With the new announcement of the Canon EOS R7 and EOS R10, we’re curious about whether or not the Canon EF-M series is doomed. I mean, why bother to continue it? The autofocus performance is subpar compared to that of the RF series of cameras. Nothing in this lineup is weather resistant either. And, for the most part, lenses for it haven’t been released or developed in a while. So is it really gone?
In short, no; it’s not doomed. And when we were briefed on this by Canon, we were quite shocked to hear it. But their explanation makes sense.Â
In Canon’s mind, the EF-M cameras still sell very well. So, why kill the sales of something that’s doing well? That’s been Canon’s thought process from the start. It’s why they clung to DSLRs so hard and took their sweet time coming to mirrorless. Indeed, Canon’s EF-M cameras can be a whole lot of fun. They’re small, have good image quality, and are very capable for anything not deemed professional. But if you need really good performance, the EF-M lineup fails when compared to the Canon RF lineup of cameras.
But then we wonder what sort of developments the Canon EF-M series might take. It’s mostly popular with the vlogging crowd, and my theory is that it will go deeper into this. The way I see it, if Canon has the EOS R10 and the EOS R7 for more serious photography, why keep EF-M? EF-M cameras also have smaller batteries and fewer lenses. But the EF-M system has more third-party lens support while RF doesn’t just yet.Â
To really check myself on this, I dove into our current Canon EF-M camera reviews. The Canon EOS M5 is a pretty old camera with us reviewing it back in 2017. We wouldn’t put any weight into this one anymore as all the tech is outdated at this point. Our staff called the Canon EOS M50 Mk II “Not Canon’s Greatest Achievement” and only gave it three out of five stars. However, the Canon EOS M6 Mk II was an excellent camera according to our review. When I went back to re-read that review, I was really in love with the aesthetics. The shutter sound in particular really seemed great. Here’s what I wrote:
“Despite the Canon EOS M6 Mk II not having weather sealing, Iâm pleased with the camera. It just means you need to be a tad more careful with it. Photographers who are hobbyists will seriously enjoy it. But in addition to that, a professional looking for something smaller to simply toss around will be very satisfied. The camera not only takes excellent images but has a very satisfying shutter sound. I canât get over it. It sounds and feels like an old school film camera in some ways. The autofocus is also excellent in good lighting. Once things dim a little, though, it can suffer in some situations. The face detection is very good, and I canât really complain about that. Overall, I think the Canon M6 Mk II is a great camera.”
However, there are Canon EOS M cameras that sell much better than this. But for now, a lot of photographers can be happy that the EF-M lineup will continue. We’re just not sure for how long though.
