EF-M 22 F2: Still Crazy (fun) after all these years

The little 22mm pancake was the first EF-M lens I got, along with the 18-55, in a bundle with my original M in 2013, and it's been my most used lens over the years, on my M, M6, and M6II. It's small, light, pretty fast, and sharp. It's surpassed in optical quality by my EF-M 32 F1.4, and my Sigma EF-M mount 56 F1.4. But the 22 is still the most fun to use, because of it's tiny size. The combination of M6II and 22 pancake is so small and unobtrusive that you can take it pretty much anywhere, and take lots of images while barely being noticed. I was at a reception to welcome new philosophy graduate students to our department a couple of days ago, and took my M6II with 22 to get some casual shots. No heavy camera bag with large fancy lenses required.

Shooting with the screen tilted up (or down with the camera over my head) and using e-shutter works really well with this combination.

Nice use of mono.

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The 22mm on the original M is what sucked me into the system during the great M firesale. Easily my favorite lens in the M system and reason to own an M.

RLight wrote:

Nice use of mono.

Yup.

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The 22mm on the original M is what sucked me into the system during the great M firesale. Easily my favorite lens in the M system and reason to own an M.

Must be a lot of us in the same boat. Pocketable APS-C sensor with a lovely little fairly fast 35mm full frame equivalent lens? It was a no-brainer then, and it's still something very special.

I agree!

Possibly a more 'fun' combo is the EF-M 22mm on a tiny cute white M200 body! It almost gets lost in your pocket but the images are spectacular!

I had this M200 converted to full-spectrum (removing the sensor's IR//AA filters). I was up before sunrise walking on Cocoa Beach with this combo. I braced it on top of a trash barrel on the beach and shot this picture with no filters of Orion rising over the Atlantic Ocean at morning twilight:

Full-spectrum M200, EF-M 22mm f2, no filters, f2, 13s, ISO 200

Yup, it’s so nice to shoot unencumbered.  The IQ is certainly sufficient for a goodly number of uses.  Nice shooting!

R2

Larry Rexley wrote:

I had this M200 converted to full-spectrum (removing the sensor's IR//AA filters). I was up before sunrise walking on Cocoa Beach with this combo. I braced it on top of a trash barrel on the beach and shot this picture with no filters of Orion rising over the Atlantic Ocean at morning twilight:

Full-spectrum M200, EF-M 22mm f2, no filters, f2, 13s, ISO 200

Very nice! I’m glad Betelgeuse is still hanging in there! Although it would be super-cool if it went supernova in our lifetime!!

R2

Rock and Rollei wrote:

RLight wrote:

Nice use of mono.

Yup.

.

The 22mm on the original M is what sucked me into the system during the great M firesale. Easily my favorite lens in the M system and reason to own an M.

Must be a lot of us in the same boat. Pocketable APS-C sensor with a lovely little fairly fast 35mm full frame equivalent lens? It was a no-brainer then, and it's still something very special.

Non EF-M people don't really know what they are missing out on, especially now when they are realizing that EOS R isn't the solution.

Can the 22mm resolve the high MP sensor in the M6II?

I must sadly admit I decided it's time to sell my M gear. I wanted to get the most for it while the value is still pretty high. I have a Nikon Z6 on the way. Anyway, the reason I bring it up in this thread is that I'm tempted to keep my 22mm f/2, just in case at some point in the future I decide to pick up a cheap used M200 or something for a pocketable solution. It's such a nice tiny setup and way cheaper than other similar ones (e.g. Fuji X100V or X-E4, Ricoh GRIII).

Photography Raptor wrote:

Can the 22mm resolve the high MP sensor in the M6II?

Yes, all of the EF-M lenses do across most of the frame.  Saying that 'many lenses' can't resolve on the M6ii sensor is Youtube hype. Even the EF-S lenses perform better on the 32.5 MP sensor even though they may be slightly less sharp than the EF-M lenses.

A 32.5 MP APSC sensor is only about a 16% magnification horizontally and vertically over 24 MP, which although it is 'something' and does give you a better ability to crop in a little more, is not a huge leap in resolution.

Photography Raptor wrote:

Can the 22mm resolve the high MP sensor in the M6II?

That's not really the way resolution works - system resolution is the product of lens resolution and sensor resolution, so EVERY lens performs better on the M6 II than on a 24MP sensor. But obviously the best lenses make the most gains...
And yes, the 22 does absolutely fine. All the EF-M lenses are pretty good on it except the 18-55 IMHO.

Noce photos, Alastair.  I, too, use the 22mm lens more than any other.

Randy

My Canon EOS M2 + EF M 22 stays always with me. I believe it's the smallest M-kit ever.

Fresia (at my backyard)

Camelia (at my backyard)

Old "almacen"  (general store)  at  San Antonio de Areco

Typical view of the Pampa

Swedish Club in Buenos Aires

Nala (OOC JPG - ISO 3200)

Tulips at the Japanese Garden in Buenos Aires

+1

Still crazy. I use it almost daily.