Canon’s G7 X line has long been a favourite of photographers who wanted a travel-friendly camera that could still capture high-quality images. But with the rise of smartphones and the decline of point-and-shoots, Canon began pushing its compact cameras towards vloggers, who I’ve seen use cameras like the G7 X and Sony’s RX100 line as a backup or more portable alternative to a big mirrorless or DSLR cam. After all, when you’re attaching a camera to a gimbal or the end of a GorillaPod, every extra bit of lightness make a camera easier to handle.
So for the new G7 X III, it seems the influencers have influenced Canon because one of the camera’s new standout features is the ability to record vertical videos without rotating the footage in post natively. Using a new built-in gyro, the G7 X III can determine the camera’s orientation and then embed that info into a clip’s metadata, which means filming vertical videos for your Instagram stories on the G7 X III is as simple as turning the camera sideways.
And if that’s enough not to excite attendees of VidCon 2019 – the vlogger convention where the $1210 is making its official debut – Canon also gave the camera the ability to livestream video directly to YouTube over wifi via the company’s Image Gateway software.
The G7 X III also comes with a built-in microphone jack for vloggers who aren’t satisfied with the camera’s on-board audio, and a 3-inch touchscreen that can flip up 180-degree so that vloggers can check their composition while they’re filming themselves.
As for the G7 X III’s specs, the camera features a new 1-inch 20MP stacked CMOS sensor (a first for Canon) that allows the camera to hit RAW burst rates of up to 30 frames per second using its electronic shutter, with a max shutter speed of 1/25,600th of a second. (If you choose to use the camera’s mechanical shutter, burst capture slows down to 8 FPS.)
Meanwhile, on the video side, the G7 X III supports 4K video recording at up to 30 FPS or full HD at up to 120 FPS. In front, the G7 X III comes with an 8.8 to 36.8mm f/1.8 to 2.8 lens with a 4.2X optical zoom, along with a handy pop-up flash.
Other improvements include a new panorama mode that allows you to pan across a landscape while holding the shutter button instead of taking multiple still frames and then asking the camera to stitch them together, along with a new HDR movie mode, USB-C charging, and the focus bracketing mode Canon debuted on the EOS-RP.
Finally, in case the G7 X III isn’t quite what you’re looking for, Canon is also introducing the refreshed $1430 G5 X II which features the same 20MP sensor but with a slightly longer 5x optical zoom and a pop-up electronic viewfinder jammed next to camera’s pop-up flash.
While I might sound salty about Canon bringing support for vertical videos over to “real” cameras from the smartphone world, I have to admit that at this point, it’s clear vertical videos are never going away.
And by making it easier to record vertical videos, hopefully, there won’t be quite as many potato-quality clips that get uploaded to the Instagram, YouTube, or any of the other social media platforms out there.
The G7 X III is now in stock, while the G5 X II is expected in late August.