Maxmolly7 wrote:
Keep us posted about the outcome, please.
I got the M200 and kit lens yesterday. I've had some time to get to know it, and took it out on a shoot with my 2 M6iis last night to downtown Tampa to shoot a train 'street running'.
First off I'll say I did not 'win' the 'kit lens' lottery... the copy of the 15-45 that I got was the worst of the 4 I've now owned. This one not only had corners softer and more 'smeared out' than the others, but the whole leftmost 10% edge of the frame is unsharp even stopped down to f5.6. I plan to contact warranty service and get it replaced... I'll play the lottery again. I can accept the 'usual quality' mediocre copy with slightly soft corners but this one has a pronounced de-centering visible in video at any aperture and should not have passed quality control.
As for the body --- I have to say I was expecting a 'cheap plastic build' from the reviews but my impression of it is better than I was expecting --- it feels dense and solid even though it's lighter than the other M bodies.
Even though it has no front 'grip,' the edge sticking out the back for your thumb to grab onto is enough to get a good grip and I didn't really have issues or find it a problem. The texture of the front and the top black trim is rough and textured so that even with no real front grip, I found I could grip the camera well enough. Interestingly, I'd have to comment here than the M50ii actually felt more 'plasticky' and I had the impression of a slightly cheaper build to the M50ii than with the M200.
The placement and operation of the (few) controls feels quite natural, as you expect from a Canon. The balance of the body is good and is fine even with a bigger lens like the EF-S 55-250 IS STM with a 1.5 TC and adapter, or even the big heavy Rokinon 135mm f2. With those you are holding the lens with the left hand with the right hand operating the touch screen. The M200 body is so small and light it just sort of 'hangs off' a bigger lens.
That being said --- with a heavy lens like the Rokinon you would not be holding the camera with just your right hand shooting (although you can hold it with just your right hand momentarily), whereas you can shoot with the EF-M 18-150 and even the EF-S 55-250 holding the camera with just your right hand if you don't need to change settings on the touch screen. But I wouldn't shoot with the M6ii with the Rokinon just holding it with my right hand either --- you'd need a big DSLR for a heavier lens like that.
The height and depth of the M200 are slightly less than the M6ii, but the width of the body is where you really see a difference --- by 1/2 inch, which definitely makes the body feel smaller and fit into the camera bag better (especially without the EVF). I like the tilting flip screen as well, I prefer tilting over fully articulating for most shooting, and since it doesn't tilt down, it's more solid and feels more secure than the M6ii's tilt screen which is mounted to another tilting metal 'frame' that allows the whole rear screen to also tilt down.
An issue that I had with the original M6 body was that the body was more narrow than the M6 Mark ii, and when holding it especially with a longer lens like the EF-S 55-250 my palm would always press the lowermost right button on the back of the camera, which was annoying. They solved this in the M6ii by adding space to the right side of the camera so the button is not close to the edge. The M200 solves it by removing that button LOL so there is only one button below the control joystick and not 2, and I found I did not press any buttons by accident.
I've not really been a user of the 'touch screen controls' on the M cameras I've had, because I nearly always shoot using the finder and customize the controls to my taste.
At first with the M200 I had a moment of uncertainty when I was going through the menus and found that you basically can't customize almost ANY buttons on the M200... what Canon has chosen is what you get. I was especially wondering how I was going to magnify the screen to 5x and 10x for critical focusing with my manual focus lenses... a must have.
After a little while I figured out that you get the magnifying glass icon on the touchscreen, and pressing it toggles normal, 5x, and 10x modes. I never knew this.... sweet, and very fast!
More experimenting and I found that nearly ALL the visible settings on the touch screen can be touched to activate them, then you can dial the front dial to change them. So in manual mode you can actually set shutter, aperture, and ISO pretty quickly. This was all new to me, not being much of a touch screen user --- but I found it easy and intuitive.
The top 'mode' dial only has 3 settings: intelligent auto, normal stills 'shooting' mode, and video mode. I quickly came to like this simplicity --- the M6ii dial has so much on it that it actually takes a bit of searching and fumbling to quickly change between, say Manual and Video (so you can shoot 4k). So much so that I've missed shots with the M6ii when I've needed to switch between 'M' exposure stills and 4k video rapidly.
You access all the exposure modes like Av, Tv, M, P, and all the SCN portrait modes by touching the 'mode icon' in the upper left of the screen from the 'standard' stills setting, then choose the one you want. This is also quick and intuitive.
Although I love the M6ii's C1 and C2 modes, I knew I wasn't going to get them.... but already I found the simplicity of the M200 not to obtrusive, and perhaps even to be an advantage in some ways. It doesn't really feel like an entry-level camera to me, since I know that it has much of what the M50ii and M6ii has.
I owned the M50ii for a couple months, and did like it --- but it was quite similar to the M6ii in operation --- except it wasn't! Being so similar, the slight differences would throw me when using the M50ii in mixed shooting with the m6ii. The biggest issue being the 'dial' at the rear wasn't a dial but was 4 buttons.... I use the dial a LOT on the M6ii when looking through the EVF.
Since the m200 forces me to use the screen to change settings, I'm not trying to use the rear 'dial' and so this camera is 'different enough' from the M6ii so that I find I'm not confusing the control sets of both cameras in mixed use. Does that make sense?
In fact I've discovered that it's so easy to change things from the touch screen instead of the menus that this experience will probably change the way I use the M6ii...
The images I'm getting out of the M200 are great --- identical to the images I was getting from the M50ii. I can't say anything for the AF system, I haven't really done any testing on it, but in the shooting I've done so far I haven't had any AF issues.
