Canon EOS M

EOS M
image by Victor van Dijk (Image rights)

white EOS M2
image by Akiko Aoki (Image rights)

The Canon EOS M of 2012 arrived late in the market for mirrorless digital system cameras. It is the first in a short series of EOS M cameras with APS-C sensors.

It uses a 18MP APS-C CMOS based sensor, able to capture images with a maximum resolution of 5184 x 3456 pixels. Video can be recorded in 1920x1080 resolution at 30, 25 or 24 fps in the MOV format container and H.264 compression. The audio is recorded in stereo. There is a time limit of 30 minutes per clip. Movie mode does offer autofocus. The body is made of magnesium-alloy, and is available in four colours black, white, silver and red. It has no built-in flash, but instead uses a EOS compatible hot shoe. It is often bundled with Canon's Speedlite 90EX. Composition is with the camera's 3-inch 1040k dot, colour LCD touch screen. Storage is with SDXC cards.

Canon designed a rather small range of lenses dedicated to the EOS M series, with a new EF-M mount:

EF-M 22mm f/2 STM (equivalent to a 35mm lens on full-frame 35mm format; the 'format factor' is about 1.6)
EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM
EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM (standard lens)
EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM
EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM
EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM

Here, STM denotes a stepping motor, used for focusing.

Of course, the EF lenses made for the Canon EOS DSLRs can be used with an EF-EOS M adapter (in fact, since all the EOS M cameras are APS-C format, both EF and EF-S lenses can be adapted). Some third-party lens makers have also produced lenses in the EF-M mount, including Sigma, 7Artisans and TTArtisan; many of these have been manual focus and attractively cheap.

At the end of 2013 the updated EOS M2 was announced. Many regions decided not to distribute this model revision due to excessive inventory of the original model. During launch it was available in Japan, China and Korea. It uses a new autofocus sensor and has built-in Wi-Fi. The bodies are available in black and white.