The Canon G7X Mark II is an incredibly popular camera amongst vloggers. I for one, almost bought one last year, but one of a few niggling things stopped me: 4K video. That’s all about to change with Canon’s new EOS M50, its latest entry-level interchangeable lens mirrorless camera, unravelled today for the Malaysian market.
I’ve been a little bit disappointed with Canon over the years for being slow to the game in terms of video. While competitors like Sony and Panasonic have long supported 4K video shooting in their respective product lines, Canon has “held back” for its consumer-level cameras.
Granted cameras like the G7X Mark II are excellent for stills and general 1080p video shooting, but it’s 2018, guys. Come on.
The thing that irks me though is that the G7X Mark II has the potential to be great. It has a good build, compact and light form factor, flip screen, great image quality and more than decent low-light performance.
It does lack a couple of fundamental things: An external mic port or at least a hot shoe, and 4K video shooting capability.
So, this is where the new EOS M50 can be great. On paper it’s already a much better camera.
For one, it has an external mic port and hot shoe (for shotgun mics and other accessories). It shoots 4K, although there’s a catch. I’ll get to that in a minute.
It has a flip screen, a bigger, newer 24.1 APS-C sensor and since its part of Canon’s M series of mirrorless cameras, you can swap out M-mount lenses.
It’s also the first ever M-series camera to gain an electronic viewfinder (EVF) which is incredibly useful if you’re shooting in bright light.
That’s not all, it’s also the first camera to use the latest DIGIC 8 processor that delivers better quality visuals, and Eye AF (eye-detection). Being a Canon, it has one of the best autofocus systems in the market – Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which also does great in videos. It’s capable of up to ISO 25600 (expandable to 51200).
So, back to 4K videos. Here’s the thing, using an APS-C sensor means it has a crop factor of around 1.6x compared to a 35mm full frame. Not a surprise since it’s an APS-C. However, when you turn on 4K UHD shoot mode, the sensor crops even more – 2.56x to be exact. This is even bigger than a Panasonic GH5, which has a typical micro Four-Thirds crop factor of 2x.
Which brings us to another issue. When in 4K mode, the EOS M50 cannot make use of Dual Pixel AF, which means it falls back on the more inferior contrast-based AF.
If you don’t need 4K, the EOS M50 will do 1080p at up to 50fps just fine, and if you’re into slow-mo, it will happily do 120fps in 720p HD.
Unfortunately, there’s no in-body stabilisation, so it’ll have to depend on a stabilised lens. It does have Combination IS, which works with the new EF-M 15-45mm and EF-MM 55-200mm stabilised kit lenses.
Important for vloggers is the camera’s 3-inch 1.04 million dot Vari-angle LCD touchscreen, as well as built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC for easy image/footage transfers to devices.
Battery life may be a concern, no thanks to the puny 860mAh LP-E10 battery, but you can always buy more spares, I reckon.
If I could sum up the EOS M50 in a concise statement I’d have to settle for “one step forward, two steps back,” especially on the area of 4K UHD shooting.
The vlogging camera to beat?
Having said that, the EOS M50 is a superior camera to the G7X Mark II, and pretty much beats it in all areas as a vlogging camera.
It’s a neat little package, and one that’s rather competitively priced. Panasonic equivalents could possibly be the Lumix DMC-GX85, or new DMC-GF9, both excellent selfie/vlog-centric cameras with a similar price point.
The inclusion of the external mic port and hot shoe is enough to compel me, and while its 4K capability does come with compromises, the EOS M50 has more pluses than it does minuses.
Pricing and availability
- EOS M50 (Body) – MYR2,799
- EOS M50 (EF-M 15-45mm) – MYR3,199
- EOS M50 (EF-M 15-45mm) + (EF-M 55-200mm) – MYR4,299
The EOS M50 is available now at all Canon retailers and dealers, Canon Image Square stores and the Canon Official Store on Lazada Malaysia.
For more info on Canon’s interchangeable lens cameras, visit Canon Malaysia.
