MinAZ
Veteran Member
Just wondering, now with the ridiculously low prices on the M3. But I am perfectly happy with my M2, so curious if I would notice much of anything upgrading.
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IS the M3 a significant upgrade to the M2?
- Thread starter MinAZ
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I have not used a M2, but the M3 has a fair few upgrades;
24Mp vs 18Mp
Articulated screen
Pop-up flash on M3
Wifi - one review I looked at for M2 didn't mention wifi, so not sure if it has it or not.
Bigger jpeg buffer (RAW seems the same though ?)
More autofocus points
Improved usability with an extra couple of dials on top on the M3
Bigger grip on M3
As for IQ, no clue, but the extra resolution should do something.
24Mp vs 18Mp
Articulated screen
Pop-up flash on M3
Wifi - one review I looked at for M2 didn't mention wifi, so not sure if it has it or not.
Bigger jpeg buffer (RAW seems the same though ?)
More autofocus points
Improved usability with an extra couple of dials on top on the M3
Bigger grip on M3
As for IQ, no clue, but the extra resolution should do something.
Yes, on the Canon USA online store the refurbished bodies are going for $299, and with kit lens a refurbished M3 goes for $350.
rickysuper
Well-known member
if you want to have significant upgrade from M2, go for the M5. M3 just a little upgrade from M2.
I am happy to be corrected, but I think there is a menu option to turn off the continuous focus if you want to conserve battery (page 73 of the manual). You can set it so that the lens only focus with a half press of the shutter button.
This setting only concerns the AF functioning and has nothing to do with the IS.
I have M2 and just purchased M3 (Refurb Body).. its a little bit faster than M2. I bought it solely for flip screen as my 8yrs son started to do his own youtube videos.. But it has lot more advantages than M2. Major disadvantage as some of the comments mentioned here.. IS NO LONGER Pocket-able. The main purpose I bought M2 was to take with me in my pocket with 22mm it looks like Point and shoot.. But i cannot do it anymore with M3. So kept both. But if u already have more than 1 M lens.. Just buy the refurb ones.. before they go out of stock.
snowrunner
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So the green tint in the corners is still an issue and hasn't been solved with a firmware update? I'm thinking of buying an M3 myself but I don't want to post-process all my pictures with CornerFix or Lightroom. I'd mostly shoot in jpeg mode so I'm interested in good quality ooc pictures.
The green tint only shows up with certain lenses at certain focal lengths. The 22mm and 18-55mm at the wide end are two I know of for sure. I don't think it shows up with the 11-22mm and I don't know about the 15-45mm.
The issue is only visible in certain shooting situations. I think the most common was large expanses of grey overcast sky. The problem is very subtle and is invisible for most situations.
Not really. The 31 points in the M2 vs 49 points in the M3 are only a factor when shooting in FlexiZone-Multi AF mode. This is the AF mode where you let the camera choose where to focus. The camera will only select from 31 or 49 discrete points respectively. If you use FlexiZone-Single, or the Single + face tracking mode, there are literally hundreds of discrete AF points you can select. The actual area with which you can select your focus point is nearly identical for both cameras. The difference is that the M2 loses the extreme corners whereas the M3 has a complete rectangular area.
The 31 and 49 number are a marketing throwback to traditional optical phase detect systems where a camera would only have 11 or 17 or whatever number of AF points. The actual number of phase detect pixels on the image sensor for the M2 and M3 are in the hundreds of thousands.
snowrunner
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I guess that means there's been no firmware update reagarding this issue. And that's a pity because those two lenses would be the most important ones to me. I just stumbled across the old discussion from last year and I noticed the problem also with blue skies but, as you pointed out, only at a wide angle with the 18-55mm. The issue seems a bit less pronounced with the 22mm lens.
I still think the M3 is a decent camera which gives you a reasonable value for money and I really want to like it but I feel a bit uncertain about it now. However, perhaps mirrorless cameras will always be a compromise, especially in this price range. If you're after the best possible image quality and shooting experience, then there's probably still no way around a big and chunky DSLR.
You are right, I didn't express myself correctly, mostly because I shoot RAW.
There is a custom setting in order to automatically correct the vignetting and the CA in the JPEG: once this setting is activated, the vignetting is not an issue any more.
snowrunner
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Yes, but this is not about chromatic aberrations or the darkening of image corners but a noticable green cast in the corners and sometimes the entire image border. Apparently this can be corrected with post-processing but not with in-camera adjustments when shooting jpegs. You can still find pictures with that problem on flickr like this one:
It's quite noticable in the top right but perhaps I'm just overcritical. This usually seems to happen with the 18-55mm lens at 18mm (but of course not always) and occasionally with the 22mm lens. I've even found a couple of pictures shot with the 11-22mm lens where this is an issue.
I'd like to know if this can really be corrected with some custom settings of the camera because I mostly shoot jpegs.
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Looking at that photo it looks like it was shot at very high ISO (seems very noisy although the exif says ISO100) and has been over processed with too much saturation so for me it is difficult to pick a green cast, but perhaps it is a resized jpeg for posting. If that is the way it came out of the camera at ISO 100, I would be taking it back to Canon because I would find that quality unacceptable.
Both my daughter and I have M3 + 18-55mm, and one thing I have not noticed on either is a green cast anywhere.
I also have not noticed significant vignetting on any lens, although I have just got my 11-22mm and not taken anything more than a few test shots with it.
We recently took about 5000 photos (all shot in RAW) with the two cameras in Africa (using the 18-55mm on mine, and 18-55mm and 24-105mm on my daughter's) and going through these pics I did not notice a cast on any of them. Both have the latest firmware and were both bought in June 2016 in Australia.
Here is a screen capture of a RAW photo I took in Cape Town, out of camera with no processing. Taken with M3 and 18-55mm, at 28mm, ISO 100, f8, 1/100th, -0.33EV.
I cannot see any noticeable vignetting or colour cast on this image.
This image was a screen capture of a RAW unprocessed image, taken with M3 + 18-55mm, at 18mm, f8, 1/320th, ISO 100. Again, slight vignetting and no cast that I can see.
Maybe this only appears when shooting only in JPEG ?
Both my daughter and I have M3 + 18-55mm, and one thing I have not noticed on either is a green cast anywhere.
I also have not noticed significant vignetting on any lens, although I have just got my 11-22mm and not taken anything more than a few test shots with it.
We recently took about 5000 photos (all shot in RAW) with the two cameras in Africa (using the 18-55mm on mine, and 18-55mm and 24-105mm on my daughter's) and going through these pics I did not notice a cast on any of them. Both have the latest firmware and were both bought in June 2016 in Australia.
Here is a screen capture of a RAW photo I took in Cape Town, out of camera with no processing. Taken with M3 and 18-55mm, at 28mm, ISO 100, f8, 1/100th, -0.33EV.
I cannot see any noticeable vignetting or colour cast on this image.
This image was a screen capture of a RAW unprocessed image, taken with M3 + 18-55mm, at 18mm, f8, 1/320th, ISO 100. Again, slight vignetting and no cast that I can see.
Maybe this only appears when shooting only in JPEG ?
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snowrunner
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Thanks a lot for uploading your pictures! You're right, they both seem fine to me and I agree with what you said about the picture I linked to. It almost lools like the camera is damaged or something went seriously wrong during editing. So with the M3 I'll have to get used to shooting in RAW which I've always tried to avoid. This is one of the things I like with Canon cameras, that their ooc JPEGs usually look fine without the need of post-processing or converting RAW files by myself. But apparently not with this one.
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Still not seeing the problem, even in JPEG ?
Here is a couple of photos just taken outside the back door (not the best subject I know). I set the M3 on Av, at f8, ISO100. They are all screen shots using ACDSee Pro 10 of the JPEG and RAW images straight out of camera with zero processing. I also viewed the images in DPP 4.50 with similar results.
I can see very little difference between the RAW and JPEG images, and I took photos (using RAW + large JPEG) at wide open, f8, f11 & f22 at both ends of both 18-55mm and 11-22mm, and would struggle to pick the difference between the RAW and JPEG options across all of them.
I cannot see any obvious vignetting or colour casts on any of the images either. I don't know whether there is good and bad versions of the M3, but thankfully mine does not display the issues mentioned here.
Two of the photos (one with each of the lenses)
JPEG 11-22mm on 11mm, f8 and 1/200th, ISO100
RAW 11-22mm on 11mm, f8 and 1/200th, ISO100 (same shot as above but RAW)
JPEG 18-55mm on 18mm, f8 and 1/160th, ISO100
RAW 18-55mm on 18mm, f8 and 1/160th, ISO100 (same shot as above, but RAW)
Here is a couple of photos just taken outside the back door (not the best subject I know). I set the M3 on Av, at f8, ISO100. They are all screen shots using ACDSee Pro 10 of the JPEG and RAW images straight out of camera with zero processing. I also viewed the images in DPP 4.50 with similar results.
I can see very little difference between the RAW and JPEG images, and I took photos (using RAW + large JPEG) at wide open, f8, f11 & f22 at both ends of both 18-55mm and 11-22mm, and would struggle to pick the difference between the RAW and JPEG options across all of them.
I cannot see any obvious vignetting or colour casts on any of the images either. I don't know whether there is good and bad versions of the M3, but thankfully mine does not display the issues mentioned here.
Two of the photos (one with each of the lenses)
JPEG 11-22mm on 11mm, f8 and 1/200th, ISO100
RAW 11-22mm on 11mm, f8 and 1/200th, ISO100 (same shot as above but RAW)
JPEG 18-55mm on 18mm, f8 and 1/160th, ISO100
RAW 18-55mm on 18mm, f8 and 1/160th, ISO100 (same shot as above, but RAW)
snowrunner
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Thanks again for putting so much effort in this and I do like the view from your back door ;-) Looks so much warmer than where I am right now.
All your images are fine. Perhaps the greenish cast really was only a problem with some of the earlier models.
All your images are fine. Perhaps the greenish cast really was only a problem with some of the earlier models.
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