Thursday, December 27, 2018

Canon G3 X Compact Bridge Camera


My story and review

I shot DSLR for a long time, and SLR before digital came along. Not professionally, but I've always had a passion for good photography. My first “real” camera was a Minolta X-700 that my parents got me when I was in high school around 1980, and I gradually upgraded bodies, lenses, and other gear for the next 25 years.

At some point when our daughter was in single digits, I got tired of lugging around all the extra gear associated with a DSLR setup. By 2010, I was shooting with compact point-and-shoot cameras more often. Around that same time, smartphone technology had advanced to where the cameras in those were pretty good, too. I willingly traded convenience and portability for resolution and picture quality.

In recent years, I realized that I missed "real" photography, but still didn't want to deal with all the gear. I kayak and hike a lot when the weather is permits it, so I also started looking into compact waterproof cameras. I found some good ones at reasonable prices, but was frustrated with the zoom range of every one I tried. Most of the zooms in them were digital, as well, so I was still frustrated with picture quality.

After some research, I started reading about the Canon G3X “bridge” camera, and eventually decided to buy one. Now that I’ve been using it for a few months, here’s my review.


The Pros –

It’s rugged.  The magnesium-alloy body feels solid and heavy, although not nearly as heavy as a DSLR. It is certainly not shockproof but does feel like it could take a few minor bangs now and then and not have to be sold for parts afterward. When I’m using it, it definitely has the feel of a “real” camera in my hands. The grip is quite comfortable.

The body is weather sealed.  This isn’t the same as being waterproof, I know, but it’s important to me for a camera to be able to withstand a bit of dust, dirt, and light rain without starting to malfunction. Reportedly, this has the same level of dust and moisture resistance as Canon’s EOS 7D DSLR. As of this writing, there don’t appear to be ANY completely waterproof bridge cameras. Trust me, I looked.

It’s compact.  Calling this a “bridge” camera means that it’s trying to bridge the gap between ultra-compact point-and-shoots and DSLR cameras. As such, it’s much smaller than your average DSLR, yet admittedly larger than the ultra-compacts. Having a powerful zoom on it, though, means you don’t have to carry around a bag full of lenses for different shooting conditions. I will be the first to admit that this is also one of the limitations of the camera, but you still get an incredible amount of flexibility in shooting with the G3X.

That ZOOM!  The G3X has an 8.8-220mm optical zoom range, which is the DSLR lens equivalent of 24-600mm. My initial interest in a “superzoom" like this came from all the wildlife shots I missed by having nothing more than my phone or a 5x digital point-and-shoot while hiking or paddling. This camera has significantly changed my game in that regard! The aperture range is a respectable f/2.8–5.6, although it does arrive at f/5.6 pretty quickly into the telephoto position.

There are certainly more powerful "superzooms" out there. Nikon does 60x, 83x, and now 120x! Sony and Panasonic bridge cameras have impressive zooms, as well. I opted for less reach than those because I wanted something more weather protected and compact but with a relatively large sensor. To the best of my knowledge, the G3 X has the farthest reach for a large sensor bridge camera.

The sensor.  Another big plus with this camera is that it has a 1" CMOS sensor, which makes it great for low light photography as well as capturing a lot of detail. The majority of bridge cameras and superzooms have sensors that are less than 1/4 that size. The average DSLR sensor is still bigger but, again, I was trying to find something that fit several other parameters for me. As far as this kind of (bridge) camera goes, that 1" sensor is definitely as good as it gets. The only problem with it is that it bumps up the cost. The image resolution of the G3X is 20.2 megapixels.

Five-axis image stabilization.  Whatever that means, the image stabilization on this camera is excellent. Apparently, the five-axis bit is pretty rare among its most direct competitors. All I can say is that it works really well.

The view screen.  One criticism that I remember reading in reviews before I bought the camera was that it only had a view screen and no built-in viewfinder. Having shot through viewfinders for almost three decades now, I thought this might really be a problem. You can buy an electronic viewfinder separately, although that creates an additional cost. When I bought my G3X, I decided to wait on the EVF to see if I would miss it. … Most of the time, I do not.

Now that I’ve gotten used to using the view screen, I think I actually prefer it. It’s a 3.2 inch high-resolution, touch sensitive, tilting LCD monitor. Because the angle of the screen is adjustable, it allows you to experiment with shooting at different angles like way up above your head or down low on the ground, all from a normal standing, seated, or just crouched position. (However, the screen only tilts forward/up and backward/down. Allowing it to swivel as some other models do would have been really nice.) Since the screen is touch sensitive, it can be used for a variety of functions in shooting mode, playback mode, and within the camera’s various menus.


The Cons –

Frustrating manual focus.  The G3X does not appear to be designed for someone who prefers to manually focus on subjects. From what I can tell (and I haven’t played around with it a lot) manual focus requires you to hold a button on the focus ring while turning the focus ring through many more arcs than should be necessary. There are a variety of auto-focus modes and fields, but adjusting focus manually is not easy. This can be frustrating for tight macros as well as long zooms. Autofocus speeds are not terrible but not surprisingly good either.

It’s compact.  (Hey, wasn’t that also one of the ‘Pros’?) The body of the camera is definitely more compact than a typical DSLR. People (like me) with big hands have to be careful how we hold the camera so as not to change a setting by accidentally hitting a button or dial. I’ve discovered first hand (ha!) that this is frustratingly easy to do.

No viewfinder.  As mentioned above, this camera has no built-in viewfinder. I feel like I quickly got used to using the view screen instead and now actually prefer it, but anyone who feels that they absolutely need a viewfinder will have to spring for the optional EVF accessory that connects to the camera’s hot shoe. Warning: It’s not cheap. If I have anything bad to report about using the view screen only, it’s that it can occasionally be difficult to read in bright sunlight. Often, tilting the screen a bit takes care of this issue for me.


Wrapping up, this Canon G3X is exactly the kind of camera I was looking for in terms of its portability, versatility, and image quality without having to lug around all kinds of gear. Not mentioned above is that the G3X also shoots video and appears to do it quite well. I have not played around in video mode much so that hasn’t been part of this review.

The best part about this camera is that it has totally rekindled my love for good photography. I fully realize just how much I was missing by stepping down to point-and-shoot cameras. Although I can see myself moving back into DSLR gear in the future, I’m completely happy with the Canon G3X for the time being. Even when I think it might be time to pick up another DSLR, I'll definitely be keeping this bridge camera for the many times when I need the combination of compact portability and a good camera. In short, I love this thing.

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Saturday, December 15, 2018

Front Burner 2018

Another year is coming to a close and that means another opportunity to recap my favorite albums of the year in a blog post. Numerous highlights here, too: A sparse but gorgeous vocal-and-piano version of St. Vincent's 'Masseduction', quite possibly the best album in Jon Hopkins' career, some very dark gothic country from Henry Derek Elis, a killer in-your-face debut from Shame, what is probably Death Cab for Cutie's most accessible album yet, hot new piano jazz from GoGo Penguin, the welcome return of Belly, and an amazing Afrobeat take on 'Remain In Light', among several other great albums. 

A spotify playlist with sample tracks has been linked at the bottom of this post, in case you wanted to check any of these titles out. I certainly encourage you to do just that!


My 18 Favorite albums of 2018:
18 - Spesh - Famous World
17 - Dizzy - Baby Teeth
16 - St. Vincent - MassEducation
15 - Jon Hopkins - Singularity
14 - Rival Consoles - Persona
13 - Ryley Walker - The Lillywhite Sessions
12 - Henry Derek Elis - The Devil Is My Friend
11 - Neko Case - Hell-On

10 - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs
9 - Shame - Songs of Praise
8 - Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus
7 - Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You for Today
6 - Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
5 - GoGo Penguin - A Humdrum Star
4 - Belly - DOVE
3 - Frank Turner - Be More Kind
2 - Angelique Kidjo - Remain In Light
1 - LOCKS - Skeletal Blues

My favorite album of 2018: Gloriously acoustic murder ballads and death shanties from an English/Irish London-based four piece band likely as influenced by Tom Waits as Nick Cave. They had me under their spell with my first listen to the song, “Skin,” but every song on this album is a gothic-blues gem.  


Here's a Spotify playlist with some sample tracks from each of these albums. Let me know if you hear anything you like!



 Speaking of Spotify, most of my musical exploration is being done that way these days. For decades, the only way I could experiment with music is to buy it in a physical format - LP or CD. For every real gem that I discovered that way, there were at least two or three other titles that just didn't stick to my ribs in the long run. This, in turn, led to piles of vinyl records and CDs all over the house, knowing fully well that much of what was in those piles would never spend much more time being played. My appetite for new music was creating a lot of media clutter.

With the advent of streaming services like Spotify, I've been able to cut way back on purchases of physical media. While some would see this as a bad thing, it is directly in line with my desire to simplify my life and cut down on all the "stuff" that I own. I will still buy physical copies of albums but, much like my much younger days, I reserve that honor for the few that end up being special to me. In the meantime, many of those LPs and CDs that didn't stick with me are either heading for resale at record stores or being listed on Discogs.


Monday, January 1, 2018

Front Burner 2017

It's pretty sad that this blog is only being used once a year these days. I have no excuse, and it's particularly odd because I'm usually thinking about music on a daily basis. If I spent half the time here that I spend on Facebook, this blog would look a lot different. (Something tells me that I'd be a lot less frustrated with the world, too.) Nevertheless, I'm back again for my annual roundup of the music I listened to the most; my musical 'Front Burner' for the year.

As has been the case for the past few years, I've been a contributor to my friend Bret Helm's "Best of..." blog posts. Every June, he asks us to list 10 new albums that rank as our favorites of the year so far. I mention this because, for some reason, my year-end list (I'll get to that soon) bares little resemblance to what I had picked out for the first six months. I can only surmise that this is because I listened to a lot of new music this year, and didn't spend a lot of time revisiting some of the albums on my "So Far" list from June. 


Top 10 as of June: (in order of release date, I believe)

Throwing Snow - Embers
PVT - New Spirit 
Ibibio Sound Machine - Uyai
Desperate Journalist - Grow Up
Clan of Xymox - Days of Black
Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock 
Todd Rundgren - White Knight 
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound 

On a personal note, I've been buying much less music these days, and my increased use of Spotify for exploration (as opposed to buying a lot of physical product) has saved me both money and space. Its quite likely that this has also been one of the reasons I didn't cling to many of these albums during the second half of the year but instead moved on to other things. I still haven't decided if that last factor is good or bad. From the June list above, only the PVT, Robyn Hitchcock, Todd Rundgren, and Jason Isbell were purchased in a physical format (all vinyl LP.)

For whatever reason(s), I moved on from there. By the end of December, these are the recordings with which I spent the most time:


17 Favorite Albums of 2017
1 - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit • The Nashville Sound *  **
2 - Gary Numan • Savage **
3 - Fever Ray • Plunge
4 - The Clientele • Music for the Age of Miracles ***
5 - The National • Sleep Well Beast
6 - St. Vincent • Masseduction
7 - Desperate Journalist • Grow Up *
8 - Pronto Mama • Any Joy
9 - Ride • Weather Diaries
10 - Columbia Mills • A Safe Distance To Watch 

11 - Joe Henry • Thrum ***
12 - Offa Rex • The Queen of Hearts **
13 - Karine Polwart • A Pocket of Wind Resistance ***
14 - This Is The Kit • Moonshine Freeze
15 - Out Lines • Buried Guns
16 - Beth Ditto • Fake Sugar
17 - Father John Misty • Pure Comedy *

*   Also appeared in the June list
**  Recordings purchased on vinyl LP
*** Recordings purchased on CD 

Offa Rex's 'The Queen of Hearts' is a collaboration between British folk singer Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists. Their collaboration is a celebration of traditional British folk songs. 

My #1 album of 2017, partially elevated to this position after seeing him at the Chicago Theater with my wife and daughter at the start of his North American Tour for this album, then again two days later in Madison, Wisconsin with a buddy of mine.


Last year, I created a Spotify playlist with two sample tracks from each of the albums in my list. If you'd like to hear a couple songs from these albums, check this out: 



Looking for more great music?

Since 2014, I have been contributing my Top 10 to Bret Helm's Life On This Planet blog. He and his partner Sarah Q do a fantastic job with it! This year, they gathered 13 friends from around the globe to contribute their lists, and the blog post contains a link to a massive Spotify playlist that is just chock full of great music. Please visit the link below to take you over to Bret & Sarah's Best of 2017 blog post! 



Enjoy!