Canon G7X Mark III Performance

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Canon G7X III Performance

Timing and Performance

Very good to excellent performance for its type.

Startup/Play to Record
Power on to first shot	~1.5 seconds	Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.
Play to Record, first shot	~0.8 second	Time until first shot is captured.

Startup to first shot time was about average for a compact camera, and switching from Play to Record and taking a shot was fairly quick.

Shutter Response (Lag Time) m-shutter/e-shutter
Full Autofocus Center-area AF Wide Angle	0.149 / 0.178 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide angle position.
Full Autofocus Center-area AF Telephoto	0.156 / 0.186 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.
Full Autofocus Center-area AF Flash enabled	0.250 / NA second	Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at medium focal length.
Manual Focus	0.165 / 0.191 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".
Prefocused	0.024 / 0.053 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Canon G7X III's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was quite fast for a compact camera, with similar or better lag times compared to the Mark II. The G7X III's full AF-S shutter lag clocked in at 0.149 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF-S shutter lag was just slightly slower at full telephoto, at 0.156 second. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.250 second, to account for the metering preflash. In comparison, the G7X II tested at 0.176, 0.153 and 0.494 second respectively.

Manual focus shutter lag was 0.165 second while prefocused shutter lag was 24 milliseconds, compared to 0.177 second and 35 milliseconds respectively for the Mark II.

We also tested lag times in electronic shutter mode but as you can see above, they were slower than with the mechanical shutter, as they usually are.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large Fine JPEG	< 0.3 second	Average time per shot.
Single Shot mode RAW + LF JPEG	< 0.3 second	Average time per shot.
Early shutter penalty?	No	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous Hi Large Fine JPEG	0.05 second (20.0 fps); 125 frames total; 14.3 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Slows to an average of 0.17s or 5.8 fps when buffer is full, with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi C-RAW	0.05 second (20.0 fps); 94 frames total; 17.8 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Slows to an average of 0.25s or 3.9 fps when buffer is full, with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi RAW	0.05 second (20.0 fps); 59 frames total; 16.0 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Slows to an average of 0.56s or 1.8 fps when buffer is full, with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi C-RAW + JPEG	0.05 second (20.0 fps); 91 frames total; 29.8 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Slows to an average of 0.40s or 2.5 fps when buffer is full, with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi RAW + JPEG	0.05 second (20.0 fps); 57 frames total; 18.7 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Slows to an average of 0.43s or 2.3 fps when buffer is full, with a lot of variation.
RAW Burst Mode	0.03 second (30.0 fps); 76 frames total; 9.2 seconds to clear*	Average time per shot. Camera won't let you shoot again until buffer is cleared.
Flash recycling	1.6 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a Sony 64GB SF-G UHS-II SDXC card (R:300MB/s, W:299MB/s). Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity also affects cycle times and burst mode performance, with higher ISOs generally increasing cycle times and reducing burst performance.

Shot-to-shot cycle times were excellent in single-shot mode, at under 0.3 second for Large/Fine JPEGs or RAW + Large/Fine JPEG files.

The Canon G7X III's Continuous Hi mode burst rate was very impressive at 20.0 fps regardless of file type and much faster than the G7X II which topped out at about 8.0 fps. The G7X III also offers a Continuous Lo setting at 3.0 fps which had an unlimited buffer in our tests. The G7X Mark III also features a special RAW Burst Mode which captures only raw images at a whopping 30.0 fps for 76 frames and saves them all to a single CR3 file. Note that focus is locked at the first frame at 20 fps and in RAW Burst Mode. With Servo AF (continuous autofocus), the G7X III's top burst speed is rated at 8.0 fps, but we didn't test that mode in the lab.

Buffer depths were quite generous even in the high speed modes, coming in at 125 best quality JPEGs, 94 compressed RAW, 59 lossless compressed RAW, 91 C-RAW+JPEG and 57 RAW+JPEG files at 20 frames per second. And as mentioned, in Continuous Lo mode, buffer depths were essentially unlimited.

Buffer clearing was reasonably quick considering the buffer depths with our fast Sony SF-G SDXC card (note that the G7X III does not support the card's faster UHS-II interface mode), ranging from 9.2 seconds after a max-length RAW Burst Mode burst at 30 fps to 29.8 seconds after a max-length C-RAW+JPEG burst at 20 fps. The camera will let you change settings while the buffer is clearing, though you can't view just-shot images until the buffer is cleared.

The built-in flash took an average of 1.6 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is very quick.

Bottom line, the Canon G7X Mark III's performance is excellent in most respects, and burst mode is vastly improved over its predecessor. Autofocus is fast, shutter lag is low, single-shot cycle times are very quick and burst speeds go up to an incredible 20 fps no matter the file type (30 fps in RAW Burst Mode). Buffer depths are also very generous with reasonable clearing times when using a fast card.

Battery

Battery Life
Below average battery life for its class.

Operating Mode	Number of Shots
Still Capture, (LCD Monitor, CIPA standard)	265

The Canon G7X Mark III uses a custom NB-13L rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power and a dedicated battery charger is included, but the battery can also be charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is rated at 265 shots per charge which is below average and the same as the G7X Mark II. There is an Eco mode which can boost battery life to 320 shots, but we strongly recommend you pick up a spare battery for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))