Reporting back on how my new Canon G9X Mark II worked out on my trip.
I really had no idea how my photos were turning out until I returned home since I did not bring my laptop with me during my trip. Sometimes when inside churches or museums, I would see the shakey red hand displayed (that's what I call it) on my G9X screen. I lost a little confidence on how my photos would turn out even though they seemed to be pretty sharp when I zoomed in on the little screen and at times only used my iPhone to take photos during these situations. I did happen to take photos in the very dark Duomo in Modena using my G9X and they came out much sharper than my iPhone photos did in that same situation.
I found that the times when I did take photos both with my iPhone 6s and my new Canon G9X that the Canon photos almost always came out better. At the time though when looking at them on my iPhone screen or my Canon screen, the iPhone photos looked nicer. It was only when I returned home that I realized the difference. The iPhone photos are "warmer" with a yellowish tint to them. I am guessing the white balance is set a little different as well as the fact that the iPhone is programmed to over saturate the colors in a photo. It's not that I don't like most of the photos I took with my iPhone, it's just that when you compare the photos from the two cameras, in my opinion, the photos from the Canon G9X, shooting raw come out nicer. The seem to be cleaner, sharper and the colors appear to be more accurate and less saturated. I did shoot raw 99% of the time when using my G9x so I am not comparing jpegs to jpegs.
There were a couple of times though when the iPhone won the contest, with my G9X shooting a blurry photo inside a museum and the iPhone photo taking a much sharper photo in that situation.
Here are a couple of examples of photos I took within minutes of each other.
The first example is a little church in Modena. The first photos is from my iPhone. The 2nd photos is from my Canon G9X Mark II. I had to convert the 2nd photo from raw to a jpeg to post it here but I did not do any editing.
The 2nd example is of a swan taken a few minutes apart. The first photos is from my iPhone. The 2nd photos is from my Canon G9X Mark. I did do a little editing with the G9X photo (since I already finished editing that batch) but I did not touch the color at all.
I think they are both nice photos, but you can see that the white feathers are much whiter when taken with the G9X. I also zoomed in equally on my computer and took screen shots of each photo to show the clarity. (1st again is the iPhone).
The G9x was easy to carry. I kept it in my hand most of the time. I did fit in a pants pocket that was not too tight and easily slipped into my purse. I occasionally put my finger partially over the lens when using my iPhone without realizing it until after I took the photo. I felt pretty comfortable though otherwise taking photos with my iPhone except when near water. I did not feel comfortable at all using my iPhone near the water (e.g. on the vaporetto) imagining my phone dropping into the canal! My camera has a wrist strap that is pretty tight around my wrist and felt much more secure during these situations.
I have found that I really like the end result with my photos since I have started to shoot raw, even though it is very time consuming editing/developing each photo. You have so much more control over fixing a photo if taken in a bad lighting situation as well as other editing abilities without blowing out the highlights, etc. I can see a difference in the end result even with same photos I took in 2011 while in Modena using my DSLR Canon t2i but shooting only jpegs. Of course I can't really compare the two as they were taken during different lighting situations, times of the day, etc. I will have to go out and do another test taking 2 photos same shot/one right after the other - one with my iPhone and one with my G9x camera set to take jpegs to see the difference that would make with this camera.
All in all, I still prefer to use my DSLR over both my new camera and my iPhone. I have a newer SL1 that is more compact than most DSLRs BUT it sure was nice carrying only a tiny camera with me everywhere I went. Of course the option of different lenses is a bonus with the SL1 but I prefer using the eye piece with my SL1 instead of using the screen as a viewer and I just prefer the feel of the SL1 camera in my hands. I also feel more comfortable shooting using the aperture mode with my SL1. Everything is pretty much touchscreen with the G9X and I need more time to figure out the settings such as what the shutter speed is set at when I choose an aperture on that tiny screen. It is much easier with my DSLR. I will have to go out and do a test shooting raw taking 2 exact photos - one with my SL1 DSLR camera and one with my compact G9x camera - same shot/one right after the other to see the difference that would make with the two cameras.
I found out that you need to be very careful with the G9X touchscreen! Thankfully, I only messed up and took photos with the flash white balance setting during one daytrip to Faenza. Somehow my finger must have touched something on the touchscreen and switched the white balance setting to flash! WARNING! Do not do this! Thankfully, I took almost every photo inside the amazing ceramic museum with my iPhone and realized the next morning that the setting was switched! It was a lot of work trying to fix all of my photos that were very yellow in post production. They are not my best photos :{
Regarding videos, I took all but 2 videos using my iPhone. I just didn't even think about using my camera to take videos until the end of my trip. The 2 videos I took with my G9x came out great. I have not sat down to compare the phone/camera videos but my 1st impression was that the G9X videos seemed to be a little crisper. I will do more testing with this also.
I hope this helps if anyone is ever considering purchasing the Canon G9X MarkII.