The Canon PowerShot V1 is a video/vlogging compact camera with a vari-angle screen and no EVF and a fixed 3x zoom lens. How many MORE of these box-shaped ‘creator’ cameras can the industry churn out? A lot more, probably, so the PowerShot V1 does need to do things a little differently to stand out from all those that have gone before.
And actually, it does. The first key point of interest is that this camera has an unusual 1.4-inch sensor. That’s around the same size as Micro Four Thirds and substantially bigger than the 1-inch sensors in other PowerShot models and the Sony ZV-1 and ZV1 II. And although the PowerShot V1 is pitched as a vlogging/’creator’ camera it looks like its 22MP sensor should be pretty good for stills, too.
Canon is calling this a pocketable compact camera, but it does weigh in at a chunky 426g, though that does include the lens too, of course. It does have a pretty thick body, but that’s because of another very interesting feature – a built-in cooling fan. That’s unheard of for a compact vlogging camera and means the V1 should be able to keep filming until the battery runs out (you could use USB power) or the memory card fills up. It has a single SD UHS-II card slot, by the way.
So here’s another interesting thing – the lens. Canon bills this as an f/2.8 lens, but that’s only at the widest setting. In fact, it has a variable maximum aperture that drops to f/4.5 at the long end of the 3.1x zoom range. It is a useful range, though, equivalent to 16-50mm in full frame terms. The extra-wide angle of view at the short end of the zoom range makes it ideal for handheld presenting on a grip or a gimbal while including plenty of the background too. The lens has optical stabilization which won’t shrink the field of view, though using the digital IS will introduce a crop.
But not as big a crop as the 4K 60p option. 4K 30p uses the full sensor width, but swapping to the higher frame rate means you only get 64% of the horizontal frame width. This is a common limitation with higher frame rates on cameras at this level – the processing overheads and limited SD card speed mean it’s not possible to oversample the full 22MP sensor resolution down to 4K at this frame rate.
Other video features include UVC/UAC so that the V1 offers plug in and play webcam capability, Canon C Log 3 profile for wider dynamic range and color grading flexibility later, and a built-in ND filter to allow smoother footage in bright light (via longer shutter speeds/shutter angles). It can also shoot 10-bit 4:2:2 footage, though only with IPB compression not higher-quality All-I.
So actually, while it looks like yet another low-end vlogging camera, the PowerShot V1 actually packs in some quite powerful video features you would normally expect to find only on more expensive hybrid cameras.
This does push up the price somewhat, but not perhaps as much as you might expect. The Canon PowerShot V1 comes in at $899/£959, which is not too bad for a surprisingly powerful vlogging tool with a good-sized sensor.