Canon EOS M: A camera worth the money

Canon EOS M
Price: Rs 49,995
Specs: 18MP CMOS sensor, 1/4000 max shutter speed, ISO 25600, 1080p 30fps, SD card

It has taken a long time coming, but Canon finally has a compact mirorless camera in its stables. The EOS M is like a Canon EOS DSLR that has been miniaturised. So inside it is still the same old Canon controls, though a lot less complex and much more simplified.

Design
The EOS M is a very compact camera, not much larger than some of Canon's IXUS models, without the lens. The 18-55mm lens is also much smaller than the DSLR version, there is a 22mm pancake lens too in case you don't need the zoom. The 3-inch touchscreen that dominates most of the camera's controls, thus simplifying life for novices. A mode dial on top lets users choose the auto, manual and video modes. The control dial to the right of the LCD does most of the other control and adjustments. There are Menu, Info and Playback buttons around this ring, as well as a record button to initiate video. But you will predominantly be using the touchscreen.

Operation
The EOS M is among the easiest cameras to use. In the manual camera mode, all you have to do is click the mode icon on top of the screen to change to Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. Swipe to the left and even the Scene settings can be accessed here. Similarly, most of the icons on the screen can be used to change those settings like the picture quality and ISO and so on. Now, that is ease-of-use in our books. Plus, while you are using the video mode, you can easily click pictures too, though in the aspect ratio of the video. Even while shooting in FullHD, you can change most of the settings on the screen.

But this camera has one serious problem, an auto-focus that has a mind of its own. We could not click some shots because the AF would not oblige. And, it wasn't even in low-light. We felt that the problem was more when using the FlexiZone-Single auto-focus that lets you select the area in the frame that you want to focus on. This is otherwise a superb feature which we have not encountered in other cameras. Even in the other modes, you can use the screen to select the subject you want to focus on, and we loved this feature. The continuous mode is superfast, though it will take a while to save the pictures if you are using a SD card under Class 6. We tested the camera with a Class 10 SanDisk Extreme SDHC card.

Results
Despite the sluggish auto-focus, the EOS M is a superb camera because it produces results that can match with any DSLR. In fact, we compared pictures clicked on an EOS 400D and the EOS M seemed to have the better colours and feel. It anyway has an 18MP CMOS sensor with a Digic 5 processor, good enough to take on most DSLRs. The low-light results are great too, even though this has a maximum ISO of 12800 at a time when other compact mirorless cameras go one point higher. Then, like other cameras of this ilk, the EOS M too shoots pictures in RAW mode. The video quality is great too, though it has a maximum of 25fps in 1080p. The auto-focus strangely seems much more faster while shooting video.

Verdict
Its sluggish auto-focus aside, this is one of the best compact mirorless cameras in the market. Coming from Canon, there is also an ease of use that comes from familiarity. Plus, you can use you old Canon lenses with this camera using an Mount adapter EF-EOS M. Certainly, a great buy for Canon fans and those looking for an advanced camera that is not as large as a DSLR.

SHOULD YOU BUY IT? Master the auto-focus and this is a camera worth the money.

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