Night time ventures with the Canon G1X Powershot

More Canon G1X images tonight from my walk around the city. I wanted to see how the G1X's fixed 4X zoom lens handles difficult lighting such as that presented by the lights on the Story Bridge at night. I also wanted to see what the blacks were like, given the bright lights present in the image.

ISO 800, 5.0 sec at f/11, 0 EV

Above - All Saints Anglican Church, with the Suncorp Metway building in the background. This small church is one of Brisbane's original buildings and is dwarfed by the modern skyscrapers that now surround it.

ISO 250, 10.0 sec at f/11, 0 EV

Above - Venice Restaurant (one of Brisbane's best) on the Brisbane River Walk - city skyscrapers behind.

ISO 500, 20.0 sec at f/11, 0 EV

Above - The Southern end of the Story Bridge, officially known as the Bradfield Highway, with the lights of Jets departing Brisbane International Airport overhead.

ISO 250, 20.0 sec at f/11, 0 EV

Above - Story Bridge with Brisbane City in the background. This is perhaps the most telling image - with quite stunning clarity in the various tonal ranges of the picture. However there are some minor artifacts visible in the top right of the image... Further testing needed to see how that affects other types of images.

All the pictures above were taken using a simple Joby tripod and setting the camera to a 2 second timer delay for the shutter. The weight of the entire rig is less than 800 grams. Amazing...!

3.7 Megapixel Crop of Pier 1 image.

Here's a cropped version of the Pier 1 image showing more detail. Even this image when cropped in Photoshop was still 2229 pixels wide by 1672 pixels high = 3.7 Megapixels. I've resized this for the blog to 720 pixels wide at 72 DPI...

It's quite incredible to think that today i'm dragging around a 14.3 Megapixel camera that fits in my hand, shoots amazing quality still and video images and costs under $700, whilst only 7 years ago my EOS 1D Mark II set me back $7500 and was only 8.2 Megapixels... What seemed brilliant back then seems very ho-hum now...

The detail in this cropped image is quite astounding... The handling of the lights is not ideal but it is quite serviceable. As a travel and documentary camera the G1X is very good.

Pier 1 at Newstead (Canon G1X Powershot)

I've now begun to take the G1X with me when I walk around Brisbane each day. It's much more compact than my DSLR's and its capabilities mean I can still take photos at night. When combined with a Joby tripod - this little machine is a wonderfully flexible rig.

This image was captured at the new Pier 1 development at Newstead. ISO 800, 1.0 sec at f/4.5, -2/3 EV, Aperture Priority.

I highly recommend the G1X for photography enthusiasts and pros alike. Pros will like the freedom of its small form factor, ease of use and its inconspicuous nature that will allow them to get closer to everyday subjects. Enthusiasts will enjoy being able to take more control over their image captures and the freedom that this camera will give them. They will also find it great for video (if they don't need slow motion) and image captures in low light situations.

I see that many pros are starting to keep one of these cameras in their kit - especially those shooting photojournalism and travel. That doesn't surprise me in the least... As I've mentioned previously - this little camera is now a key component in my camera bag - valued as highly as my DSLRs, Speedlites and Pocket Wizards... It's purpose is different for sure, but it's finding plenty of use and enlarging my photography opportunities because of it's convenience.

Now I just need to find a good small bag for it...

EOS 5D Mark III - quite amazing...

The tonal range in this image of the 13th Hole at Ipswich Golf Club shows one reason why I'm really impressed with the new EOS 5D Mark III.

ISO 400, 1/500 sec at f/11, -1/3 EV. Vignette added in Adobe Lightroom 4. 16:9 crop ratio. EOS 5D Mark III with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

Both the original EOS 5D and the EOS 5D Mark II had frame rates that were too slow for my photography needs which are heavily biased towards sports photography. The EOS 5D Mark III barely crawls across the acceptable line with 6FPS. Not great but usable. 8+FPS would be ideal but I used to shoot MotoGP and World Superbike with the EOS 3 and a PB-E2 vertical grip, which gave the EOS 3 7FPS...

But that's the only gripe I have with the new EOS 5D Mark III. In every other aspect this camera is quite amazing. It's image quality is superb and the new autofocus system is brilliant and very quickly adjusted to suit different types of subjects. It's also robust and recently handled a heavy workload on a very long job that involved several thousand frames being captured over 4 days, mostly in difficult lighting conditions.

Perhaps most amazing is it's low signal to noise ratio which produces clean images at very high ISO levels. The image below is from that job - ISO 10000, 1/500 sec at f/2.8, +1/3 EV. EOS 5D Mark III with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. Note the lack of noise and high levels of detail in the shadow areas.

More Canon G1X goodness - photo by Simon Chadwick

Last week I had a round of golf with Simon Chadwick at Ipswich Golf Club, which is very close to Amberley RAAF Base - Home of the Australian F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

The 16th hole is a long dog leg left Par 5 that goes over a rise, down a long hill and across a creek just in front of the green. Bunkers surround the green and the photo here - taken by Simon Chadwick using my Canon G1X Powershot - shows me blasting out of a deep one.

Testament to the ease of use of the G1X I just threw the camera to Simon and said "Here - take a shot of this will you...?" He only had the time that it took for me to grab my sand iron, walk to the bunker and line up the shot to get the camera turned on, select the appropriate mode (Shutter Speed Priority, Tv), select the shutter speed and ISO; and take the shot. Nice job - don't you think???

Admittedly, Simon is well versed in the use of Canon Digital SLR's and has done a fair amount of sports photography with Zen Creative Studios - but I still think this is an impressive test of the ease of use of the G1X...

Settings  ISO 800, 1/1000 sec at f/8.0, 0 EV

Thanks Simon for the awesome job on the pic - I like it...! It's not often I get a good shot taken of me...

Insurance for Australian Photographers

This is a handy site to help photographers based in Australia with their insurance requirements.

More Canon Powershot G1X goodness

A good mate of mine is currently in Europe and capturing the beautiful cites and villages using his G1X. I too have been experimenting somewhat with the new Powershot and the more I explore the more I like.

Here's a few pictures I took using the miniature function - the subject is Central Train Station in Brisbane. I love it...!

I really like this little camera...! I'm particularly impressed by it's low noise levels at high ISO's.