The demand hasn’t waned in large part because photos taken on the G7 X just seem to look suspiciously better. Many creators have posted side-by-side comparisons of their iPhone versus Canon G7 X images on TikTok, and the differences are clear. “The Canon G7 X is just so crisp,” says Bahja Abdi, a 23-year-old content creator who bought the Mark II in 2021 and the Mark III in 2023. “It just gets the aesthetic perfect, and it’s very clear. I hate to be a hype woman … but I think this one deserves its hype.”

Savvy commenters are increasingly able to spot the difference too, going as far as to call out the camera by name. One Instagram commenter complimented the quality of Hannah Chody Milburn’s photos from the Dolomites with a chef’s kiss emoji, asking, “Wait what camera are these taken on?” In the comments of another photo dump, this time from Mallorca, a follower specifically asked, “Are you using the g7x for most of these??” Her answer was, simply, “Yes!”

The G7 X is a relatively small camera. At just over 4 inches long, it’s smaller than the average iPhone. But it’s boxier, at about 2.5 inches deep, and it’s easier to get a solid grip on than a phone. On the back is a screen that flips out, allowing you to see what you’re shooting in a selfie with much higher quality than what you can get on your phone’s notoriously not-so-great front-facing camera.

To understand why the photos from this decade-old camera look better than those from the latest iPhones, I spoke with Phil Ryan, a Wirecutter senior staff writer who has been covering cameras for nearly two decades. He called out the focal length—or how much of a scene is captured in an image—as one reason you might notice a difference between the two.

Most base-model iPhone cameras have a focal length of 26mm, while the G7 X can go from 24mm to 100mm. That larger focal length flattens out a person’s features—and that’s a good thing for portraits and other images of people.

“Usually you want to have something in the range of 70mm to just past 100mm because it gives a pleasing look to people’s faces,” Phil explains. “It’s going to be much more pleasing and much closer to what would be used by a professional for a portrait. It still falls short, but it doesn’t fall as short as an iPhone lens would.”

The flash is another selling point among G7 X superfans. It has a range of 13 feet, so it can illuminate subjects from a longer distance and gives the image a bright feel that many people, including Hannah Chody Milburn and MJ Hedderman, a 26-year-old content creator, describe as crisp. The iPhone has a measly flash range of 5 feet and looks like, well, an iPhone.

And according to Amelia Liana, a 32-year-old content creator who has been posting to YouTube for 10 years, the flash is devastatingly easy to use. “I shoot on auto most of the time, and you literally flip up the flash and turn it on, and everything looks amazing. It is quite foolproof like that.” (She demonstrated the process in a TikTok: She toggles to SCN for scene selection, pops open the flash, and off she goes. The 35-second video has more than 13,000 likes at this writing.)

Liana was an early adopter of the G7 X, and she was originally influenced to buy it by Casey Neistat, a New York City–based filmmaker.

“At the time, he was doing a vlog every single day,” she says. “He basically did a review on this camera saying it was new, and it was the best camera for daily vloggers.” So, Liana bought one—and she’s been a loyal Canon G7 X owner for seven years now, nearly since the camera’s inception. She now owns both the Mark II and the Mark III, using them for both her vlogs and her still photos.

However, the G7 X also has lots of features that are now out-of-date—especially if vlogging is your primary objective. “One of the things that’s probably much better in a newer camera at this point is image stabilization during video capture,” says Phil, and if you like to take videos or even post vlogs, you can definitely find better options out there, such as the Sony RX100 VII.

But even so, that type of camera is more for people seeking professional-level quality for posting video on platforms such as YouTube. For TikTok and Instagram, shooting vlogs and videos on your iPhone is totally acceptable, and that’s usually how content creators do it anyway, even if they do have the G7 X on hand.

If anything, it has been interesting to see how the reputation of the G7 X has flipped from being the must-have vlogging camera, complete with a flip-up screen for selfies, to being the go-to camera for no-brainer vacation and outfit pics.

“When I was younger I used to watch so much YouTube and vloggers, and I know that they always had the Canon G7 X,” Bahja Abdi says, noting that she was influenced by YouTubers Alisha Marie and Remi Cruz. “When I started my YouTube channel, it was the first camera that I bought.”

The ubiquity of this particular digital camera among the very creators who are most likely to post on social media is another reason this model might have taken off while other, better cameras have failed to capture folks’ imaginations in the same way. This vlogging camera was already in their toolkits, and they’re just using what they already have.

For example, 28-year-old content creator Serene Hesri didn’t even realize that she could be using her brother Keemokazi’s Canon for Instagram photos until she saw a fellow influencer posting about it—and now, she uses it for almost all of her Instagram content. “In the beginning we looked at it as a YouTube camera, but with the rise of content creators posting about it, and [seeing] on Instagram how well their photos are turning out, it kind of sparked something,” Hesri says. At the moment, she mainly uses the G7 X to capture high-quality photos—not videos—for Instagram.

Of course, an iPhone is still totally fine for taking images for your own consumption and for posting on social media. But beyond the quality of the photo, even holding the G7 X feels better in comparison with handling an iPhone.

“The biggest advantage of a camera like this is that it’s designed to be held like a camera,” says Ben Keough, supervising editor of Wirecutter’s camera coverage. “I know that sounds silly, but proper ergonomics, like a finger grip around front and a thumb grip on the rear, make it a lot easier to frame shots effectively.”

But Ben also says, “There are plenty of cameras that can do what this camera does.” So if you’re still interested in buying the Canon G7 X, ask yourself a few questions first: Do you already own a camera that works? Do you actually want one, or are you chasing the aesthetic of some of your favorite influencers?

“There’s nothing magical about it. You can shoot pretty much any photo you want with any current camera, and it’s going to matter more how you frame it and how you think about the photo than which camera you use,” says Phil. Think about what you like most in a photo—of yourself, of your friends, of the world around you—rather than trying to mimic what someone else does.

The Canon G7 X is still pretty hard to get. It’s often out of stock and going for almost twice the price on retail sites. If you’re paying anything over $800, which is Canon’s list price for the camera, you’re not getting a good deal.

“Anything more than that, and you’re paying for the cool factor, that’s it,” says Phil.

At this point in time, all cameras are good cameras, and if the Canon G7 X is still at the top of your wish list, then by all means, go for it—just promise us you won’t go bankrupt for it.

This article was edited by Maxine Builder and Catherine Kast.