The new Canon EOS M50 mirrorless camera comes at a good time for Canon, as the mirrorless lens format has once again started to become popular in our region, so a new EOS M series mirrorless camera should be quite attractive to consumers who intend to pick up digital photography for the first time.
Now this isn’t exactly evident when you pick up the M50 for the first time. In the hand it feels like a solid bit of kit, with a minimum of physical controls and looking quite like a slightly smaller EOS M5 or, more likely an EOS M100 with the addition of an electronic viewfinder.
Its when you turn on the M50 and go through the camera’s menu selection that you realise that the camera is targeted at users who are new to digital cameras, because the camera’s user interface has been significantly revamped to be bright, clear and instructional – with pop up descriptions for every mode and option.
While the M50 is just about the right size to be held in one hand without any fuss, the control layout feels a little crowded in my right hand, with my palm covering the navigation keys next to the screen and my thumb actually resting over the mode dial. As the camera’s lens is a manual zoom the proper left hand cradle position works best and allows you to use the touchscreen to tap to focus and shoot. Impressively, the EOS M50 captures excellent images from its 24 megapixel APS-C sensor, with rich colour that seems a touch brighter than nature, in particular yellow, and the camera’s auto ISO setting is in particular excellent. Thanks to the Dual Pixel AF, focusing is almost instantaneous, although there’s a slight processor lag after each shot, which I found slightly puzzling as the M50 is the first Canon camera using the DIGIC 8 processor. Perhaps the slight lag was due to the memory buffer.
One of the main attractions of the EOS M50 is that it’s the first of Canon’s mirrorless cameras to offer 4K recording, and while I found it to be decent, it wasn’t exceptional when compared to 4K equipped smartphones and entry level cameras.
Verdict
Rating: 4.5/5
S$1,469 (kit with EF-M15-45 IS STM & EF-M55-200 IS STM)
As a Canon camera user for many years I found the EOS M50 to be a slightly below my expectations, but as I said, the M50 was created for brand new camera users rather than an old hand. In this regard, the simple controls should be easy to master and the camera produces quite brilliant images.
