Canon EOS M50 hands-on review

Aimed at smartphone-upgraders rather than dial-loving DSLR fans, the M50 brings a host of firsts for a Canon mirrorless cam: 4K video recording, a vari-angle touchscreen, a silent shutter mode, and its new Digic 8 processor. Not bad for a snapper that costs less than the viewfinder-less EOS M6 and many of its mid-range CSC rivals. Is this the breakout Canon mirrorless camera we’ve been waiting for? We had a brief play with one at its launch event to find out…

CANON EOS M50 DESIGN: BUILT FOR YOUTUBERS

The top of the M50 has just one main menu dial, alongside a customisable multi-function button and an electronic dial around the shutter. DSLR fans who like lots of manual controls may scoff, but it’s a simple setup that’s right for its target audience. This audience is clearly YouTube bloggers, because right next to the M50’s shutter is a video button.

CANON EOS M50 DESIGN: NOT JUST VIDEO

Not that the M50 is overly focused on video. We criticised the M100 for stripping things back too far with its lack of viewfinder, but the M50 has a bright, hi-res one plus a vari-angle touchscreen, which means you can tilt it up and down as well as out to the side. In other words, you won’t be short of options for framing your shot.

CANON EOS M50 BUILD: LIGHTWEIGHT

The M50’s polycarbonate build means it feels quite light in the hand, if a bit less premium than some of its metallic rivals. Some may bemoan the lack of weather-proofing, but it’s hard to complain when it’s a feature even the £1000 Fujifilm X-T20 lacks. Unless you’re a fan of meaty grips and dials galore, the M50’s design looks to be a bit of a crowdpleaser.

CANON EOS M50 FEATURES: EASY BRILLIANCE

The M50 makes it difficult to take bad photos: it has up to 149 autofocus points (depending on which lens you’re using) and Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus for quickly locking onto subjects, although this is only available up to Full HD resolution in video (for 4K it switches to the less reliable contrast detection). Still, it does at least shoot in 4K at 25fps, which is a first for a Canon mirrorless cam.

CANON EOS M50 FEATURES: STABLE STUFF

There’s also a new type of five-axis image stabilisation, which combines information from the lens with the camera’s giros in a similar way to Olympus’ system. There’s a silent shutter mode, too, to help avoid startling pets and, alongside Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth, a new automatic transfer function that lets the M50 send shots to the Canon smartphone app, if you have it running in the background.

CANON EOS M50 FEATURES: SPEEDY

Been nominated as the official snapper for the office five-a-side tournament? The M50 can also rattle off shots at a decent 10fps too, for up to 33 frames (or 10 frames if you’re shooting in RAW). Talking of which, there’s a new C-RAW option that promises to crunch RAW files down to 30%-40% the size of a standard RAW file.

CANON EOS M50 PICTURE QUALITY: LOOKING GOOD

It’s too early to judge the M50’s stills and video performance, but the early signs from its 24.1MP, APS-C sensor are good. Its autofocus was quick to lock onto subjects, even in dimly lit rooms, while the ‘Eye Detect’ mode worked well during our brief play with it.

CANON EOS M50 PICTURE QUALITY: GOOD VIEW

The viewfinder was bright and crisp, and it was also good to see Canon’s ‘Guided Interface’ on board too – this provides little photos and explanations for each mode to help fledgling snappers along.

CANON EOS M50 EARLY VERDICT

It’s taken a few years, but Canon seems to have finally overcome its mirrorless camera reticence and nailed a great all-rounder in the M50. With its touchscreen controls, lack of dials and video focus, the M50 is more likely to appeal to smartphone upgraders than DSLR traditionalists. Then again, even EOS 5D owners might find its feature list enticing enough to make it a fun stand-in camera for travelling light. We’ll deliver our full verdict before it goes on sale in March 2018.