Like most people, I use my smartphone for everything: doomscrolling on social media, spamming my friends with photos of my family dog, and filling up its storage with photos and videos from concerts or taken on my daily walks. Smartphone photography has come a long way, and I always say the best camera is the one in your hands.
Naturally, it will take a lot of convincing to make someone ditch their smartphone for photography, videography and vlogging. I’ve tested many cameras that come close, but I believe it’s the Canon PowerShot V1 that gives compelling reasons to forego my Google Pixel 7 Pro.
The PowerShot V1 is Canon's answer to Sony's vlogging cameras, as it tries to take on the Sony ZV-E10 II, and you know what? It comes out on top. While you can't change its lens, the PowerShot V1 is fitted with a versatile 16-50mm wide-angle lens that captures a lot of the scene, and its vlogging-specific features make it a force to reckon with. I ditched my Pixel 7 Pro for it, and here's why I don't regret it.
In my influencer era
The Canon PowerShot V1's prowess lies in its many, many vlogging-specific features, and one of these is Product Demo. You might be familiar with its under a different name used by Fujifilm (Product Priority) and Sony (Product Showcase). It basically focuses on the subject closest to the lens while effectively blurring the background — a great tool for product reviews and unboxing videos.
The PowerShot V1, like many modern cameras, can shoot 4K video at 60fps. Now, my Pixel 7 Pro can do that too, but it overheats a lot, and it eats up my phone's storage as quickly as me inhaling a treat pizza on pay day. This is where the PowerShot V1 comes in.
Load it up with a 512GB or even a 1TB SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II and you're good to go. What's even better is that the camera has a couple of cooling vents which ensure the camera doesn't overheat and shut down. And the footage looks lovely and smooth too, with Canon's color science shining in all its glory, as you can see above.
I hate hearing my voice played back to me, which is ironic considering I was a vocalist in a high school band a decade ago. But testing a vlogging camera means I have to make a vlog and record audio. One reason I would take the PowerShot V1 with me to a concert (where permitted) is its built-in mic which performs surprisingly well — and you can hear it in the clip above.
The clip was also shot in Dramatic B&W, one of five available creative filters that help you create videos for quick sharing to social media. There are lots of other vlogging features to discover, and you can read about them in my full Canon PowerShot V1 review.
Really good stills... on a compact?!
When I test a high-speed camera like the Canon EOS R5 Mark II or the Sony A1 II, I put it through its paces by shooting bursts of birds in flight or fast-moving animals. Compact cameras are different as they aren't always the fastest and they're more suited to portraits and landscape photography — but the Canon PowerShot V1 blew me away. Its 22MP sensor captures lots of detail.
While primarily a vlogging camera, the PowerShot V1 is fantastic for stills too. It can shoot 30fps bursts with its electronic shutter and boy are they good, and I mean really good. The photos in the gallery above are part of a longer burst, and you can see just how sharp the pigeon's features look.
Truly a compact
As I said up top, the Canon PowerShot V1 is an extremely compact camera, easily slipping into your coat's or trousers' pocket. Put your smartphone in one pocket and the PowerShot V1 in the other — perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Given its 4K/60fps capabilities, vlogging-specific modes, and ability to capture surprisingly detailed stills, it's one of the most powerful compact cameras money can buy. Canon's put its best foot forward against Sony's and Fujifilm's vlogging cameras, and it has come out on top. It's one of those cameras I've been sad to return as part of the loan.
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