Canon EOS M hands-on preview

Got one with EF adapter for $250. As a back-up still image body, or as a B cam for film, or even an A cam, it's great for what it does. Same T4i sensor. You really can't go wrong picking one up now that the price is down. A very underrated and underappreciated machine. Built like a tank too. Strange and unusual yes, but it works! :)

I have been using my Eos M for about 6 months now, picking it up on sale for $350 with the kit 18-55. I quickly added in the Eos M EF mount adapter, picked it up off Ebay for $50, then a 70-300 4-5.6 and the 50 1.8. This is my MAIN camera at the moment and it's amazing, I have been using cell-phone cameras for the past many many years but the Eos M is so compact and has been a nice entry into the world of SLR's.

After 6 months of us I'm feeling limited by it's lack of view finder and slow focus speeds; even with update. Magic Latern helps enhance features but has been buggy with continuous shooting. Action shots are do able in manual, maybe not good for low light sports.

SAMPLE PHOTOS HERE WITH LENSES LISTED ABOVE --> http://imgur.com/a/vSlRY

I bought one, in a bundle, which included the 22mm lens, EF Adaptor, Flashgun and then bought a second one with the 18-55mm lens at a stupidly low give away price.
This little camera is BRILLIANT!
No, you cannot use it for action shots, but for general tourist photography, it gives you wonderful sharp pictures, which make me grin ear to ear, when the finished image appears on my Lightroom 5.
With the 22mm lens, it makes for a wonderfully small combination, to slip into my bicycle saddle bag for when I am out on one of my weekend rides.
Ignore the negative reviews and get one while you still can.
Thoroughly recommended
Oh, and if you can get one at a reasonable price, DO buy the 11-22mm lens as it is a phenomenal bit of glass!

What a bizarre offering this turned out to be. I was really holding out hope for something with even a modicum of inspiration behind it. And then they have the temerity to ridiculously overprice the damnable thing. Dear me.

Oh well, there’s always next time.

I know it wont happen, yet I'll try once again: An in depth review?

OK - I know this is an old review for a much disliked camera (almost always by people who have never tried one) - just reviewing images taken at a wedding during the week with an EOS-M and an Olympus pen 5 - NO CONTEST - the CANON images just POP with colour and life - yes the Pen has fast AF (much faster) but the final images from the little M are brilliant. Come on Canon get serious and support the M series as you know you should.

PS - met with a guy from Panasonic earlier today about the GH4 (most interesting) - he quoted that Canon have over 20 % and are increasing market share - Pan have 17 % and Nikon also have 17 % of the total DSLR/Mirrorless market at the £700 price point (UK) trouble ahead for Nikon me thinks….

Is this a good for a beginner who want's to try exposure photography?

Too late anyway. Hope M3 will make it to the final review :-)

Preview since 2012............

I like very much EOS-M after firmware update. IQ is very good, AF speed is not the best, but like many bulky DSLR. They have very promised project.

An excellent camera once the latest firmware is downloaded which gives an entirely acceptable auto focus speed which was previously too slow. This camera seems to be victim of the one issue Canon baiters, most of whom just repeat the received image from its initial reviews. The image quality is excellent, and the ability to use the full range of Canon lenses on a compact body is wonderful if you have a collection of lenses. The build quality is very good and exceeds my Canon 700 dslr handsomely.We have even used it for astro photography where it is also good, its native prime lens being excellent. The camera was bought for my wife who likes dslr image quality but not the size, encumbrence and anoraklike image that goes with them. All in all, a well made camera that is excellent for all normal purposes and has a great appeal for Canon lens owners. I would reccomend it any day.

There seems to be an error on the part of DP Review or mine in regard to the touch control for focus and shutter. Here's what DP Review says: "There are four touch buttons at the corners of the screen, allowing you to change exposure mode, call-up the onscreen Q menu, enable/disable touch focus and touch shutter, and magnify the display."

The segment that says "enable/disable touch focus and touch shutter" might be inaccurate. The button does, in fact, turn the touch shutter off and on, but I don't think there is any way to disable touch focus.

I would love to be wrong, as I really want to be able to put the camera on center-point focus (like any other DSLR) and not worry about it shifting on me when I accidentally touch the screen in the wrong place.

I love the touch focus as a feature, but not as a mandatory feature. I've always used center-point focus and want that option. I don't think it exists on the EOS-M.

Is there EVER going to be a full review? There are some potentially VERY attractive close-out bundle deals, but I'm reluctant to purchase without a full review from DPReview.

And my speculation is there may be some terrific bargains near Thanksgiving for Black Friday. But I really don't want to be as ignorant as I am now when considering such a bundle purchase.

I finally cracked and decided that Thom Hogan is right - leave the 22mm lens in place and you have a very pocketable camera which can certainly rival the Nikon A, Ricoh GR nd other luxury single fl cameras at a bargain basement price. My initial analysis is that IQ is very good and AF is a little slow. Anyway, my point is don't dismiss this camera out-of-hand ...... actually its pretty good.

In case some don't know this, dpreview never upset Canon. They will never review one of their products they can't say nice things about and if a review is missing you can take it that in their opinion, the camera is lousy. Anyway, you will never see a review of this camera because they always bottle it when it comes to the crunch. Maybe they have to, but it sure does stink a bit

I bought one yesterday and I absolutely love it for still photography. For moving subjects, it's not the right camera; other than that i am so far very satisfied with this purchase. I also ordered the adapter so that i can attach my glasses to it, hopefully i won't be disappointed. I did experience once in a while the AF issue and it did not really bother me that much (latest fw is 2.02). It seems like the quality of the pictures are as good as a 7D, for sure they are much better than my old T2i. I'm also wondering how this camera could turn out in macro-photography with the 100 mm lens.

I bought an EOS-M at the discounted price about 3 weeks ago.

It's a superb little camera. I read all the comments about autofocus speed, but it's not an issue for me. It might be a tad slower on the spec sheets than other cameras, I know not, but in real world use it's fine. No signs of it having to hunt significantly more often than any other autofocus I've owned (rather too many...). It happily locked on to the Red Arrows screaming over my house at a few hundred feet, which is a reasonable challenge. (I'd updated the firmware by then, but it was OK before)

Not having a viewfinder has always been a deal breaker for me, because of screen visibility. Not an issue. It's entirely usable with unshaded sunlight falling directly on the screen.

I'm amazed at how easy it is to grip and hold steady - with big hands I usually struggle with small cameras.

I envisage my DSLRs staying home more often. I think I may finally have found my ideal walk round camera... Absolutely delighted!

It's funny to look back at the older comments. As I write this, Canon is blowing out the EOS M at $300 with lens. Why? Because they made some horrible "fail"? Because they are embarrassed and humiliated? Ah...no. Because they are a really big camera company and they can afford to unload the first model, if that's what it takes to build a consumer base eager to get more lenses and better bodies. How successful is this strategy? Right now, the slow focusing, viewfinder-less EOS M is the #1 selling camera on Amazon.

I bought one to use as a doorstop but it's turning out to be sort of fun with the finger squeezing thing on the LCD. If I keep it, I'll get the wide angle zoom and Canon will make their money back.

Despite all the griping, its CHEAP! 300 bucks and it is comparable to the Ricoh GR and the other $800+ APC-S prime lens cameras out there. Very compact, same sensor pretty much, same IQ, and good 2.0 aperature.

Sure it might have slower autofocus or whatever, but heck... for 1/3rd the price?

Just got discounted to $300 with 22mm lens in most online stores.

The "preview" was issued a year ago. The camera is already discounted by some stores as somewhat old model. Any chance to see a real review of the only mirror-less camera by Canon? Otherwise it seems like one terrible camera, even dpreview refused to test it :(

I updated my EOS M firmware and am quite pleased with the results.

In bright light the autofocus speed has improved when using single point focus and the 22mm f2 lens. Rather zippy, in fact. In poor light there is quite a notable improvement in autofocus speed and almost no "hunting".

As I said in an earlier post here, "I do like this camera. Don't write it off."

I can't believe there is no full review of the Canon EOS-M or any report of the newly released firmware update 2.0.2 in DPREVIEW. The faster autofocus, a newly released wide angle stabilized zoom combined with a greatly reduced price make this camera an attactive alternative to competitors.

Was interested in this camera, as a walkabout camera, as soon as it came out but was put off by the negative reviews on the AF speed and the price. However the latter having dropped by almost 1/2 I bought one online in order to be able to return it if I was not happy with it. That was just over 1 month ago and I have decided to keep it.
The AF performance with the kit zoom is much better than what I feared. In the large majority of cases, the AF has locked on by the time I have composed the picture, ~ 1 sec. Only very occasionally the AF is unable to lock.
I am a Canon user (5d mkII) and the ability to put on some EF primes (50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, etc) is a real bonus.
Another great thing is the fact that the flash unit supplied has a transmitter to set off other Speedlites.
I like the design and the handling as well as the touchscreen are great. It would be nice to be able to attach a OVF to it, but other than this I highly recommend this camera.

Just tested this in the shop and was totally geeked out by the touch screen..."touch and shoot". I thought it was actually relatively fast considering I touched the screen and it focused on the subject there and took the picture all at the same time. Very cool.

I just Got this camera yesterday and I feel like all the negative reviews of this camera are ridiculous. Claims of slow start up time and shutter lag are false. Either these are blatant lies or are based on earlier firmware. I would not put this camera in the fastest category but it is fast enough for any normal human.

I also have a Sony NEX 7, which is no faster starting up and only marginally faster focusing.
The build quality is amazing. It feels like it was made from a solid piece of granite.

Amazing image quality and versatility (especially for Canon users)
All in a beautiful simple design with subtle curves that are hard to appreciate from pictures. Hold one in your hand and you begin to appreciate the design.

I will admit that the focusing is not the fastest but so what.

If you have to have the fastest focusing speed possibly you probably do not care about composition or light and have no business being behind a real camera anyway.

I just bought one with the 22 pancake (and another with the 18-55 as a gift). Got a very attractive price for a gray market.

My primary body is a 7D (actually a pair of 'em). But I think I'm going to like this little puppy for going walkabout. Yes, I prefer to compose through a viewfinder, and no, this doesn't have one. But the size -- with the 22 f/2, it's lighter and much smaller than my SX-1 (which EVF I really don't care for, anyway) -- is extremely attractive for going places where I don't want to take a heavier load and/or don't want to draw attention to myself. And of course, it can AF during video, which the 7D can't. I've ordered a third party adapter to use my other lenses with, but I suspect a lot of the time I'll just stick with the 22. I look at it as a classic rangefinder with a 35 f/3.2.

The AF takes some getting used to, but my sense is that it's not too bad as long as I don't try to go beyond its capabilities.

I have to say that it is a bit tiring to read all of the negativity about this camera in these forums. It may not be perfect, but show me a camera that is.

I've had mine for over a month now and am very happy with it. It is a great camera to accompany me on my adventures. It is more compact than a DSLR, and also many of the other mirrorless cameras. It fits great into my backpack when I go hiking, climbing or kayaking. I haven't been inconvenienced at all by the supposedly slow autofocus. I've taken great scenery and low light photos with it. I will be heading out this weekend to photograph comet Pan-STARRS.

a "me too" product to put them in the mirrorless category, because appearances are everything - "look, we have mirrorless too, but..." (says the salesman)

yet handicapped so there isn't a chance of putting even a dent in their mirror business... or even in the mirrorless competition. even the design screams of amateurism - in contrast to a Rebel that at least looks like a serious camera.

bland vanilla

I sure am a fan of this camera. Been using it for a while now to document my skate- and snowboarding. Before I used a 600d but this size is more relevant for me. You could get footage like:

http://www.tacky.nl/surf/video/?id=251891

or

http://www.tacky.nl/skateboard/video/?id=251914

I like it!

I purchased one (with fixed 35mm eq) to replace my Nikon D80 / 17-55 2.8; too much to carry about.

First got a Fuji XF1, not happy with images, returned it. Then wanted to get an X100. Played with the EOSM and chose it over the X100.

Image quality is excellent.

I do like the touch screen. Odd, as I am a viewfinder / button / dial freak.

It does not draw attention to itself. It just looks like a slightly bulky compact camera.

Oh yes, the autofocus is not great, but nowhere near as bad as some would have you believe. Try one out in store for yourself.

I do like this camera. Don't write it off.

Gotta say - just played with my 1st EOS - M and am impressed! I'm off to Warner Studios Harry Potter Tour next week - will take a whole lotta kit.. wish I was taking an ESO-M !

This SLR is of no use in astro-photography :

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/11/canon-eos-m-no-remote-shooting/

Remote Capture is impossible with it !

That's crazy for such an expensive camera.