Canon G9X Flash

Coverage, Exposure and Range
A weak flash (very common in compacts), with uneven coverage at wide angle.

Coverage. Flash coverage was quite uneven and a little narrow at wide angle (that's not unusual, though). We no longer test this at full telephoto, as wide angle is invariably the worst case.

Exposure. When it came to exposure, the G9X's pop-up flash underexposed our Indoor Portrait subject at its default setting, requiring +0.7 EV flash exposure compensation which is about the average required for this shot. But to achieve this exposure, the camera boosted ISO to 640 and the resulting image was quite warm and orange because of the ambient lighting. The camera's slow-sync flash mode continued to boost ISO to 640 which only had a minor effect on shutter speed, dropping it to 1/50s and brightening the image slightly.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. Canon rates the PowerShot G9X's flash range at 2.4 meters or 7.9 feet at telephoto and maximum aperture, when using Auto ISO. In the test shot above, the PowerShot G9X's flash performed to Canon's specifications, producing a well-exposed flash target image wide-open at full telephoto, with the camera boosting ISO to 640.

We shoot at manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.