture let’s say you want it on the 1/3 line you can just frame it like that again drag your thumb so it’s right over them take the picture you want to move them to the other 1/3 line you can do that again and you can do that very quickly alright next I want to talk about audio options and the g1x mark 3 comes with stereo microphones right here at the top but unfortunately can didn’t include an external mic input and that’s something that’s really disappointing to me at this price point I talk a lot about audio and how
important it is to video and in this case you will have to use the built-in microphone which does a pretty good job it really does but you will need to pay extra attention to any background noise that might be going on again at this price point I really wish canon would have added an external mic input so that I can use an external shotgun mounted up here on the camera or even use a lavalier microphone if I choose – as I mentioned the built-in mic does a pretty good job but it’s never gonna be able to do as good a job as an external microphone because it’s always attached to the camera so the microphone is always going to be as far away from the subject as the camera itself whereas when you use an external microphone you can have the camera be 10 feet away and the microphone be like right here so it just gives us other options and again at $1,300 Canon add an external mic input and if you’re looking for some other options from Canon that have a mic input check out something like the m6 the N 50 or the SL 2 and I’ll put some links in the description to those cameras and a few other ones just in case this is a deal-breaker for you alright next let’s talk about the build and battery of the g1 x mark 3 and we already know that it’s a compact camera so you can see how
small it is and its really light and this lens when I turn the camera off you can see retracts and then this whole setup becomes really small you can just easily just put it in your pocket now Canon did add an electronic viewfinder which is really nice and it’s super bright and helpful but it does add to the size of the camera and this EVF is really nice to have when you’re taking pictures outside especially on a really bright day where you might have problems seeing this screen the ebf is really bright and just again makes things really easy and the body itself is made entirely of composite material but it’s pretty much covered with this rubbery grip all the way around there is also a small grip which is really nice to have in a small camera so you don’t feel like you’re gonna drop it there are two dials available one here on the front and then one here on the back and the lens ring you can actually program each one of them to do whatever you want in different shooting modes so for example when you’re in manual movie mode the focus ring is set to seamless zoom this front dial is sets a shutter speed and then the back dial is set to aperture but you can easily change it so for example if you want this ring to do manual focus instead that’s just something that you change in settings
and like I mentioned what’s cool is that you can do this for different modes so the settings that you have for video don’t have to be the same as what you have for when you’re taking pictures and I really like the Canon added this front dial because it added just another level of flexibility in terms of how I use the camera and it’s particularly helpful when I shoot manual which is pretty much all the time I can very easily change aperture and shutter speed without having to click another button or go into the menu okay so now let’s talk a little bit about the battery the g1x mark 3 uses canons and B 13 L lithium-ion battery pack and it has 1250 milliamps per hour and the battery does an ok job but if you plan on using it all day I would definitely get another battery and maybe even two when it comes to batteries I’d always rather have extra batteries that I don’t end up using then run out of power in the middle of the day and this isn’t specific to the g1 X mark 3 a lot of mirrorless and compact cameras don’t have great battery life for a lot of reasons one of which for example is that the screen stays on most of the time ok so let’s talk more about this screen and the g1 X Mark 3 has a fully articulating 3 inch touchscreen which Canon calls very angle and this is something that
you need if you’re a vlogger or a youtuber or it’s a really nice feature to have even for photography so if you’re behind the camera you can just flip it open and then lock it back in place and now you can see it and then on the other hand if you’re vlogging or you’re in front of the camera you can just flip it up and point it yourself and then you could see that you’re in focus and exactly how you’re framed and this could be really helpful if you want to shoot from a really low angle so for example if you want this camera to be down on the ground and you don’t want to go laying down on the ground you can just flip it up and then point the screen up and then you can look down on it without having to get that low and the opposite is also true so for example if there are some people in front of you and you need to hold the camera up in the air and look over them you can point the screen down and look up at it and you can see exactly what the camera is gonna see even though it’s way higher than you and the screen is a full touch screen so you can control the menu or change any of the settings and features of the camera just using the screen and then of course as part of the dual pixel autofocus system
you can just touch anywhere on the screen to set focus and the screen is really nice and bright and it worked great for me even in direct and the last thing I want to mention about the body is that it has a dust and moisture resistant design that’s supposed to give this camera some weather proofing and let you use it in harsher conditions all right so let’s talk about connectivity options and like a lot of other Canon cameras the g1 X Mark 3 comes with built-in Wi-Fi with NFC or near field communication which lets you connect to a mobile device or a phone and then easily transfer images and video and that’s a nice feature if I’m out on a shoot and I want to very quickly post some images to social media I can just transfer them to my phone do a quick edit and then post them now as far as remote control with the Canon camera connect tap the g1 X mark 3 is somewhere between the m6 and the m50 in terms of features now if you watch my Canon m6 review you know that I was pretty frustrated with the fact that you can only shoot stills with a Canon camera connect app and you couldn’t start or stop video and you
definitely couldn’t change any settings on it now on the other hand the m50 has full functionality like you can control everything you want with the app so with the g1 X marquetry I could start and stop videos I could take pictures I could control exposure compensation and focus mode and even a focus point and I could change the zoom but all the other features were grayed out regardless of what motive was shooting it and worse than that it didn’t even show me the settings so look I didn’t even know what aperture and shutter speed the camera was using and I don’t understand why canon can’t just be consistent with that feature just make everything work like the m50 please alright so next let’s talk about who this camera would be good for as far as skill level is concerned a g1 X Mark 3 is a compact camera so like by default you’re probably thinking it’s targeted towards beginner photographers and videographers but with all the features that were added and with the larger sensor it would definitely work for more advanced users that are looking for a compact solution now if you’re a beginner you can just put everything on auto and just start taking pictures and shooting video and you don’t have to worry
about anything and then as you – no the camera and you learn more about photography you can start moving into aperture priority or shutter priority and then finally shooting manual if you want to and the more advanced users can immediately get full control in manual mode for both photography and video ok I want to talk about a few other features that might help you make a buying decision first I want to talk about image stabilization and the g1x marquetry does not have in body image stabilization but it does have a dual sensing image stabilizer system in the lens itself and this system will help you when your hand holding this camera and it’s supposed to have a range of up to four stops but remember that this isn’t going to give you the same results that you would get if you use the three axis gimbal with this camera and I’ll put some links in the description to some gimble’s that would be good to pair up with the g1 X Mark 3 now I already mentioned this before but
Canon did include a really nice OLED electronic viewfinder and that is something that I expect at this price point if you buy a camera like the m6 for example you can add an EVF but it will cost you an extra 200 bucks and I know a lot of photographers prefer to use the viewfinder when they’re shooting portraits and then also especially when you’re outside ok next I want to talk about time-lapse and it is super easy to do time-lapse with the g1 X Mark 3 there are three specific time-lapse scenarios built in fast slow and then slower subject movement and they will automatically pick the right settings for the time-lapse now once you select one of these and tell the camera how many shots you want it to take the camera will show you how long it will take to shoot and then how long the final time-lapse video will be and if you’re not happy with these presets you can always change them yourself and there’s always a reset button and I’ll do a dedicated video about time lapse so if you’re interested hit the subscribe and notification button so that you’re notified when it’s published another nice feature of the g1 x mark 3 is
that for photography it does have a built-in flash so you just pop it out like that and it’s small but again for this size camera does a pretty good job and here’s an example of how used it as a fill flash so I expose this image for the sky and then I added the flash to light up the subject and that’s where shooting in manual mode is really nice okay so the g1 x mark 3 is a great choice if you’re looking for a compact camera with a really nice aps-c sensor it’s a good camera for vlogging creating YouTube content and also if you want to have a really nice and portable camera for photography the aps-c sensor and the digit seven image processor are a great combination and they give you nice results in low-light you can shoot a full HD or 1080p at up to 60 frames per second and again remember that lets you slow things down by 50% if you edit your videos at 30 frames per second we’ve got the 24 to 72 millimeter equivalent lens that gives you nice focal range to work with but I do wish that it was a little faster than that the dual pixel autofocus system is amazing it’s fast reliable it does a great job at tracking faces and moving subjects like even as they move through the frame and it’s perfect for both photography and video there is a built-in microphone but no external mic input which to me is pretty disappointing for a $1,300 camera the
articulating or vari-angle screen is also a fantastic feature and I think that anyone shooting stills or video is really gonna like using it it’s super small and portable and it’s a great option for photographers who don’t want a bulky or a heavy camera with them the size and then also the weight are great for youtubers for vloggers or for anyone that wants to take this camera with them everywhere they go it’s light but then at the same time has nice build quality a very secure grip and then an excellent electronic viewfinder you can use Wi-Fi to easily move images and video between the camera and a mobile device but again I’m super disappointed at the lack of functionality of using the Canon camera connect app and even though it’s targeted at beginners there are a ton of features and manual settings and control that more advanced users are going to appreciate
and finally I talked about in lens image stabilization the time lapse mode that lets you easily get time lapse movies with just a couple of clicks but do remember to get an extra battery if you plan on using this camera entire day the g1x mark 3 sells for $12.99 and I’ll put links in the description to where you can find the best price on this camera because they’re always discounts and specials going on and those links will always be updated so that you get the lowest price so speaking of that as I mentioned at the time that I’m making this video there isn’t $200 off special going on so again just use the links in the descriptions and you’ll automatically get it I really hope this video gave you a good overview of the canon g1x mark 3 if it did please let me know by giving it a thumbs up tweet it share it and then hit the subscribe and notification buttons for more camera and tech reviews you can always find me on instagram twitter and facebook at tech gear talk good luck and see you soon
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