Canon announces Powershot G1 X Mark II, its flagship advanced point and shoot

With just a day to go for the CP+ camera extravaganza in Yokohama, Japan, we have some more camera-related news. This time it is Canon which announced some new cameras such as the Canon EOS 1200D, Canon Powershot D30, Canon Powershot G1 X Mark II and a bunch of other travel zooms and compact cameras. We take a look at the Powershot G1 X Mark II which also happens to be the flagship point and shoot from Canon.

The Canon G1 X Mark II is an upgrade of the older advanced point and shoot, the Canon Powershot G1 X, but there have been some significant design changes. It features a 12.8MP 1.5-inch high-sensitivity CMOS sensor combined with a DIGIC 6 image processor. It boasts of an ISO range from 100 to 12800.

The Canon Powershot G1 X Mark II features a 24-120mm equivalent lens which gives 5x optical zoom with maximum aperture range of f/2.0 - f/3.9. The zoom lens has a dual-control ring which includes a step ring to adjust various customisable settings and a continuous ring to make focusing adjustments during manual focus, as well as additional customisable settings for manual shooting.

There are a cool 31 AF points on the G1 X Mark II as opposed to just 9 AF points seen on the G1 X. It features a 3-inch 1040k-dot tilting LCD touchscreen at the back. It does not come with a dedicated electronic view finder, but you can attach an optional one on the accessory port on the top portion.

The PowerShot G1 X Mark II camera is equipped with built-in Wi-Fi technology, so users can share still images and videos online quickly and easily using compatible mobile devices. Canon has also added support for near field communication (NFC) on this G series camera. Its new remote shooting feature also allows the user to sync the G1 X Mark II with a smartphone or tablet and utilize the shutter, optical zoom and self-timer features from that device.

It can shoot full HD videos. The PowerShot G1 X Mark II camera features Advanced Star Mode with four options to capture images of starry night skies with impeccable quality. The “Star Portrait” and “Star Nightscape” modes help capture the radiance of stars while still allowing you to capture the subject. The “Star Trails” mode captures video trails of stars to turn trails into a luminous still image, while the “Star Time Lapse Movie” mode will shoot images of star movement and then combine the images to make a film that shows the movement of the stars, creating a truly stunning video.

The Canon Powershot G1X Mark II is expected to go on sale from April at a retail price of USD 799 or approx Rs 50,000.