Canon G1X Mark II Lens Design
The Canon G1X Mark II Lens design is what makes this camera work so well. It's the convenience of a point and shoot combined with the behavior of a DSLR.
The lens design improvements are significant over the first G1X design. It's a significant investment to own one of these cameras, but if you feel you deserve it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Canon G1X Mark II Lens Design Challenges
Because the G1X Mark II has such a larger sensor for a compact camera, the lens element closest to the sensor has to be big also. That rear lens element is involved in focusing and it has to move with speed and precision.
Although the Mark II can't be labeled as a speed demon, it is a marked improvement over its predecessor, the original G1X. Canon improved the auto-focus speed by employing a shorter distance inner focus lens group.
The lens barrel design division team at Canon had to work closely with the factory. The Mark II barrel needed more processes than before. New production machinery had to be introduced that maintained precision down to the individual micron level.
The lens barrel design includes two control rings that make it feel like you are using a DSLR
Here's a set of photos showing you the 6 different lens groups that make up the design of the G1X Mark II lens.
There are 11 different individual lenses combined into 6 different lens groups.
G1X MARK II LENS HIGHLIGHTS:
FASTER FOCUSING - a big improvement over the G1X Mark I. The original G1X was rightfully criticized for sluggish focusing performance
CLOSER FOCUSING -You can shoot great close-ups without the need for attaching a filter for macro photography.
LONGER ZOOM RANGE - The 4x range is adequate to cover moderately wide angle to moderately telephoto and will handle a good variety of photographic situations.
BETTER BOKEH - At its widest aperture and longest telephoto setting, the G1X Mark II lens can produce a pleasing out-of-focus background behind your subject.
The 2nd most important feature of the G1X Mark II
EVF viewfinderIt's the viewfinder.
I guess you can call me "old school." but I like to look through an optical viewfinder when I compose my photographs.
I've never adopted to using an LCD screen to compose my photographs.
Of course that's the only way to take photos with my cell phone camera and I am forced to adopt it there, but I still find it inherently awkward.
The EVF electronic viewfinder on the G1X Mark II makes me feel like I am shooting with a DSLR. It's 100 % accurate. It's bright and gives me all of the camera setting information I need.
The Mark II Lens Diaphram
One of the other disappointments with the first G1X was the lens's maximum aperture of f/2.8. The Mark II lens is capable of f/2.0 at wide-angle settings and has a bigger maximum aperture at the telephoto settings too.
Another improvement in the Mark II lens is its close-focusing macro abilities. It focuses at distances of less than 2 inches from the subject when at the wide-angle lens setting.
Here are some sample macro photos of flowers taken with the Powershot G1X Mark II. The first G1X had a minimum focusing distance of about 8 inches.
Have a blast. Keep shooting your Canon!
Bruce Lovelace is the publisher of Canon Camera Geek. Read more about him on the About Page. He also publishes how to articles and camera gear reviews at the Photography Tips website.
View some of Bruce's photos on Instagram and Flickr. Join the tribe of followers on YouTube. Bruce also runs photo workshops and provides 1 on 1 digital photography coaching.
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