Last month, Canon released two new cameras from their G series: the PowerShot G5 X Mark II and PowerShot G7 X Mark III. They are the latest of Canon’s flagship compact models that are light, use DSLR speed and can shoot 4K movies.

Thanks to Canon and Ogilvy, I was lucky to meet up with the teams for an exclusive hands-on session with the cameras. They walked me through every step of the way on how to handle and use the cameras, including a quick demo of the Live Stream capability.

Image courtesy of Canon
Image courtesy of Canon

Yup, you read that right! The PowerShot G7 X Mark III has the unique function that allows you to make a *live stream video. This is certainly an interesting feature to have in a digital camera, especially when it’s not exactly difficult to live stream an event. Anyone can easily pick up a smartphone and do it, but the Canon camera offers a more stable environment where you can opt to place it on a tripod stand for example and have it film for longer periods of time without tiring yourself out. The best part about this is that you can plug in your PowerShot G7 with a USB Power Supply so that you don’t have to worry about draining the camera battery.

And of course there’s the added advantage of 4K shooting, which would be perfect for filming time lapses or any landscape videos. Imagine the clarity of vast fields and desserts with rising mountains or sweeping valleys. This is what immediately drew me in because besides covering events for articles, I’ve always loved taking family holiday videos. Maybe 4K is a bit much for home videos, but that won’t stop me from wanting it.

Image courtesy of Canon
Image courtesy of Canon

Another thing that I really like about the cameras is their ergonomic design. They not only are compact and can be held up with one hand, but they also feel good in my grasp. Their light weight is a bonus, especially the PowerShot G7 which is only 304g. One of the biggest pains of filming is the weight of the camera as it would often leave my arm aching by the end of the day. But the PowerShot G7 is freaking light and while I was holding it, I started making calculations in my head about the possibility of buying one right away.

With all these qualities combined, the PowerShot G7 sounds like a dream come true. It’s perfect for casual everyday film-making, just capturing clips of beautiful memories.

Image courtesy of Canon
Image courtesy of Canon

Only the PowerShot G7 comes in two colours: black and silver (see in video below). The PowerShot G5 is only in black. Even though it doesn’t have the live stream function, it basically works like the G7 except that it has a pop-up EVF and the new optical 5x lens.

So, which one would you get?

Check out this video for more info:

*Just received a new update: you’ll need to have a minimum of 1,000 channel subscribers in order to live stream from your mobile device. This is in accordance with YouTube’s “Restrictions on live streaming”. The same applies to the YouTube live-streaming service on the Canon G7 X Mark III.