By technical editor Matt Allard:
At CP+ in Japan Canon were displaying their new mirrorless Canon EOS M3. The camera features a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor, interchangeable lens system ,front control dial, Hybrid CMOS AF III AF system and an articulated 3.2″ LCD capable of flipping up by 180 degrees. It also has a more pronounced grip, a new DIGIC 6 processor, an exposure compensation dial on the top plate and Wi-Fi with NFC. There is a hotshoe for use with the optional viewfinder accessory and a built-in pop-up flash.
You can capture video in Full HD quality, with a choice of 24p, 25p and 30p frame rates, and MP4, for easy sharing. A new Hybrid CMOS AF III focus system providing continuous AF. Touch AF gives you the flexibility to select AF points on the LCD even with moving subjects, and according to Canon create professional-looking pull focus effects. Manual Movie mode gives you aperture, shutter and ISO control. The following frame rates and resolutions are available: 1920 x 1080 (30p, 25p, 24p), 1280 x 720 (60p, 50p), 640 x 480 (30p, 25p). There is a built in microphone and a microphone input where you can set recording levels (I am unsure though if you can change these during recording), but no headphone jack and the mini HDMI port to my understanding does not provide for any sort of clean output while you are in record mode. Record times are also limited to 24 minutes 40 seconds when recording 24p in 1920×1080 and 36 minutes and 49 seconds in 60p at 1280×720.
For video shooters the Canon EOS M3 is certainly a big let down. With only 24,25 and 30p available in full HD, no clean HDMI output and no headphone jack this camera has very limited use for video. If you compare it to other mirrorless camera systems on the market when it comes to video functionality it really does seem to be a dissapointment.
Canon also have an unusual feature that when you press the shutter button to take a photo you can set the camera to record 4 seconds of video prior to you pressing the shutter button. It does this in full auto movie mode. According to Canon at the end of the day you can have a short movie derived from all the vision that has been recorded 4 seconds prior to the photos you have taken. This is quite a strange function as most people are still framing up and adjusting their camera 4 seconds before they actually take a photo. This setting can be turned on or off in the camera.
Canon has only four EF-M lenses available – one is a standard kit zoom that compares with every other standard kit zoom in the world, and two are zoom lenses with maximum apertures that start at f/4 and f/4.5. The only lens that anyone might conceivably think is interesting is the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM. There of course is the EF-EOS M adapter that allows you to use EF lenses but they are not very easy to come by and sort of defeat the purpose of using a small mirrorless camera in the first place. Canon seem to have been left at the mirrorless camera bus stop while other manufacturers are already well down the road.
The Canon EOS M3 will be available at the end of March. The price in Europe will be £599.99 / €769.99. There are currently no plans to bring the camera to market in America.
