Paris. Fairphone. How I ended up with a G7X
Many years ago, I went to Paris to visit my sister. I was walking around, exploring the sights, and visiting the touristy places. I remember stopping by a shop to pick up a baguette, some cheese, and a drink. (Cliché, much?). The crowd at the Sacré-Cœur were on the main steps, watching the street entertainers juggle soccer balls on a lamppost. It’s funny the things you remember. I sat off to the side, to get away from the crowds and enjoy my lunch. There was only one other person, who sat down nearby to enjoy the sights. I set my fancy Nikon DSLR between my feet, broke off some bread, and sat down to enjoy the day. 15 minutes later, the nice day turned in an instant as Mr. Enjoy the Views had taken the time to abscond away with said camera. Ah well, it wasn’t the only thing I was swindled of in Europe. (I must look an easy mark).
That was the last camera I owned. Smartphones were becoming good enough, and I took all of my own shots using an older iPhone. Truth be told, I wasn’t doing much justice to the SLR anyways. I kept it on auto mode, and didn’t really know what any of the other settings were. Fast-forward until now. As I mentioned in my Fairphone review, the camera kind of sucks. I wonder what the old camera was like, if the 3+ is this bad. I was officially on the market for a new camera.
My knowledge of photography is still minimal, and I have a penchant for ruining electronics. I should probably treat them better, but that would require respecting technology. Instead of going for a big-bodied DSLR or mirrorless camera, I went looking for a point-and-shoot. My main criteria was form factor, as I wanted to be able to replace my cellphone in most situations. I quickly settled on the Ricoh GR iii for the small size, but large sensor. I may not know much about cameras, but the bigger light-sensor-thingy is a stat I can get behind. I even spoke to my friend who owned a GR ii, and he really liked the camera. However, when I tried it out in the store, I just… didn’t love it. As C mentioned later, I wanted to love it, but that was the main thing drawing me to the camera.
Luckily, C suggested a different camera, the Canon Powershot G7 X Mark iii. Clearly they use the same product-naming consultant as Microsoft. It’s funny because I didn’t want to like the camera. It doesn’t have a viewfinder, and the 24-100mm zoom isn’t as useful to me (I wanted to be an elitist and pooh-pooh having zoom in favor of large images).
However, the opposite happened to me in the store. The features really won me over. There’s lots of well-placed dials to easily adjust the settings. The detachable LCD screen is useful, the focusing works well, and the photos come out decent without processing.
I’ve started out by mostly keeping it on AV mode – E.g. I control the aperture and the phone does everything else. I’m slowly learning that it’s not just “bokeh or no bokeh”, but in the mean time if you see a lot of portrait-like shots in this category, now you know why.