When I first heard about the Canon PowerShot G3 X ($999), I fully expected that I was going to hate it. Could there really be a good reason for someone to buy a compact camera stuffed with a 25x (24-600mm equivalent) zoom lens?

I'll just mention the biggest drawback that you'll find in my Canon PowerShot G3 X review right out of the gate: If you cannot make yourself pay a nearly four figure price for a fixed lens camera, then you probably will have little desire to consider this camera.

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One of the most welcome trends in camera design recently has been the adoption of relatively large sensors in fixed-lens compacts. In particular, the runaway success of Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 series showed that there's a real appetite for small cameras with much higher image quality than was...

Huge lens range covers almost any subject; Good image quality from 1in sensor; Excellent touchscreen interface

No built-in viewfinder; Awkward ergonomics; Poor continuous shooting with raw enabled

A jack of all trades and a master of some, the Canon's limited video options and lack of a viewfinder hold it back from true greatness

Versatile zoom lens; Sharp images; Sturdy; weatherproof build

No electronic viewfinder; No 4K video

Canon do three ranges of cameras the IXUS the smallest, next is the PowerShot and finally their DSLR range. However the area between the last two is somewhat grey, this PowerShot is considerably larger in size than a small DSLR.

The G3 X delivers SLR-like zoom capabilities in a compact package thanks to its excellent lens and image stabilisation, only falling down when faced with fast-moving subjects. It's not a beautiful camera, but it's well built and easy to handle.

This review was first published in the November 2015 issue of Digital Photo - download back issues here .

Canon's latest PowerShot G-Series camera, the PowerShot G3 X, is positioned as an alternative to the flagship PowerShot G1X Mark II and G7X models, with which it shares some features.

A while back, camera makers decided that people want to zoom in really, really far. More recently, they also realized people want great image quality and advanced controls. (Who'da thought!?) Here are new two cameras that do both. Let's see which is worth your hard-earned dollars.