MarbleGT

Very little real info on this one on the web. Lots of the same reviews recirculated. So...here we go.

A little bit of back story....I bought an EOS M in 2014. I liked the idea of a tiny decent camera that could be used with EF lenses. I thought to myself that I would use it all the time and I would finally have a camera I could take with me and not have to lug around a biggish DSLR. I've been doing photography on a semi-professional level for a little over a year and something about pushing around a 50lb Pelican case full of gear almost daily makes me not want to touch said gear unless $$ is involved, which is overall why I bought the M. Long story short I 'played' with the M 2-3 times. I had the 18-55, 22 F2, Canon EF adapter, and a nice hipster looking case for it. I took it on a couple of vacations and as we all know, it was slow and hard to use. Good idea in theory, but it was just too cumbersome to navigate through menus to change ISO settings and f stops on the fly. If you leave your camera in Auto this is a non-issue, but who does that? It really just sat on my desk at home and looked kinda neat. I couldn't muster up the urge to take it out with me anywhere.

Fast forward to about 4 months ago...I sold the M and bought the M3 as well as the 55-200 and 11-22 lens to go with my existing gear. The M3 is worlds better than the original M. Its easier to hold, much quicker to use and you get a nice boost in mp count, if that matters. Its got wheels and knobs all over it that are customization so you can really use it as you would a DSLR in manual mode. I feel I can dial in my 6d quicker still, but after getting used to the setup I don't really miss shots with it. The tilting screen is fantastic and enable's easy viewing of low and high handheld angles. I also love the addition of focus peaking in manual focus mode. I had Magic Lantern on the original M and it did peaking but not nearly as streamlined or accurate.

I was able to take it with me on a Colorado trip after Christmas and finally really use it. I wanted to force myself to use it and push it to see it's full potential. I came back in love with it! I'm sure the Fujis and Sonys run circles around it, but for my uses it doesn't matter. My dislikes are that it doesn't have a view finder, though I do have Canons EVF. Its a little weird to leave on but it works very well, just wish it was incorporated within the camera body. I also wish Canon would make a fast 50 or 85 prime for it.

The native lenses are all fantastic. I find the 18-55 to be much sharper than the regular Ef-S equivalent. The 22 F2 is tiny and super sharp as well. The 11-22 is easily my favorite lens in their Ef-M range. Its suits the M very well and is also very sharp. I don't know why, but the 55-200 is the only one that has a plastic barrel out of the 4. Aside from that, it handles like the rest...very sharp, quick to focus, etc etc etc. I do not like how all the lenses have different filter sizes...luckily they are all very small, esp that 22 with the 43mm. Its ridiculous small!

Pros

• Build Quilty
• Size
• Image Quality

Cons

• Lack of built in View Finder
• Lack of native lenses

It's a killer little camera that I can take with me pretty much anywhere and have a tiny footprint. It's a perfect companion to my 6d and I honestly wouldn't hesitate to use it on a proper shoot if the 6D was giving me issues.

Some Samples. Didn't use the 18-55 much, or at all on the trip. That would be the one I'd skip given the other options.

11-22 + Tiffen Grad ND and B+W 10 Stop ND








22 F2 + Tiffen CPL








55-200 + Tiffen CPL