CANON EOS M5
£599/$579
Canon’s flagship M-series mirrorless camera struggles to retain its crown against the newer contender
Although it’s the rangetopping M-series APS-C format mirrorless camera in Canon’s line-up, the M5 has an image sensor and processor that are a generation older than those of the M50, as well as the EOS 250D for that matter. At its heart, the camera has the same imaging system as the EOS 77D. As in the newer M50, the M5 has an OLED viewfinder with 2360k dots and full coverage of the image frame. Again, it’s not as clear as an optical viewfinder when panning, but has the advantage of giving a live preview of exposure and white balance settings. The same range of information is also available, including three formats of grid overlay, a histogram for overall brightness or separate RGB channels, an electronic level and a variety of aspect ratios.
Both M-series cameras give options for shooting stills in 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 and square formats. Around the back, the M5 has a larger, higher-resolution 3.2-inch touchscreen with 1620k dots, but it only has a tilt facility, rather than being fully articulated. The max video capture resolution is 1080p so the 4K option of the M50 and 250D is off-limits.
Performance
Max burst rate is a little slower than in the M50, but still faster than the 77D, at 7fps rising to 9fps if you can live with AF being locked in place before the first shot in a sequence. The memory buffer is smaller than the 90D, enabling 18 rather than 25 shots in Raw. In JPEG, the 90D’s buffer enables you to take 58 JPEGS, whereas there’s a 26-shot limit in the M5.