Canon G5X Mark II Performance

Very good to excellent performance for its type.

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

The Canon G5X II's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was quite fast for a compact camera, and a noticeable improvement over the G5X. The G5X II's full AF-S shutter lag clocked in at 0.148 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF-S shutter lag was just slightly slower at full telephoto, at 0.152 second. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.245 second, to account for the metering preflash. All these times are much quicker than the G5X, which tested at 0.273, 0.260 and 0.560 second respectively.

Manual focus shutter lag was 0.135 second, about twice as fast the G5X, while prefocused shutter lag was 22 milliseconds, unchanged from the G5X.

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.

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

The Canon G5X II's Continuous Hi mode burst rate was very impressive at 20.0 fps regardless of file type, and much faster than the G5X which topped out at 7.6 fps for JPEGs and less than one frame per second for RAW or RAW+JPEG files. The G5X II also offers a Continuous Lo setting at 3.0 fps which had an unlimited buffer in our tests. The G5X Mark II also features a special RAW Burst Mode which captures only raw images at a whopping 30.0 fps for 71 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 G5X II'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 122 best quality JPEGs, 106 compressed RAW, 57 lossless compressed RAW, 91 C-RAW+JPEG and 56 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 G5X II does not support the card's faster UHS-II interface mode), ranging from 9.3 seconds after a max-length RAW Burst Mode burst at 30 fps to 30.7 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 4.2 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is a bit slow.

Bottom line, the Canon G5X Mark II's performance is excellent in most respects, and 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 quite generous with reasonable clearing times when using a fast card.

Battery Life
Poor battery life for its class.

The Canon G5X Mark II 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 230 shots per charge when using the LCD monitor and 180 shots when using the electronic viewfinder, which is below average. There is an Eco mode which can boost battery life with the LCD 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))