M5 owners, (and 18-150 ones) please chime in.

Lightgreen wrote:

1. I always thought the M3 overexposed a bit, the M5 in my taste seems to get it right. So you're not crazy here rather you're very observant which is good, but, it may be a personal preference to my point. My former 5DIII and now M5 had/have about the same exposure, which I like. I didn't like the M3 or G1X II (both DIGIC6)'s exposure defaults which were about 1/3 to 2/3 stops too high. I got used to the M3 / G1X II, but going back to the 1/3 to 2/3 less of the M5 is much happier for me. A very gifted counterpart of mine that shoots on a 5DII normally shots either default or +2/3 stops on his 5DII, and I've never complained when he did my wedding, but I noted he loved Av f/8 and +2/3 stops on like half my wedding. Sure. Worked out great, even though I normally leave my exp comp alone when I can as a purist.

2. Yup, same problem. I just flip my camera off and then on, a lot. I got used to doing that on my former M3, just it's a lot easier on the M5 with it's switch vs the button of the M3.

3. I don't adapt a lot of glass, but others have had that complaint. No suggestions as my primary adaption is the EF 50 f/1.8 STM which doesn't have IS.

4. The EF-M 18-150 IS STM is excellent, for what it is. If you've ever used a superzoom lens before, say the EF-S 18-200 or EF-S 18-135, any of em, you know there is some compromises made optically, true. The EF-M 18-150 IS STM performs VERY well for a superzoom, but, yes, it still makes some trade-offs. I still have my 18-150, still haven't gotten around to selling it (too lazy/busy/hate eBay and CL anyways) and this weekend I shot my EF-M 55-200 IS STM and 28 Macro with excellent results at the beach. Ironically never touched my 11-22 in the bag. I also used my 18-150 though on an evening walk where I didn't want my bag along, also did well, for what it was, but yes, my 11-22 + 55-200 obviously destroy it (optically) combined, no offense to the 18-150.

My advice, give the M5 some time on the exp comp, and don't be afraid to run it hot like my counterpart runs his 5DII half the time; personal preference here.

Turning the camera off, does wonders for the battery, and wake-up time is about the same time as turning it on anyways. You get used to it once you make on/off a habit, once you do that is, in the meantime, yes, drive you crazy during the adaption period.

18-150? I want to sell mine, but it still gets enough use during lazy moments I keep it. Optically the 55-200 and 11-22 perform better and give more interesting shots at 200mm and 11mm extremes respectively too. Personal preference again. The 18-150 has better IS, and faster AF then the 55-200, but, the 55-200 is sharper in the center, and does 200mm. Also the 18-150 does video IS combo, wheras my 55-200 and 11-22 don't. At the end of the day, those minor pluses of the 18-150 are still outweighed by the benefits of more extreme focals of a 11-22 / 55-200 combo, and better optics, you just get better pictures from other lenses, but, you have to do a lens swap, which the 18-150 "cures", and is less bad (probably the best I've shot actually) then other superzooms out there, but it's still a superzoom. I'm not a superzoom person either, but, I'm lazy at times too, and it fits the lazy bill quite nicely.

Thank you for your very comprehensive replay, Lightgreen. Much appreciated

The underexposure is, indeed, the biggest problem I am faced with.

After owning a M2, a M3, a 300D, a 350D, a 30D, a 1DMKIII, a 1DMKIV and, now, a 5DMKIV, I am quite familiar with the way Canon Evaluative Metering works and the slight variations it incurs from model to model.

For instance, my 5DMKIV is a bit more conservative than the 1DMKIV was but I can deal with it, after learning to read where it steps back to those slightly lower exposure values.

...but this is different. 0.5EV is a lot and, on my test runs, there were instances where it was even more. There's no way to permanently dial-in a +0.5EV compensation as the EC dial works in 1/3s.

I will do some more tests but I fear I'll have to come up with a more drastic approach.

Different users like different mean exposures so I can't understand why they don't make the exposure bias permanent adjustment available in the 1D series a universal feature across models.

PK