Canon PowerShot G9 X review – Conclusion
With its small size and undeniably good-looking design, the G9 X has plenty going for it. Indeed if you want a good-looking pocket camera with excellent image quality to supplement a DSLR or CSC, and perhaps use primarily in auto mode, then it’s a tempting option. Canon’s excellent white balance and metering bring attractive output, and once the Wi-Fi is set up it’s really easy to copy your images to your phone for sharing.
However, if you’re an enthusiast photographer looking to take more manual control over shooting, the G9 X is perhaps not such a good choice. Its strong reliance on a touchscreen makes it more awkward to shoot with than its peers; indeed I never realised how much I’d miss the simple D-pad controller, and I think Canon has made a mistake by omitting one. Other manufacturers have managed to fit them on similarly small cameras with equally large touchscreens, so it’s not due to a lack of space (although the huge bezel around the screen makes it look that way). Poor continuous shooting and inconsistent low-light autofocus reinforce the impression of a camera that’s not quite as good in reality as it looks on paper.
This is a shame, because the G9 X is a camera I really wanted to like. But its flaws make it difficult to love, or recommend wholeheartedly ahead of the nearly three-year-old Sony RX100 II. However if you can live with its touchscreen-dominated operation it can certainly deliver good results.
