Canon EOS M200
It’s Canon’s smallest and cheapest compact system mirrorless camera, but does it have more than price on its side?
We put Canon’s lightest and cheapest compact system mirrorless camera to the test in our lab
Being on the bottom rung of the EOS M ladder, the M200 doesn’t have an extensive set of features, but you do get a 24.1Mp APS-C Dual Pixel CMOS sensor (to enable phase detection autofocusing), plus Canon’s latest Digic 8 processing engine, and 4K video.
It’s a camera that’s designed to be easy to use, which makes it a good choice for beginners, but the M200 is equally appealing to more experienced photographers who just want a small, go-anywhere camera.
Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system is extremely capable in all Canon’s that feature it, and it gives good service in the M200, with up to 143 AF points – up from 49 in the M100. The M200 has the same max continuous shooting rate as the M100, at 4fps with continuous AF and 6.1fps in single AF mode – decent for an entry level camera.
One of they key upgrades that the M200 makes over the M100 is the increase in the maximum video resolution from 1080p to 4K. However, the M200 applies a 1.6x crop to the field of view during 4K recording. As a result, the EF-M 15-45mm kit lens – which normally has an effective focal length of 24-72mm – looks longer at around 38-115mm in 4K mode. It can mean tight framing around your face if you’re vlogging with the camera extended out at arm’s length.
Performance
We found the M200’s autofocus system to be one of its strong points, as it works well even in dim
conditions. The performance isn’t quite so assured in 4K video mode, when the focusing switches from phase detect to contrast-based detection. However, when recording 1080p video or shooting still images, the Face Tracking is very good, even in low light.
With the odd exception, the Canon EOS M200’s evaluative metering mode does a good job of getting the exposure of the main subject right, and the 3-inch touchscreen gives an accurate preview of colour and contrast.
However, there are times when you may want to dial in a little negative exposure compensation to darken the brighter areas. The auto white balance setting is reliable though, while the Standard Picture Style keeps colours punchy without making things overly vibrant.
The M200 and 15-45mm kit lens combo do pretty well at rendering detail, but sharpness still leaves a little to be desired. We noticed that the out-of-focus details in some ISO400 JPEG files can look rather mushy when under closer inspection. Sensitivity ranges between ISO100 and 25600 (expandable to ISO51,200) for stills, but we’d aim to limit the stills setting to ISO6400, as pushing higher can result in JPEGS that look too smooth in places, while the Raws can become noisy.