As the last major camera manufacturer to take a stab at designing a compact interchangeable lens camera, Canon had plenty of time to see what others had done right and wrong and to avoid pitfalls in design. Unfortunately, the EOS M ($799.99 direct with 22mm lens) suffers from some of the same performance issues that plagued the first generation of mirrorless cameras. Despite delivering excellent images, autofocus is slow, there's no built-in flash, and you get a very limited lens selection. It's priced like our current Editors' Choice, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5, but doesn't deliver nearly the performance.
Design and Features
The EOS M is available in two kits. The standard kit (reviewed here) ships with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens, which is the equivalent of a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera. The second kit, priced at $849.99, ships with the EF-M 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS STM, which delivers the same 29-88mm field of view captured by standard Canon D-SLR kit zooms.
The EOS M's body is impressively small when you consider that it packs the same 18-megapixel image sensor as the Canon EOS Rebel T4i. It measures just 2.6 by 4.3 by 1.3 inches (HWD), but is a bit heavy for its size at 10.5 ounces. If you pair it with the 22mm prime lens you can slide the camera into your pocket, but you won't be able to do that if you opt for the zoom. The Sony Alpha NEX-6 is a bit bigger at 2.75 by 4.75 by 1.7 inches, but it ships with a collapsible power zoom lens that doesn't add any more depth to the camera than Canon's 22mm prime. Panasonic has a similar collapsible lens, the Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH., for Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Despite delivering images that are on par with SLRs for quality, and being part of the EOS family, the M is more like a PowerShot point-and-shoot in terms of physical control. The traditional mode dial has been replaced with a toggle switch surrounding the shutter release. It only has three settings?Scene Intelligent Auto, Still Photo, and Movie. The first setting puts all of the control into the hands of the EOS M, while the second gives you access to traditional Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, and Scene modes. These must be selected via the touch-screen interface. Even though there's a dedicated Record button on the rear, you'll need to be in Movie mode to record video.
Rear controls are sparse. There's a control wheel with integrated four-way control and a center button. From here you'll be able to set Auto Exposure Lock, adjust the Drive Mode, change Exposure Compensation, and delete a photo. The center button activates the Q menu, which you'll have to use to adjust any other settings via the touch screen. This menu was first seen on the Canon T4i, and works well here. It gives you touch access to change the autofocus settings, file capture format, white balance, JPG output settings, and the metering mode.
The 1,040k-dot 3-inch rear display is very sharp. The touch input is also quite good; you can swipe to scroll through photos during playback, and pinch to zoom in on a shot during review. You can also tap an area of the screen to move the flexible autofocus square, and if you enable it, a tap on the screen can focus and fire the camera's shutter.
There's no built-in EVF like on the Sony NEX-6 or Panasonic G5; nor is there a way to add one. Many other compact interchangeable lens cameras, including the small Olympus PEN Mini E-PM2 feature an expansion port that can accommodate an add-on EVF. The EOS M does have a standard hot shoe, which is a good thing, as the camera doesn?t have a flash. If you want to add one, the most size-appropriate option from Canon is the compact Speedlite 90EX. It's good for its size, but adds $150 to the cost of the camera. I got the best results with it in Scene Intelligent Auto mode. Photos shot in this mode were well balanced and didn't have the overblown look that you can get from similar small flashes, even when shooting at close range. Shooting in Program and Aperture Priority mode produced images with a harsh look, and ones that were completely blown out white when firing close to the subject. None of the Olympus PEN cameras include a built-in flash, but they all ship with a unit that slides into the accessory port.
Only two lenses are available now, but Canon does market an adapter that allows you to use its EF-S and EF D-SLR lenses. The Mount Adapter EF-EOS M delivers full aperture and focus control when you use it to marry Canon SLR lenses to the EOS M's small body. If you're using adapted lenses that don't have an STM motor you'll end up with slow, choppy focusing. I tested the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens using the adapter and it took about 1.9 seconds to focus and fire a shot. Video focus performance was choppy and noisy. The same lens only required 0.2-second to focus and fire when paired with the Canon EOS 6D.
There are also third party adapters on the market that allow you to use practically any vintage SLR or rangefinder lens with the camera?you'll just have to adjust aperture and focus manually. If you are a Canon SLR shooter and the idea of using your current lenses on a smaller body is appealing, you do have another option. Lens adapter manufacturer Metabones offers up a similar adapter that lets you use EF and EF-S lenses on Sony NEX cameras, but at $400, it's twice the price of the native Canon adapter and it doesn't support autofocus for every available lens.
(Next page: Performance and Conclusions)
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