Photography News | Issue 48 | photographynews.co.uk
Camera test 34
Performance: exposure latitude
Raws are exposure tolerant, so here we see how far we can push those out of the EOSM6. Correct exposure was metered at 1/125secat f/11andISO100.Fromthis setting, a manual bracket to +/-4EV was made. The bracketed exposures were recovered in Lightroom to produce a ‘correct’ exposure. The underexposed shots fared well and the recovered files looked perfectly acceptable in terms of tonal gradation and colour balance. Noise levels with the -4EV image were quite high, though, and that impacted on fine detail rendition. Tolerance to overexposure was less impressive.
The +1EV and +2EV shots recovered well, although the latter gained a blue colour cast the highlights remained good. Any further, however, and the recovered shots were not acceptable. In our test scene, the attractive sky in the +2EV shot went flat, grey and detail-less in the +3EV exposure. To sum up, overexposing with the EOSM6 is not advised andwhile you can get away with +2EV, any more and your image is in trouble. Tolerance to underexposure was much more acceptable and even though noise increased, images good fine especially with some noise reduction in software.
-4EV
-3EV
-2EV
-1EV
0
+1EV
Original image
+2EV
+3EV
+4EV
Above Start abusing the exposure latitude of the EOS M6’s Raw files and you can get away with a great deal, especially on the side of underexposure. You get less tolerance with overexposure, though, and anything over +2EV and you run into trouble with highlight recovery.
Verdict
Features 22/25 Highly featuredmodel but monitor onlywill put off a few Handling 22/25 Small body, touch screen and good menumakes for a pleasant camera to use Performance 22/25 Capable of a solid performance; high ISOperformance a small downside Value formoney 22/25 Seems a lot to pay for amonitor-only model The Canon EOSM6 is an enjoyable camera to use. Its small sizemeans carrying it around all day is not an issue; handling is sound and the picture quality it delivers is comparable with rivals until you venture into the high ISO area (beyond ISO 800). The optional EVF is a neat solution for those keen to have a viewfinder but it adds bulk, and it costs £198whichmeans the combination price is close to the cost of the EOSM5. It might not impact on all potential buyers but the range of M lenses is limited, and being able to use Canon’s EF lenses via the optional adaptor EF-EOSMdoes not reallymake up for this.
Here is a selection of straight out of the camera JPEGs shot on the EOS M6. Top The EOS M6 has a selection of Canon’s creative modes for in-camera fun. This was shot in the toy camera setting. Above left The background sky wasn’t that bright but it tricked the EOS M6’s Evaluative meter into underexposing by about 1EV. The exposure was 1/500sec at f/5 and ISO 200. Above right A similar bright sky scenario here was well dealt with – the exposure was 1/200sec at f/6.3 and ISO 200. RIGHT Lifelike colours was one selling point of the EOS M6 and even on dull, cloudy days, the standard colour setting gave vibrant and nicely saturated images. Exposure was 1/40sec at f/6.3 and ISO 200.
88/100
Overall
The EOSM6 is a capable camera withmuch to commend it, but it faces serious rivals Pros Option of add-on EVF Cons Poor tolerance to overexposure, average pictures at high ISO
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