Photography News Issue 42

Photography News | Issue 42 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 62

Canon EOSM5 Canon was a late arrival to the mirrorless party so perhaps it was no surprise that its early CSCs were off the pace compared with their rivals. But read through the M5’s long specification and it promises much; so how does it stack up against its mirrorless rivals?

Specs

Price Canon EOS M5 body only £1049; with EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM £1149; EOS 5M with EF-M 18- 150mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM £1399 Sensor 24.2 megapixels with optical low pass filter Sensor format APS-C 22.3x14.9mm CMOS, 6000x4000pixels ISO range 100-25,600, movie 100-6400 Shutter range 30secs to 1/4000sec, B, flash sync 1/200sec Drivemodes Single high continuous at 9fps with fixed AF, 7fps with AF, low continuous Metering system Evaluative, partial, centre- weighted average and spot Exposuremodes PASM, scene modes, scene intelligent auto, hybrid auto, 2c custommode, movie Dual Pixel CMOS AF, one shot and servo, face detect and tracking Focus points 49 AF points in 7x7 grid, single point AF and 1 AF 3x3 grid selectable Video 1920x1080 @ 24p, 30p and 60p, MP4 Connectivity Micro HDMI, USB 2.0, WiFi Storagemedia 1xSD card Dimensions (wxhxd) 115.6x89.2x60.6mm Weight 427g body and battery Contact Canon.co.uk Exposure compensatio n +/-3EV in 0.3EV steps, AEB Monitor 3.2in ClearView II touch screen, 1620k dots, tiltable up and down Focusing

Words and pictures by Will Cheung

While Canon didn’t rush into the mirrorless world, it was a safe bet that when it did that it would do it well and while the early Ms weren’t that outstanding, Canon made sure they had one massive advantage. This was in the form of an adapter that allowed the millions of Canon EOS owners already out there to use their existing lenses without losing functionality. It meant that launching a new system with a limited number of dedicated lenses was not toomuch of an issue because there were plenty of compatible lenses available – currently there are over 90Canon lenses compatible with the EOS M system. Of course it is not all plain sailing because the EF lenses are bigger and heavier so the benefit of having a smaller bodyform was negated significantly, but it was nevertheless a valuable advantage. And one that still applies given that the range of EOSM lenses is small and still lacks lenses with the X factor. No f/1.2 telephotos or f/1.4 ultra-wides or even any high- speed, high spec zooms. The EOS M5 is in the shops at £1049 (currently you get an EF-EOS Madapter free) so it is top of Canon’s mirrorless range, which now comprises the M10 at entry-level and the just-launchedM6 in the mid- range, and much cheaper compared with the rival flagship models. Resolution is an attractive 24.2 megapixels with an APS-C CMOS sensor fitted with an optical low pass filter and working with Canon’s DIGIC 7 image processor to give low-noise images with good dynamic range and a shooting speed of seven frames-per-second with autofocus – you get 9fps with fixed focus. This processor also features Auto Lighting Optimiser to help deal with high contrast and Diffraction correction to help you get the best results when shooting at smaller aperture values where diffraction and image softening is a potential issue. The M5’s design is friendly to keen photographers with a control

layout that is familiar and very usable. The on/off switch on the left at the base of the exposure mode dial isn’t ideal and doesmean a fractional delay in getting the camera ready to shoot; ideal being an on/off control that you can use as you bring the camera up the eye single-handed. The exposure mode dial does have a lock and to change modes the central locking button has to be pushed and held down as you do so. I must admit a preference for a dial that has the option of locking or freewheeling as seen on the latest Fujifilm and Olympus CSCs. On the right is an exposure compensation dial that is well designed to avoid accidental setting and two input dials, a front one around the shutter release and the other around the DIAL FUNC. button. I found the front input dial great to use while the rear one was slightly awkward with the raised monitor’s ridge getting in the way. The monitor is touchscreen and tiltable for low angle of above the head shooting. There is no sideways tilt option. One thing I found annoying with the monitor/EVF was when using the camera on a tripod. The monitor/EVF auto switchover sensor has a good working range and it’s very sensitive. It activates when your fingers get close and you have to wait a second or two before the live viewing image returns. You can solve this easily enough with the Display settings menu where you can turn off auto switchover or manually choose to use the EVF or the monitor. All you have to remember is to reset it to auto when you’re back off the tripod. Generally, though, I enjoyedusing the screen and found it a speedy way of navigating the menu or to set features using the Q (quick) menu. The Q menu can be edited down to features you use most frequently. The info menu has a wide selection of settings that can be altered at a touch but this is not editable.

You can use the camera’s touch-and-drag feature that lets youmove the AF point with your finger on the touchmonitor

mentioning is the DIAL FUNC. control. Here you can choose some key features like ISO, AF mode and white-balance that once registered you can scroll through rapidly by pushing the DUAL FUNC. button and then use the surrounding collar to select the required setting. The shutter button isn’t very responsive and there’s some shutter lag. In single frame mode, shooting Raw and Large JPEG, there’s a delay so you can’t take a rapid sequence of shots in single-shot mode if you spot a rapidly evolving scene in front of you. I found myself with my finger rammed down on the shutter button waiting for the camera to go – there’s gap of half a second or so. It could be frustrating and I missed the odd grab shot. A way round this is to set continuous high but even in this mode the camera can be hesitant, enough to miss a grab shot, and didn’t always shoot at its full continuous speed in AF mode. Shooting several frames in a burst also pushes up noise levels and there is no electronic shutter option. Shooting both Raw and JPEG in continuous high you get 16 shots before the buffer is full and the shooting is held up as files are written to card. That’s pretty good for a camera not dedicated to shooting action. No camera’s handling is flawless, just some are smoother, more reactive, more responsive or more tactile than others. The EOS M5 rates well in some areas and less well in others, but this is subjective. I found a few niggles but nothing serious in a capable camera.

The camera has no focus joystick tomove a singleAF point around the scene although you can use the rear command pad after pushing the AF zone selector. Or you can use the camera’s touch-and-drag AF feature that lets you move the AF point with your finger on the touch monitor. This works well even while the camera is held up to the eye and is quicker than a focus joystick. I am left eyed and there was plenty of room for my left thumb to slip between monitor and cheek to move the AF point around. Should you prefer you can limit the touch-sensitive working area to, for example, the top right or bottom left, which was my preferred setting. The touchscreen also works in other AF modes even in tracking mode when the AF system might need a helping finger. Overall, I liked the camera’s handling although the first few times I picked up the camera, I managed to turn on the movie recording unintentionally. The video record button is on the rear at the base of the protruding grip and I found easy to turn on with the pad of my thumb as I picked the camera up. So the first thing I did was rummage in the custom control menu and turned this control off so while I didn’t find this control very ergonomic Canon lets you do something about it. Aside from off, there are 23 other functions that can be assigned to this button. Generally, there is plenty of customisation potential for many of the EOS 5M’s controls and the visual prompts on the monitor help guide you through the process. Another control worth

Above One of the ‘big sells’ of the Canon EOS M system is the ability to use the huge range of Canon EF and EF-S lenses via the lightweight EF-EOS M adapter (shown in the middle here).