Canon G7X Mark III for Vlogging: a Huge Disappointment

The Canon G7X Mark II became the go-to camera for vlogging as soon as it was released in 2016.

The camera was the closest thing to a vlogging camera that we had in those years. The funny thing is that it wasn’t Canon’s intention when it was released.

But now they’ve realized how popular their camera became between vloggers, so that made them notice a new market to target.

The first sign that they had discovered a new market was when they released the Canon EOS M50 in 2018. That mirrorless camera became the closest thing we had to a camera made for vlog recording.

However, there was something really important lacking: 4k recording with no crop.

Now Canon has released the G7x Mark III, and it looked like it would become the new ultimate vlogging camera.

Until we got to try it out.

Let’s first see the features that they’ve added and that made it an exciting announcement, then we will get to the disappointment.

Improvements over the previous G7X Mark II version

Made for social media sharing

Social media sharing and video blogging were in the top of mind of Canon for this model. This also includes outstanding livestreaming support.

They didn’t only make the camera have a clean HDMI output, they also made it possible to stream directly to YouTube.

This is a great feature, but I bet some of you are wondering:

“How are we supposed to stream for hours with a small camera battery?”

Well, the good news is that you can charge the camera just with a USB cable, so you can use a power station while recording.

Another exciting feature is a vertical video mode for posting on social media.

With this, you could capture pictures that are ready for social media sharing, and transfer them through WiFi or Bluetooth directly to your smartphone.

Cool features that seemed good on paper

There’s a new mic input, but sadly there’s no mount for a mic. 

This means that you can use it for a wireless lavalier microphone, but pretty much for nothing more.

You could use a wired mic, but that’s annoying if you’re taking your camera out with you, which is the entire purpose of this model.

When recording in 1080p, you can also go up to 120fps. That gets you slow-motion recording capacities inside your pocket.

This makes Canon finally able to compete with Sony and their RX100 for slow-mo recording in a portable camera.

Finally, the camera includes 4k recording at 30 fps with NO crop—only Canon’s massive 1D-X can compare. This was a really strong point in the camera specs list.

The camera’s sensor, fast lens—24-100mm f/1.8-2.8— and processor are excellent for low light.

It feels like you can record video in most common low-light situations—like indoors—without losing quality.

All these features made the camera feel too good to be true to us.

Sadly, we were right.

In the end, a huge disappointment

The main problem: autofocus

The single most disappointing thing about this camera is the autofocus.

In the beginning, I knew that lacking Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system was a bad sign, but I wanted to give it a chance.

And after seeing many tests, I can finally say… 

It’s bad.

Really bad.

So bad that it makes this camera lose its entire potential

I’d rather have lower back pain—which I have right now, please help—than a camera that can’t focus my face while vlogging.

So I can scientifically say that the Mark III is worse than back pain.

This makes it basically unusable for vlogging.

Imagine trying to record a single 2-minute clip with the camera constantly getting out of focus.

It’s just not possible to record something useful in a time-efficient way. 

No 24 fps option

Recording in 24, 30 or 60 fps, in the end, is a matter of taste.

But it just doesn’t make sense that Canon deliberately chose not to include a 24fps option for this camera.

Why not give the option when the camera is capable of delivering it?

A lot of people prefer this format due to its more cinematic look, but it seems Canon just hates movies.

Can’t record over 10 minutes in 4k, and there’s overheating too

When continuously shooting in 4k, the camera will overheat—and also during 1080p at 120fps. 

In the beginning, I knew this could happen due to it being non-cropped 4k recording.

However, I didn’t think it would be this bad. 

People are trying this camera during summer, and in the hottest places, they can’t even get it to record to the 10-minute clip limit at 4k.

You could maybe use it to record short footage to show to your family and friends how “cool” your camera’s high resolution looks, but that’s about it.

This is depressing because a small camera that can record at 120fps for slow-motion, and has great stabilization together with a fast lens, could be an amazing asset for a vlogger.

But it turns out that Canon screwed this camera completely. 

You can’t give these amazing features at the same time that you install worse autofocus than its previous version.

If you’re looking for your next vlogging camera, save a bit more for a Canon EOS M50. That’s a much better machine to have.

You could also give it the Sony a6400 a look for the best autofocus on the market.

But I’d advise you to stay away from the G7X Mark III unless you want to give yourself a hard time.