Thread: Canon EOS-M Officially Announced

Originally Posted by Chris2500dk

This is looking mightly slow to me.

The first tap is probably inside the minimum focus distance, but the second one just looks like slow AF. Hopefully it will be faster than that.

Canon really isn't bringing anything new to the market, but based on brand reputation it'll probably sell loads of them. Hope a more enthusiast-oriented offering is just around the corner...

I've no problem with the basic specs and size of this camera, and a touchscreen interface was right up near the top of my list of wants. Autofocus speed will be the make-or-break for me. Aside from one sentence from one review by a non-specialist camera website, I'm seeing nothing encouraging about the autofocus. I just don't understand why Canon would be just about the only company not to figure out how to make a fast live-view autofocus system.

Originally Posted by wolfie

Odd how some sites are saying the AF is slow and an Australian one says it is really fast ...

Not really. Keep in mind that the people doing those first impressions and reviews are mere mortals, too. It's always subjective, and the first impressions depend heavily on the conditions. You really shouldn't make any kind of conclusion yet, based on the very first press release impressions alone. Especially ones (apparently) based on pre-production models and non-final firmware.

None of those reviewers have had a chance to do a proper in-depth review yet, and their comments are based on a few minutes playing with it in some typical hotel function room or company showroom. Whilst one reviewer is trying the AF merely by shuffling the focus point between several fixed, well lit and high contrast targets, like the Canon gear on the table, another reviewer may be trying it on moving targets further away, like fellow members of the media in dim lighting conditions, which will most certainly result to very different first impressions. Typical CAF can be fast, but unreliable. Apparently the camera has a typical CAF system. (edit: apparently the camera does have the in-sensor PAF, after all, the same introduced in the latest EOS DSLR)
I'm not sure which lens is attached in that Italian video but, looked like the subject was relatively close, and it looked more like typical CAF hunt within close enough distance, rather than slow AF in general.

As for the Canon EOS-M itself, meh, not really exited in one way or another. Looks like another me too camera into the already rather saturated mirrorless mainstream.

From dpreview preview:

Canon EOS M hands-on preview: Digital Photography Review

The lenses use minimalistically-styled, plain cylindrical barrels that bear more than a passing resemblance to Sony's NEX series optics. In terms of dimensions they're fairly typical for their class, which means they're smaller than corresponding SLR lenses; the zoom is near-identical in size to the Sony E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS, whereas the pancake is very similarly-sized to Panasonic's Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH. From our first impressions the 18-55mm focuses pretty quickly, but the 22mm is distinctly slower - not surprising given that the entire optical unit racks back and forth for focusing.

Size comparison to GF3:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/can...-eos-m-gf3.jpg

and with the new 40mm lens and the adapter:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/can...nt-adapter.jpg

With Canon introducing all that they have in the last few months one has to wonder if there is anything special left come Photokina.. maybe the treasure we are looking for will emerge then. As much as I am leaning towards a smaller camera and do not want to give up my macro lenses, this camera's adapter making that possible, it just.. hmm.. didn't smack me between the eyes screaming buy me. Maybe after someone takes the plunge and shows what it can do. Also thinking I am becoming numb to all the advertisements which is good, no GAS, but.. being bored is actually a bit disturbing :D

Official samples from Canon:

Official Canon EOS M Sample Images | PhotographyBLOG

It's a tad late to be bringing a gf1 to market, isn't it?

Hard to know what DPR mean when they say the 18-55 focuses "pretty quickly" and the 22 "slower", but overall I'd say that is encouraging compared to the Italian video, which makes the focus look as slow as can be.

Thanks for the GF3 size comparison, Serhan. The Canon looks to be about the same size as my GX1, which is a really nice size IMO. I think this looks like a really nice start for Canon mirrorless.

EDIT: Copied from DPR preview comments:

By keeponkeepingon (7 hours ago)
IR is reporting extremely slow AF speeds. Basically the EOS M is about as fast as 2009 M43 cameras.
Question: Why was there no mention of AF speed in the dpreview "hands on".
Is it because this was a pre-production model and you are giving canon a chance to get it right before final release.
Or is IR wrong and the AF speed not an issue?
Thanks!


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By Terence Kearns (7 hours ago)
Agreed. The review is very much incomplete without a summary of the AF speeds. This is a big factor for this class of camera.


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By R Butler (6 hours ago)
The problem is that all the cameras anyone has seen are pre-production, so no one knows what final AF speed is going to he like.
However, it is a point we're going to cover as we extend the preview over the coming hours (It's the 22mm tgat is slow at the moment, and its unit-focus design may make it difficult to improve).


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By keeponkeepingon (5 hours ago)
Thanks!
Can't wait to see your impressions!


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By M Jesper (3 hours ago)
So STM means it focuses smooth and silently (for video), but not necessarily fast.


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By R Butler (2 hours ago)
Essentially yes. STM can be implemented so it's really fast (eg Olympus 45mm F1.8, which is incredibly quick), but, just as AF-S on Nikon doesn't always promise fast focus, STM only tells you what sort of motor the lens has - not how cleverly it's been designed.

Here's what Imaging Resource had to say (source):

...as we were briefed about the EOS M, "just like the T4i" was repeated often. Unfortunately, they also said that about the EOS M's Hybrid Autofocus system... Live View autofocus speed is very slow on the T4i with the 40mm STM lens, averaging more than 1.2 seconds to autofocus in single-point mode, and more than 1.7 seconds in multi-point AF mode...

...Olympus E-P1's autofocus was notoriously slow... measured about 1.18 seconds to focus and capture a shot... latest models from Olympus, Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony now rival some of the fastest digital SLRs, down in the 0.25-0.17 second lag time range...

...I only saw a prototype EOS M, but it seemed to perform just as the T4i did with the same lenses...