The EOS M seems to have borrowed some of
the design DNA from Canon’s variety of PowerShot and IXUS compact cameras, with
a tidy and unfussy style. Soft and curved edges around its body are only
offended by Canon’s EOS M’s main design style, the indent carved around the
shutter button. It has allowed Canon to angle the shutter button by some
degrees to give a more comfortable position when firing the shutter.
With just less than 109mm in length and 32mm
in width, Canon has kept everything compact with the EOS M, with similar size
to Nikon’s J2. The obvious difference is that the EOS M has a bigger APS-C
sized sensor compared to J2’s 1-inch sensor. With a flange distance of only
18mm lying between the rear of the lens and sensor (compared to 44mm on an EOS
DSLR), the chip seems to be worryingly exposed to dustwhen changing lens. This
is certainly not the only problem to the EOS M since other CSCs encounter the
same problem and Canon provides an integrated cleaning system to solve this.
With
just less than 109mm in length and 32mm in width, Canon has kept everything
compact with the EOS M.
There’s also no handgrip, but the EOS M has
a small grip made by rubber at the front and a curved thumb rest at the rear to
provide a fairly firm hold. Thanks to the body panels made frm magnesium alloy,
the EOS M has a reasonable weight and feels prestigious for a camera of this
class. However, it’s worth noticing that the different colors available have
slightly different details; hands-on with the black model and the white one
showing that the white has shiny and ultra-smooth appearance, and the black has
a slightly rough matte finish that we prefer.
Around the collar of the shutter button is
the EOS M’s mode switch, with the choice of Scene Intelligent Auto, Still Mode
(this provides access to PASM controls as well as Scene modes) and a video
option.
The rear of the camera means no threat to the
first-time users. On the top is a single movie record button, and when you move
downwards, you will find the menu, playback and info controls. There is also a
four-way control button providing one-tap controls for exposure compensation,
drive mode and auto exposure lock, while the delete button acts as a fast way
to return the AF point to the center of the frame while shooting. If you want,
it can be customized to control other settings through the menu.
The EOS M seems to
have borrowed some of the design DNA from Canon’s variety of PowerShot and IXUS
compact cameras, with a tidy and unfussy style.
Performance
While some touchscreens that are available
in cameras have left much regret previously, the EOS M’s touchscreen is one of
the fastest ones that we have seen, or, the fastest, to be precise. Light
touches are all we need to get the changes, whereas you can swipe, pinch and
zoom into an image just like the way you do with your smartphone.
This responsiveness from the touchscreen
combines perfectly with the EOS M’s fine interface and a few external controls
on the body of the camera. For instance, there’s a handy Quick Menu that allows
you to change a range of main settings easily via the touchscreen or the scroll
wheel, while changing the shutter speed or aperture can be done in about the
same time.
The screen itself, with the 3:2 aspect
ratio that fits the sensor, offers an excellent viewing angle, while the
display has a great deal of clarity and contrast. Icons are big enough to allow
you to comfortably relax with your selections, instead of the absolute accuracy
that some models require because of their small icons, while the general look
of the EOS M’s interface and easy-to-follow navigation helps boost the
experience.
If there is any problem, it’s the fact that
you can’t double tap the image to view it at 100%m while the image undergoes a
slight delay before it’s rendered at full quality as you are going through your
images.
Besides it, the EOS M’s combination of fast
touchscreen and illustrative interface brings a quick and smooth user
experience that is hard to be defeated on a compact system camera.
Regarding the focusing system, this camera
is not as fast as some of its opponents when locking onto the targets. This might
be contributed to by the STM technology used in both the 18-55mm and 22mm
lenses which are designed to provide smooth transitions in focus for recording
videos, which naturally takes more time to do. Don’t misunderstand – the
focusing speed is still fast, accurate and rarely slow.
Choosing the AF area while in the FlexiZone
mode can’t be easier, with a single tap on the area of the screen where you
want to focus on and, in case you want, start the shutter at the same time. You
can also swiftly come back to focus in the central area of the frame by hitting
the delete button. When using the EOS M’s focus tracking mode, tapping the area
of the screen makes the camera lock onto that point or that subject. It works
quite well, but like many of the CSCs, it proves to be a little inferior when
it comes to catching up with an object that’s moving quite fast.
The EOS M can shoot a series of images at 4.3fps,
which when compared wtith the Sony NEX-5R’s 10fps and Samsung NX210’s 8fps
seems to be quite slow. Moreover, it can just sustain this for 11 JPEG images
or 5 Raw files before the buffer needs to be cleared and the frame rate slows
down more. It’s also slow to start up, with a delay of two or three seconds
from turning the camera on until it’s ready for you to shoot.
Video
The EOS M can record video at full HD
(1920x1080), at the choice of 30, 25 or 24fps. Video can also be recorded at 60fps
or 50fps at 720p (standard HD).
The EOS M has a pair of small stereo
microphones for recording sound, but there is also an option to attach an
optional stereo microphone through the 3.5mm socket on the side of the camera
to improve the sound quality.
Raw
vs. JPEG
If you compare Raw files with JPEG files,
the JPEG files have a better contrast and a liitle more attractive colors. At
higher ISOs, JPEG fies have a pretty good amount of ISO noise control applied,
which brings smoother images, but pays with the cost of sharpness. At these
sensitivities, Raw fiels are preferred, providing greater levels of details.
