78 - AsianPhotography June 2018

camera review

Canon EoS M50

Price

`61,995with kit lens

Canon has been experimenting with its products in the Indian market and the mirrorless line

for quite some time now and the latest of these cameras is the EOS M50. This is the second camera in their lineup with a viewfinder and it features a 24.1 megapixel APS-C CMOS Sensor. We got our hands on one and decided to put it through the paces to see how it performed.

Sample Image

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Look, Body and FeelThe camera is quite compact and

the first thing one notices is how light it is. Weighing approx. 387g it is light and at approx. 116.3 x 88.1 x 58.7mm / 4.6 x 3.5 x 2.3 in size it is quite small too. Even though the body feels a little cheap the grip of the camera is quite well designed. The buttons also feel quite clicky and are quite well made. The top of the camera has the flash mount and a cover is provided to prevent dust from affecting the camera. The swivel screen has a nice touch and feels sturdy. The mode dial is on top of the camera beside the on/off switch. There is a movie recording button along with a manual function button as well. The ring around the shutter button which changes the shutter speed is quite smooth as well. There is a microphone input jack as well which can be useful for people who wish to record videos more often. The pop-up flash has to be manually pulled up to switch it on. The camera supports SD cards and has the card slot neatly tucked away at the bottom of the camera along with the battery compartment as most cameras in this segment have.

PerformanceWe put the 24.1 megapixel APS-C

CMOS sensor camera with the latest DIGIC 8 image processor to test and found that it performed quite well. The colours were quite vibrant and the images had depth and saturation was accurate as well. The camera handled low light decently but if we compare it with other mirrorless cameras in the market this one still has room to improve. The details in the images really impressed us as stayed sharp even after zooming in at 100%. The 5-axis image stabilization during movie shooting was visible when taking tracking shots as well. We were also quite fond of the 2.36 million-dot OLED EVF which was missing in a couple of the first mirrorless cameras in the company’s lineup. Apart from these, most of the other features that competing mirrorless cameras provide, like JPEG/ RAW shooting, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC are also available.

Sample Image

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ISO performanceThe ISO performance of this camera

isn’t bad. We really liked how the camera handled ISOs upto 3200 well. While other mirrorless cameras in this category might be a tad better, this camera is by no means any less competent. The camera faulters a bit at ISO 6400 and shows signs of grains and becomes almost unusable at ISO 12800 as the picture loses edge sharpness.

ConclusionAll in all, the Canon EOS M50 is a step

in the right direction for the company as it penetrates into the mirorless market in the country with competitors like Sony, Fuji, Panasonic already having made a name in this segment. The camera provides all the necessary features that a photographer might look for and ticks the right boxes when it comes to image performance. The mirrorless lineup also

has a lot of variety when it comes to lens selection and one can also opt to buy a converter which allows EF and EF-S lenses to be used with this camera as well. We would have liked it if the build quality was a bit better and felt more strong, and also if the pop-up flash had a button operated on/off feature but all that can be forgiven because the camera performed its sole objective well without compromising on other basic features.

ISo Performance

ISO 100 ISO 200 ISO 400

ISO 800 ISO 1600 ISO 3200

ISO 6400 ISO 12800 ISO 25600

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`Solid camera grip, lightweight and small in size making it extremely portable. Built quality can be improved but that will definitely improve the cost

`Solid camera grip, lightweight and small in size making it extremely portable. Build quality can be improved but that will definitely increase the cost

Look, body and feel ratingLook, body and feel rating

`Colours were nice and the details were beautifully captured. Low light performance has room for improvement.

`Colours were nice and the details were beautifully captured. Low light performance has room for improvement.

Performance ratingPerformance rating

TeXT and images: souradeeP roy

Type Digital single-lens non-reflex AF / AE camera

Recording Media SD memory card, SDHC memory card, SDXC memory card * Compatible with UHS-I

Image Sensor Size Approx. 22.3 x 14.9mm

Compatible Lenses (1) Canon EF-M lenses (2) Canon EF lenses (including EF-S lenses) ** With Mount Adapter EF-EOS M. (35mm-equivalent focal length is approx. 1.6 times the lens focal length)

Sensor CMOS sensor

Effective Pixels Approx. 24.1 megapixels

Aspect Ratio 3:2

Dust Delete Feature Auto, Manual

Autofocus Dual pixel CMOS AF (1-point AF, Zone AF, face + tracking AF)

AF Points Max. 143 / 99 points (Switches automatically depending on lens), Zone AF max. 25 points

Movie Compression MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 Variable (average) bit rate

Audio Recording Format MPEG-4 AAC-LC (Stereo)

Recording Format MP4

Recording Size and Frame Rate

1920 x 1080 (Full HD)1280 x 720 (HD)

Sample Image

` Ideal for street photographers and casual photographers or even vloggers. At a price of `61,995 the camera is a steal for professionals who are looking for a second body in the Canon ecosystem.

overall rating