The 10 Most Important Canon PowerShot Cameras of All-Time

[Canon Rumors]

Following my list of the 10 most important EOS Digital cameras ever, I figured I'd do the same thing for PowerShot. Don't worry, there is no top 10 printer or camcorder list coming. As we all know, the compact market dried up, and quite quickly once smartphones took over the world. I'm not sure if […]

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[neuroanatomist]

I’d certainly add an S model to the list, I had the S95, S100 and S120. Truly pocketable (even in jeans), good zoom range and shot RAW.

 

[DhlcadR6]

Where's the S series, they were great and pioneers of its time, so much that Nikon follows with their P series, and Sony brings out RX100 series.

 

[Nathalietje86]

I really hope that canon comes up with a good compact camera maybe a hs740 with bigger sensor and raw and a view finder..
I will still hope canon thinks about photographers also

 

[Sporgon]

I had a G12, G16, the latter a very good implementation of the Sony sensor, but never really fell head over heels in love with it. However, the next one, the G1X was very good indeed, a camera that I felt I could take anywhere without later regret that I should have made the effort to carry FF dslr. Reviewers laughed at the optical finder, but it was actually perfectly adequate most of the time. I gave it away to a friend of mine after getting the G1Xiii, but still have an uncomfortable feeling that it was better in some ways.
The G1X was a little clunky; the mark iii did away with that and is quite a polished product. Again I can use it without having remorse later, the IQ is excellent and the lens is pretty good. Mine certainly isn’t ‘soft’ as some reviewers claimed. It’s going with me to Glencoe in a couple of weeks.

 

[mb66energy]

I startet my digital camera journey with the G2 - the minor attractive silver variant. It was expensive and meant for some web photos or shots in library to replace paper copies during writing a book.
This camera made a lot of fun because it had really good film like quality - no strange artifacts etc. And the lens was bright enough for lower light conditions, some bokeh and equipped with some close up capability.
Flippy screen was very helpful for alternative angles of view and the stamp like size of it helped to educate to look at the scene to understand what is on the display - the display was good enough for final composition.
Tech wise and for learning how to shoot digitally it was and is a master piece I still own.
S95 was the 2nd and last P&S from Canon, a good companion but I would prefer an M50 ii with e.g. EF-M 32 in 99.999% of use cases.

 

[Dragon]

I landed a very nice Pro1 on eBay last year. I was curious to see how it compared to the Minolta Dimage A2 that I have had since it was first released. I believe both cameras have the same CCD sensor and the lenses are very similar. The Minolta is 7.2-50.8 f/2.8-3.5 and the Canon is 7.2-50.8 f/2.4-3.5. The Pro1 is a substantially smaller camera than the Minolta, but looking at images, they are very close. Both lenses are excellent over the entire zoom range and both offer RAW files. I took many longtime favorite images with the Minolta, but the 5D II turned me into a Canonista, so I was curious about the comparison. Below are a couple of samples. The first is from the Minolta (shot many years ago) and the second from the Canon. Both are processed similarly in LR (no Topaz applied) with NR (not really needed in either case), and little boost in sharpening. My take is they are very close, albeit they have somewhat different operating paradigms. It was a fun experiment and I will keep both cameras. I have found the A2 images to work very well blown up by 2x in gigapixel. I believe the same would be true of the Pro1 images.

Edit: The last frame is the first one upscaled in Topaz by 2:1, rotated slightly and then downscaled to 4k to fit into the site. Even at 32MP it is hard to tell it didn't come from a modern camera. That CCD was a very good sensor. And yes, that little blob on top of the highest peak is a lookout tower. The view from there is impressive, including the one straight down almost 1000 ft through the open screen catwalk.

 

[Exploreshootshare]

Very nice list and educational read for me since I didn't know that there were more than ten different Powershot models

 

[Exploreshootshare]

The Canon Powershot Pro 1 sounds really interesting- I´d love a compact camera with a L lens. I don´t believe Canon will release another camera like this one, but I´d like them to.

Edit: The Pro 1 looks similar in size to the R8 actually. It is smaller but I don´t if there is a huge difference.

 

[domo_p1000]

Another excellent article, thank you, Craig.

I used the Pro 1, PRO90, TX1 and SX1, and still have all but the SX1 (I now use a G3X). I think the Pro1 was my favourite - and who doesn't love an 'L-Series' lens on a compact! The TX1 exuded quality, but I know that some users really struggled with its ergonomics. Personally, I really enjoyed using it - an astonishing lens reach for the time, all packed into such a small body. The power-zoom ring of the Pro90 was a pleasure to use.

Again, with the exception of the SX1, I seem to have been great at purchasing one-off designs from Canon - I would have loved a second generation of any of those previous cameras, or the G3X. I hope that a 24-240+mm photo-centric version of the V1 lies just around the corner - my G3X is on its last legs!

French Sunset (04-10-2009) - Canon PowerShot SX1 IS - 1/500s | f/4 | ISO-80 | 15mm
Quite a challenge for the camera to handle this contre-jour shot, and of course, there is longitudinal chromatic aberration on the children, but there's so much else going on with the sunset colours that it doesn't detract too much. To this day, I use this image as the wallpaper on my iPhone.

 

[Old Man FL/FD]

I have owned PowerShots S50, G5, G9, G1X, G15 and presently the G7XIII.

The G1X with its larger sensor made an impression on me. I could confidently bump up the ISO to 400, or even 800, without worries, while the other PowerShots I left at their lowest native ISO setting unless forced to go up.

The larger sensor on the G1X, however, required a larger lens which resulted in several compromises. It could no longer retract fully into the body, and required a removable lens cap. It was slow on the long end. Its bokeh was a little ‘busy.’ MFD was ‘not close’ even in ‘macro’ mode.

I really liked the flip rear LCD, as I do on the G7XIII.

I have posted this previously elsewhere - attached is a PDF thumbnail ‘contact’ sheet of my G1X teardown photos.

 

[jim]

I don't understand why so many photogs seem to prefer the G7XIII as compared to the GX5II unless you are a YouTuber. The latter comes with flash, very nice viewfinder (if clumsy implimentation), and a better, longer lens. Easily the best Powershot I've owned, previously A40 - my first digital camera, A80, S3 IS, SD870, G10, SX50, S100, SX60 & GX5II. Wow that's alot of cameras! I don't shoot video so except for the very pedestrian focusing the GX5II would be my choice to bring back. No harm widening the lens (20-120mm), bigger battery, faster response/focusing and more customization would check all my boxes, and this would be my last ever camera....

 

[Dragon]

I don't understand why so many photogs seem to prefer the G7XIII as compared to the GX5II unless you are a YouTuber. The latter comes with flash, very nice viewfinder (if clumsy implimentation), and a better, longer lens. Easily the best Powershot I've owned, previously A40 - my first digital camera, A80, S3 IS, SD870, G10, SX50, S100, SX60 & GX5II. Wow that's alot of cameras! I don't shoot video so except for the very pedestrian focusing the GX5II would be my choice to bring back. No harm widening the lens (20-120mm), bigger battery, faster response/focusing and more customization would check all my boxes, and this would be my last ever camera....

Yep, a GX5 II with a DPAF sensor would be something I would buy in a heartbeat.

 

[liv_img]

I don't understand why so many photogs seem to prefer the G7XIII as compared to the GX5II

I absolutely agree. I do not understand that passion for the G7XIII, when the GX5II was also small, good sensor, better lens and, for me indispensable, a viewfinder. That was the perfect pro compact camera, and I would love to see an iteration with an upgraded sensor.