One of my core philosophical pillars is the belief in using older gear to do creative work. And because the OG Canon M is still one of my favorite cameras, seeing it come back to life as a cinema camera using Magic Lantern warms my heart.
FoxTailWhipz’s video series has me exploring this option with my beat-up-but-still-working EOS M. While I can’t get that fancy M-Lite rig anymore, I can invest in a few other pieces of gear to make my M a video powerhouse.
My original Canon M has been my go-to camera for 12 years. It goes almost everywhere I go: trips, family events, walks around the neighborhood. Its small size and stellar image quality, paired with the EF-M 22mm f/2, made it my everyday gear for more than a decade.
Right before the holidays, though, it started to show its age. In a few cases, I would go to turn it on, and it took a few extra seconds to wheeze into operation. When it did limp to life, it glitched or randomly powered off.
I don’t blame it! It’s worked very hard for a long time, taking tons of abuse at birthday parties and Lake Michigan beaches. It has never focused or shuttered quickly. And I know there have been a few rough bumps and drops that helped shorten its lifespan.
Seeing what was coming, I started shopping for a replacement camera. Even though it’s been discontinued, I have enjoyed the Canon M series for its punch-above-its-weight quality. These cameras are well-built, solid machines that deliver excellent image quality. Even if Canon never releases another M series body or lens, I felt that my investment in the system meant I could keep using it for another decade or longer.
My first pick, the Canon M6 Mark II, seemed like a solid unit—the best of the M series and the grand finale of the line. But it is more expensive and harder to find brand new than some of the more budget-friendly models.
Twelve years ago, I grabbed the Canon M during a fire sale, and have more than gotten my value out of that kit. Similarly, this time I opted for the budget camera – good enough is good enough. My choice: the M200 kit.
Canon M on the left, M200 on the right.
The Canon M200 is aimed at beginners and bloggers. There aren’t many buttons or options, it’s not the toughest model, and you don’t have the in-the-hand control you have on a more advanced camera. But coming from the original M, the M200 felt at home in my hands.
By buying the kit lens, I also went from two lenses (22mm and 32mm) to three, with a convenient zoom lens perfect for travel. I’ve never been a big zoom lens user, but the kit price was right.
Last weekend, on a sunny, freezing February morning, I took the M200 out to a local baseball field to catch the colors and sunrise. The sparse button layout and mostly touch-screen controls were much the same as the OG M, and I mostly set my M to P mode or AV mode and auto ISO to focus on shooting. That’s what I did here, playing around with focal lengths and testing the image quality.
The M200 has a handy flip-up screen for selfies, or flipping it up 90 degrees and looking down, twin-reflex style, to focus and recompose. It’s also great if you want to record video of yourself – set it up on a tripod, flip the screen, and you can see exactly what the camera is recording.
This is a stock feature for most cameras nowadays, but it’s a nice upgrade from the M’s frustrating touchscreen limitations.
A few other quick hits:
One feature I do miss from the M is that you could hit the physical “delete” button to send the focus point back to the center on the touch screen. That was convenient. The M200 has a dedicated touch-screen button for this feature, but I miss the feel of hitting that physical button to re-center the focal point.
Another feature I miss from the M: the ridge on the front of the camera that acted like a small handhold. The M200 is almost completely flat except for a thumb groove on the back, in the upper right.
The M200 feels much lighter in hand. The M was a dense brick of a camera.
The M200 comes with a built-in, pop-out flash. This might come in handy for family photos is dark situations.
The button layout is taking some getting used to after 12 years of muscle memory. The on/off switch is now inside the top setting dial, where the M had a dedicated on/off button. More settings seem to be moved to the touchscreen, which isn’t my preference, but not unexpected on this consumer-friendly model.
This could be the zoom lens I’ve been testing out, but the colors are different. Not bad, but not what I’m used to. I’ll have to try the ol’ trusty 22mm f/2, which is not only a perfect lens, but produces perfect colors, too, especially in skin tones – the classic Canon Look™.
Other than that, I like what I like, and for my needs, the M200 was a great choice. Time will tell how long it holds up or if it reaches 12 years’ worth of use like the M. Until then, this affordable, easy-to-find mirrorless camera is all I need every day I need it.
After toying around with the mirrorless camera world, I got to appreciate the conveniences – what I call the throw-it-in-the-car effect. Mirrorless cameras like the Fuji X100 are light, small, and not prone to bang into things with a lens sticking out of the front.
Two years after purchase, I still love my Canon EOS M. I just had someone ask me about it on Flickr, and thought I’d share my review again.
It’s a great little camera as long as you accept its limitations.
After toying around with the mirrorless camera world, I got to appreciate the conveniences – what I call the throw-it-in-the-car effect. Mirrorless cameras like the Fuji X100 are light, small, and not prone to bang into things with a lens sticking out of the front.
Just $300 for a small, portable camera with a prime pancake lens and a Rebel T4i-caliber sensor. Touchscreen controls. Firmware update that speeds up the autofocus.
The only bummer? The white one was discontinued. Otherwise I would’ve (and believe me, I tried) purchased that one in a heartbeat.
As it was, with just the black model, I did think about the purchase for a few days. Did I need this camera? Would I put it to good use? Was the quality enough that I wouldn’t be frustrated with it?
No, yes, and maybe.
Camera Design
After the Canon EOS M arrived, it was pretty fun to unbox it. There’s lots of stuff that Canon packs in that box – and the minority of the material was the actual camera.
The camera itself is a solidly-built little instrument. It feels dense, but not heavy, so that it feels like a good, quality hunk of camera.
The 22mm lens is light and well-built as well, although I’m not a fan of the sound it makes as you screw it into the camera. It feels like it’s rubbing or scratching agains something it shouldn’t be.
The back screen is large and bright enough to be seen in most situations, although with screens of this type, it does get tough to see what you’re shooting in bright sunlight (more on this later).
Canon includes a thin camera strap with little metal hooks that slide into the rivets on the camera – a nice system. Putting the EOS M around my neck helped me appreciate how small and light it is.
Image Quality
Touring around with the Fuji X100, and my Canon T1i, I had weak expectations for the image quality on the EOS M.
Happily, this camera beat those low expectations handily.
Bright scenes, dark scenes, color and contrast – they’re all great, and I was shooting mainly JPGs. I found the image files flexible enough to grab the details I needed in Lightroom.
The 22mm focal length is a bit wider than I like, but it does make the M flexible for most situations: landscapes, architecture, street-type scenes, macro, even portraits. Pairing the EOS M with a quality 35mm or 40mm prime lens would be perfect for the way I shoot.
So the quality of images isn’t where this camera gets annoying. Not at all.
I felt it was a good exercise to get used to the camera, and to learn its ins and outs.
Given that, this thing was perfect as an everyday carry-around camera. I could swing it over my shoulder heading out the door, throw it in the front seat, and carry it with me wherever I went. When I did go out and shoot, it was light and small enough to not get in the way.
The pancake lens simplifies things, too. Just one focal length, with a wide enough aperture to do what I like to do. All I have to think about is taking the lens cap off.
It’s not quite iPhone camera simple, or point-and-shoot simple, but it’s more simple than choosing a lens, lugging the DSLR around, etc. My DSLR is a pro tool that gets me exactly what I see in my head. The EOS M is what I carry around with day to day that’s convenient enough to be useful.
That’s been the breakthrough for me with this camera, and the Fuji X100 before this. The portability, the convenience, and the image quality make these mirrorless cameras the equivalent of the iPad: in between the iPhone’s race car and the Mac’s utility truck lies just the right touch of Good Enough.
And, it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun to carry this thing around and just have it there, being simple, and grabbing nice images.
Camera Quirks
I’ll say that my number one issue with this camera is the random exposures it takes because of the touch shutter. In the bottom left of the screen is a Touch Shutter Enable/Disable button – but seemingly at random, it switches modes. It could be because of an accidental touch, but I get enough random exposures from the camera bumping into me that it gets annoying. Quickly.
If I could turn off that entire area of the touchscreen, I would.
Also, the 22mm lens will sometimes search endlessly for focus, especially for macro-type shots. I find that switching the camera off and on again helps, but sometimes it doesn’t and I need to take the lens off the camera.
Finally, the touch-screen buttons seem randomly and frustratingly placed. I have to stop and think about where I need to put my finger to change the white balance, say, whereas with DSLR canons my fingers can go automatically to some dial or button for instant access.
More On the Touchscreen
Yes, the touchscreen is hard to see in bright sunlight (especially if you wear sunglasses). And yes, that touch-to-take-a-phone feature is a downer for me.
Overall, the touchscreen is just a big ball of frustration. Touching to focus, so easy on an iPhone, is cumbersome on this thing. I find the focus point randomly moves around because of accidental touches, and changing settings like aperture and ISO are clunky.
And trying to focus on something below or above you, with the screen barely in view? I agree with others: make it a swivel display and you could solve a few of these problems.
Hitting the “Info” button, I’ve learned, helps to help with some of those accidental touches, since the “buttons” on the screen disappear. And pressing the delete button on the scroll wheel helps place the focus point back at center.
But trying to do all this while holding and the camera and pressing the shutter button – maybe it’s just going to take some getting use to. I find I often take too many accidental exposures fumbling with the settings and getting the camera ready to shoot.
Final Thoughts
The Canon EOS M was the first step for Canon in the mirrorless world, and with a few needed firmware updates, they’ve made their initial product a decent one – especially at $300.
I can see going fully mirrorless someday, should these cameras become as practical and fast to use as a DSLR (and if they stick around). Until then, these cameras are a lot of fun to use – and I think that counts for a lot, especially for a hobbyist like me.
Adding a nice portrait-length prime lens to the EF-M lineup would be killer, especially fast lenses in the f/2 range like the stock 22mm.
Rumors are that a new EOS M model is headed our way, so we’ll see what Canon does. I’m happy that I pulled the trigger on this first model, no matter what comes.
It’s added a new dimension to my hobby that’s been a lot of fun to explore.
