My goal with this purchase was to upgrade my point-and-shoot camera. I take a lot of photos while hiking or skiing, so size and weight were important considerations. I have a Canon EOS M mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with an APS-C size sensor that takes great photos, but I prefer to carry a smaller camera when I’m skiing or hiking locally. With that said, I don’t want to have to give up so much image quality when I carry a smaller camera.
The Canon PowerShot G9 X meets my most important requirements (small form factor and improved image quality). The G9 X is a bit thicker and heavier than my Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, but it’s roughly the same size in other aspects. The G9 X’s 1-inch sensor has approximately four times the surface area of the sensor in my ELPH camera, so the image quality is, indeed, much improved. Although the G9 X’s sensor is only about half as large as my EOS M’s sensor, the drop-off in image quality is much less pronounced than with the ELPH.