Canon gives in, goes retro for its new G9 X point-and-shoot compact

Taking a leaf out of Sony's book and offering an entire line of 1-inch sensor compacts, Canon brings in a model at the beginning of its now 5-camera G series line. Notably, the G9 X is Canon's first camera to jump on the 3-year-old retro-look bandwagon. It also enters the market to compete with the now 3-year-old Sony Cyber-shot RX100 , but with a less compelling feature set and a higher $530 price tag (directly converted, £345, AU$720).

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The front and top look remarkably like the Fujifilm XQ2 (though there's more accent texture on the Fujifilm model), another less-expensive competitor, though the G9 X's back controls are substantially simpler. It is a little more compact than the Sony, assuming 0.1 or 0.2 inch (2.5 to 5 mm) matters that much to you, but it's almost the identical size of the XQ2. It has the front control ring for adjusting pioneered by Canon's PowerShot S series cameras.

It has all the features you'd expect from a modern compact, including Wi-Fi/NFC and 1080/60p video. The back display is fixed, however, so no selfie fun.

Irony alert: last year, Canon boasted about the G1 X Mark II "Currently there is a trend toward designing premium compact cameras like classic cameras. However, Canon has kept its distance from this trend. As a result, the design is not pretentious..."

My take

While it incorporates a similar 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor to the Sony -- the same one that's in the new G5 X and the older G7 X -- it also sports a disappointing 3x zoom 28-84mm f2-4.9 lens. Both the Sony and Fujifilm camera lenses start at f1.8 and end at the same aperture as the Canon, but they hit that at 95mm and cover a slightly bigger range.

The G9 X essentially replaces the 2-year-old PowerShot S120, bringing Canon's ultracompact, top-end point-and-shoot up to par with the competition. And that makes sense. Just don't pay manufacturer price for it; I'm guessing that price is set so that it will sell for $500 (£320, AU$700) at other retailers, and with Canon "instant rebates" to bring the price down even lower for the holiday shopping season.

Comparative specs

Editors' note: Canon provided few specifications prior to announcement.