What do you plan to do with you M gear?

Feigerou wrote:

After about a week of this poll being out there and getting some (ok, a lot) of conversation, here's how I'd recap things. It's very clear that there's two different kinds of M users and the approach to "what to do now" is very different between the two -

1. For a little more than half of the users (57 of 105), the M is their "small" system that goes along with at least one other system - typically a larger one but not always. People here overwhelmingly said they would just keep their current M gear - 51 of the 57! That makes sense to me, because their other system is typically higher end and so they can take that out whenever they need better results in one way or another.
2. The other half of users (48 of 105) only have the M system for their photography needs. For them they're pretty evenly split between sticking with M because it meets their needs (23 of 48), or moving to another system to be able to keep it current, get future updates, etc... (25 of 48)

I wish I could say that I was in the #1 camp, but alas I'm in the #2 camp where the "right answer" for me isn't nearly as clear. I'm certainly looking into moving to another system more than before - either Fuji or full frame R.

I'd like to say "let's see where this goes" over the next 1-2 years and then decide, but I think the thing pushing me to figure this out sooner is actually the availability of new and refurbed M6ii's. Basically, if I'm just going to ride out my M gear for the foreseeable future, I'd want to grab one of those while they're available. But that's also the last thing I'd do if I'm really just going to switch systems.

So.... when is Canon going to make this easy for us and just lay out a roadmap for APS-C?! Sigh....

Thanks for summarizing the results and putting in your 2 cents.

I see you already have an M5 and what many have found to be the 'best' sharpest EF-M lenses: The EF-M 11-22, 22 f2, 32 f1.4, and Siggy 16 and 56 f1.4 lenses. This already represents the lion's share of an 'investment' into a comprehensive system. All of those lenses are super sharp and can resolve beyond the M5's 24 MP, to the 32 MP of an M6ii or R7.

I used to own an M6 so am quite familiar with the M5's 'generation' of functionality. I quickly stepped up to the M6ii and was blown away by the added functionality and flexibility. I believe you'd be blown away too. The AF and low light performance of the m6ii are WAY better than the M5/M6.

I'm not telling you what to do (maybe 'encouraging? ) but you may consider getting an M6ii refurb to try out, and you'd have a pretty amazing system with an M5 backup body. After a month or two of use, at the very worst you could still resell on eBay and recoup most if not all of your investment.

Having used the M6, and thinking about the difference between the M5/M6, M6ii with EVF and the R7 --- I think the M6ii gets you 'very close' to the R7 at a much lower price. With an M6ii you'd get close to, if not identical, IQ as the R7 with 'similar' quality lenses. The problem is that on the R system you'd spend a small fortune on glass and still wouldn't get the equivalent of a 32mm f1.4 or 11-22. Not to mention your system would be larger and heavier.

If you simply don't like or want a removable EVF or the 'tilting' screen of the M6ii, want the very best 4k video, and don't mind the extra size, weight, and price and want future-proof-ness of the R system, that would tilt the scales in the R7's favor. The M6ii's autofocus and low light AF ability might not be as good as the R7, but I can tell you it's way better than the M5/M6 generation, and might be good enough for you.

The cases that you really would want an R7 for its better AF are probably sports shooting situations or something like birds in flight shooting with fast telephoto lenses, rapid tracking situations where the M6ii still struggles with, that the new generation of R cameras clearly do better. I don't see any telephotos in your gear list, so perhaps these types of shots are not your priority. For most other types of shooting the M6ii's AF is already great. If you shoot static subjects or normal-to-wide lenses most of the time, the M6ii will nail focus pretty much every time even in tracking mode.

Do you have much of a need to shoot telephoto? If so, the EF-m 55-200 would make a nice complement to your existing lenses. Although not 'quite' prime sharp --- it's not far off (definitely better than the EF-M 18-150), and would give you that extra reach while keeping your lenses small (except for the Siggy 16!). Here's a post with my examples:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66243584