Canon G5 X

It’s no secret that the market for compact cameras has been imploding. Their market share has been taken over almost entirely by smartphones. The shining light among them, however, has been the very high-end of the market – typified by cameras like the Sony RX100 IV, and the Canon G5 X. Nikon was poised to cash in on those buyers with its DL series of premium point-and-shoots. However, after a series of delays, and apparently increased costs, Nikon has decided to cut its losses and cancel the DL line entirely. 

A common theme in compact cameras is the tradeoff between zoom range and image quality. The very top rated Sony RX100 V (our article) has the best image quality, but a small zoom range of 24-70mm. The Canon G5 X (full review) stretches that to 24-100mm, but that’s not much of a gain. On the other extreme, the Sony RX10 III (full review) provides both an amazing zoom and great image quality, but is much larger and more expensive. Enter the Lumix ZS100. It is larger than the RX100 or Canon G series, but not by a huge amount. In exchange it offers a larger, 25-250mm, zoom range but doesn’t trade off much in image quality.

Up until now, the choice for best point and shoot was tricky – none of the three leading cameras had everything. The Canon G7 X got top marks for image quality and has a good zoom range, but no viewfinder. The Sony RX100 IV sort-of-has a viewfinder (it is a small pop-up), but has a limited zoom range and is a little lower-scoring on image quality. The somewhat older Lumix LX100 is also a worthy competitor, but its larger size isn’t justified by image quality or features. Canon has finally broken the logjam with its new Canon G5 X. This new model adds an excellent Electronic ViewFinder (EVF) and a hot shoe for an add-on flash. There are also some other, smaller, updates to video recording formats and other features, but the EVF and hot shoe are clearly the headline here.