Another Canon CSC At Last
Canon continues to merely dabble its toe in the mirrorless camera waters, but the new EOS M3 is a far superior camera to the model it replaces. Restyled with a more overtly classical look, the M3 essentially uses the same innards as the EOD 750D and 760D D-SLRs, and indeed Canon sees its primary customer base as owners of its D-SLRs looking for a compact alternative for certain applications. The bodyshell comprises both magnesium alloy and polycarbonate resin covers over a stainless steel chassis.
An important update is the provision of a ‘multi-function’ hotshoe which now allows for an optional EVF to be fitted. The EVFDC1 unit provides 100 percent scene coverage and has a resolution of 2.36 million dots. The M3’s monitor screen is tilt adjustable (up to 180 degrees to allow for ‘selfies’) with touch controls and has a resolution of 1.04 million dots. In addition to the main mode dial, the M3 now also has a conventional dial for applying exposure compensation.
On the inside, the EOS M3 has the same 24.7 megapixels ‘APS-C’ size CMOS sensor as the 750D/760D, again matched with Canon’s latest ‘DiG!C 6’ processor. The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 100 to 12,800 with a one-stop extension to ISO 25,800, and continuous shooting is possible at up to 4.2 fps. Autofocusing is via Canon’s hybrid ‘CMOS AF III’ contrast/phase detection system which employs 49 measuring points and includes both face detection and auto tracking modes. Exposure metering is via 384-zone system with the options of evaluative, selective area, spot or centre-weighted average measurements.
The M3 has a hybrid shutter (i.e. sensor-based ‘first curtain’ and physical second curtain) with a shutter speed range of 30-1/4000 second and flash sync up to 1/200 second. The camera’s built-in popup flash unit has a metric guide number of five (ISO 100), but the M3 supports Canon’s E-TTL II flash exposure metering when EX Series Speedlights are fitted.
The M3 has all the key image processing functions found on Canon’s D-SLRs, including a set of seven ‘Picture Style’ presets, ‘Auto Lighting Optimiser’ for dynamic range expansion, ‘Highlight Tone Priority’ and a number of corrections for lens aberrations. There’s a choice of eight ‘Creative Filters’. As on the new mid-range D-SLRs, a WiFi module is built-in and provides the convenience of NFC connectivity. The M3 records video in the MP4 format using the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec and with stereo sound. An external microphone can be connected via a standard 3.5 mm stereo audio input. Data is recorded to an SD card and the camera supports UHS-I speed SDHC and SDXC types.
While Canon still isn’t going to challenge the CSC front runners when it actually only offers a single camera, the EOS M3 is now competitively featured and certainly holds much more appeal for users of Canon D-SLRs.