Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II Review - The Canon PowerShot G1 Mark II looks to build upon the performance and feature set of its predecessor at the top of the manufacturer's compact camera line-up.
Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II Review
Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II Review – Image Quality
Canon PowerShot G1 X review sample image gallery
One of the real strong points of the original G1 X was its impressive image quality, and on the whole the G1 X Mark II replicates these impressive results.
Colour and white balance
As you might expect for a high-end Canon compact, you can rely upon the G1 X Mark II’s auto white balance to deliver consistent results in a variety of different lighting conditions.
In terms of colour reproduction, the G1 X Mark II delivers punchy tone, with red and blues particularly well represented in good lighting conditions.
The natural reproduction is such that images rarely need any post production work, thanks to the even saturation and white balance.
Exposure
On the whole the metering system on the G1 X Mark II is dependable, although there is a slight tendency to deliver brighter exposures than darker with a view towards preserving details in the highlight areas of the images.
As a result it’s often necessary to dial in the exposure compensation dial to between -1EV and -2EV, although this isn’t always the case and it’s by no means uncommon for such a camera.
The G1 X Mark II also delivers a good level of dynamic range, almost at a level competing with Canon’s entry-level DSLRs
Resolution
Despite a slight drop in the resolution of the sensor in comparison to its predecessor, the Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II still manages to resolve around 26 lines per millimetre (lpmm) at the base ISO settings.
Noise
As you might expect for an advanced compact featuring a larger than average sensor, the Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II handles noise at higher ISO settings well.
There’s very little noise evident at the very base ISO settings, and even at ISO 6400 the sensor resolves a level of detail around 20lpmm – well ahead of some competing models in its class.
It must be stated that above this setting detail really does drop off, and the maximum ISO 12,800 is best avoided at all costs.
Raw vs. JPEG
Although Canon does a good job of in-camera image processing when it comes to JPEG files, when you inspect how the camera handling image noise at higher ISO settings it’s certainly worth noting the importance of shooting Raw.
Although the sharpening of JPEG files isn’t particularly over aggressive, fine detail is compromised.