30Sep Canon EOS-M – first impressions
I think the Canon EOS-M might be my new recommendation for filmmakers on a tight budget. I used to recommend the Canon t2i, but the price of the EOS-M makes it very attractive. You get a much smaller form factor, more lens options thanks to the flange distance, and you no longer have to deal with a 12 minute recording limit which makes it great for events and interviews. Basically it’s a camera with improved features over the t2i that sells for around $100 less.
If you want to use this for photography the EOS-M will be a big disappointment when shooting subjects that move at anything faster than a walk. The auto focus speeds are horribly slow on this camera and you’d be better served with the Canon t2i. However for video, this camera has pretty much everything you’ll need to get you started.
I picked up the EOS-M with the kit 18-55mm lens for just over $300. The kit lens isn’t anything amazing and f3.5-5.6 is about what you’d get out of a consumer handy cam. There aren’t really any controls on the lens and it requires some menu browsing in order to enable/disable IS. In the limited testing i’ve done so far, the IS does seem to make a difference and if you set the aperture to f5.6 you won’t have to deal with any image darkening as you zoom in and out. For the price of the lens, it’s worth having around, but you could always sell it for $140 and get something more useful if it doesn’t fit your needs
When you set the Canon t2i and EOS-M side by side, it’s a little easier to see how small the EOS-M actually is. The back of the camera is almost all screen and that screen looks nice. The t2i’s slightly smaller display isn’t bad, but the upgraded screen on the EOS-M does make a difference.
I always disliked the idea of using a touch screen, but after playing around with the EOS-M I’ve warmed up to the idea. Touch screen operation is fast and snappy and most commonly used functions like ISO, F-stop, and shutter speed can be assigned to buttons if needed which allows you to avoid the touch screen all together. Navigation is a lot better than I originally expected and menus are easy to use with the scroll wheel or touch screen.
One thing that made the t2i so popular was Magic Lantern. There is an alpha of Magic Lantern available for the Canon EOS-M and you can find the latest builds here. Just remember you’ll need to download a copy of Magic lantern 2.3 as well as the latest alpha build and put everything in the same folder on your memory card in order to get ML working on the EOS-M. You’ll also need to prep your memory card in the same manner as any other Magic Lantern install.
Once you have ML installed you can access the menu by touching the screen with 2 fingers. This brings up the basic ML menu system which has been touch enabled for the EOS-M. You’ll also notice “Headphone Mon.” displayed on my screen. I haven’t had a chance to test this yet, but it appears headphone monitoring might actually be working on the EOS-M. I’ll let you know what I find out once I find my adapter cable.
On screen audio level meters seem to work fine when recording but don’t seem to register when recording has stopped, focus peaking works well, as does most of the advanced photography controls like the built in intervalometer. The touch screen implementation ML isn’t as polished as Canon’s menu system but everything is still very usable.
You can pick up a generic EF to EF-M adapter on Amazon for around $60. This allows you to get the same functionality out of any EF lens as you would out of any other crop sensor body. Above I’ve attached the Sigma 30mm f1.4 with the EF to EF-M adapter. The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a fairly small lens on a normal body, but it looks like a giant when attached to the EOS-M. The camera body is much smaller than I expected and takes up very little space. This could make it ideal as a backup or second camera for filmmakers.
I have an FD to EF-M adapter on it’s way and I’ll be posting some low price lens recommendations once I’ve had a chance to test a few FD lenses out. There are a lot of very affordable FD lenses on the market that could be great when combined with the EOS-M body.
So far I’ve been using the Canon 85mm f1.8 and Sigma 30mm f1.4
and both have performed nicely with the EOS-M adapter. Focus speeds in live view mode are actually slightly faster on the EOS-M than live view mode on the t2i. Often it’s easier to focus a shot using a half press of the shutter before you press recorder, if you use this method for quick focus checks the EOS-M actually does a decent job. I’ll post some more info once I’ve had a chance to spend some more time with the EOS-M.
September 30th, 2013 at 10:04 pm
I’ve got this one in my bag , and it help me a lot … it’s certainly not the perfect one but…
It’s a fucking awesome little thing , works really well with L serie….
when you can shoot something you can’t with a 5D due to bags and stuff you can’t find in your bags, the M is in your jacket pocket….
not a perfect thing but a 7D APSc you can take in half a sec…
I like it and even more with ML….
September 30th, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Looks like all audio functions doesn’t work yet on 650D/EOSM. Both cameras uses a new audio chipset – work is in progress (by info from forum)
October 1st, 2013 at 6:13 am
Sounds good Deejay!
Looking forward to more info on this – keep up the awesome work!
October 1st, 2013 at 3:25 pm
What do you mean you no longer have to deal with the 12 minute recording limit? Are you referring to magic lantern’s auto restart function?
October 1st, 2013 at 4:15 pm
The EOS M records for 30 minutes before stopping on the stock firmware. It splits it into multiple seamless files.
Magic lantern does have the auto restart function, but you lose some frames when it restarts, while the EOS M does not lose frames until 30 min.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Dan’s correct.
October 2nd, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Nice, this little camera just peaked my interest! lol
October 3rd, 2013 at 12:20 am
Does the HDMI out resolution drop down to 640×480 when recording, like on the 5D2 and T3i, or does it stay at 1920×1080 like the 7D and T4i?
I hope someone here can help me answer this question because I’ve looked everywhere. I assume it works like the T4i but I have found no confirmation of this.
October 10th, 2013 at 6:23 am
How is the AF in Video mode? is it a good replacement for a Video cam?
October 10th, 2013 at 7:23 am
Setting a single focus point is reasonably fast in video mode, however full time autofocus in video mode isn’t great and with a none STM, it can be pretty noisy, even the USM lenses in full time auto will do strange things to microphones. The USM lenses still make a lot of noise its just above the frequencies a human ear can actually hear.
October 18th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
just got one of these but it came set up for PAL, so now i really need magic lantern, what exactly do i have to download to get this thing working?
October 19th, 2013 at 3:51 am
Mine showed up set to pal as well. If you go through the menu system there is a pal/ntsc setting that will get things working for you with no magic lantern required.
October 18th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
I’ve had my eye on this camera, and the price drops have been significant, but I think I’d rather put the $300 toward a 70D.
October 19th, 2013 at 3:52 am
Body only you can pick up 4 eos-m’s for the price of a 70d body and there isn’t much difference in image quality for video.
November 26th, 2013 at 7:52 am
[…] easily keeps up with any of Canon’s current APS-C offerings. You can find out more about the EOS-M here. If you’re on a very tight budget, you could easily pick up the Canon EOS-M body with […]
June 1st, 2014 at 11:30 am
So i’m thinking on buying this with the 22mm kit lens. What another lens should i bought for autofocus purposes? I will be using my manual pentax K lens for this as well.
June 1st, 2014 at 12:14 pm
Kind of depends on your budget.
June 1st, 2014 at 12:44 pm
I love my EOS-M and 22/2 lens, I can almost take it anywhere and get good photos! I also use a 50 Nikkor pancake lens and a manual 200mm, the M isn’t very good for serious sports though. I’m thinking of one of the STM zooms too, although the M’s video AF isn’t as good as the 70D, with an STM I could get continuous AF on the EOS-M which is great for crane or autonomous shooting.
June 4th, 2014 at 7:57 am
DeeJay,
I am looking to purchase a second camera for background, B roll, or behind the scenes – making of videos. Something thats going to give me great video, but not cost me and arm and a leg.
I have been looking at two cameras the Canon EOS-M (i know its discontinued, but is this still a good buy) and the Sony Nex 6 or 7. What are your recommendations? Are there any other cameras out there you might suggest?