Most of the members are using EOS-M as a back up or for light duty usage. I was using the EOS-M as my ONLY camera on a 12 day land tour in Turkey. I would like to share my experience with you.
Equipment: EOS-M, 22/2.0, 18-55mm Zoom, 90/4.0 Elmer, 35/2.0 Summicron, 8X32 binocular, SD 800 IS (as backup, in case the EOS-M dies, fortunately, it never got used), additional lens caps,. Lens hoods, 2 spare batteries, lens cleaning stuff. All packed in a Lowepro Nova 2 with a Lowepro Dashpoint 20 in the Nova 2 to fill in empty space. The total weight of the bag is 7 lbs.
Since this is a small system, That make me feel a lot more comfortable in both the size and the weight of the bag.
Both Canon EF-M lenses feels very slippery. Since the Nova 2 is packed very tight, it makes the changing of lens a little bit scary. The Dashpoint 20 can be attached to the strap of the Nova2. That make it become an additional pocket for the lens or camera.. That makes live a lot easier. I have also put the EOS-M with 22/2.0 in it for easy access. Thanks Nuero for the suggestion of Dashpoint 20. I have actually drop the EOS-M with 22/2.0( in the dashpoint10) from chest level. Nothing is broken. Lucky!!
In bright sunlight, I have to turn the screen brightness all the way up to make the camera usable. If the sun shines right on the screen, all bets are off. Fortunately, I have a 25mm view optical view finder. With my glasses(with the sunglass attachment to push my eye even further away from the view finder. That make it almost the same angle of view of the 22/2.0.
Battery life: since I have to turn up the brightness of the screen, the battery is only good for about 200 to 250 shorts. I am glad that I have 2 spare batteries.
Touch screen is both a blessing and a curse. It makes adjustment very fast, especially AF points. I need to make sure that I do not touch it by accident and change something . One way to combat this problem is to use wrist strap and turn the camera off when I am taking a break in shooting.
Both lenses perform well as expected under normal condition. The 20/2.0 is slightly sharper than the zoom. The AF of 20/2.0 is slightly slower than the zoom. Both are lenses are sharp enough even Wide opened. Both have proved to me that they are suitable to do ”shoot and run” in an organized tour. The AF speed on both lenses on EOS-M is no match to USM lenses on the 40D. But the difference is not subtancial.
At low light (4 EV, 2.9 at 0.5escond with ISO1600) ,the zoom refuses to AF when the AF assistant light is out of range. The 20/2.0 can still AF at that condition.
Manual focusing: Since the screen of the EOS-M does not like bright sun light, the Magic Lantern with focusing peaking or LV Digic Peaking are very hard to use under the sun. It is a slow process. Not suitable for “shoot and run”. However the 90/4.0 Elmer proves to be indispensable during the balloon ride. I preset the distance at 300 ft and let the DOF takes care of the rest. That is zero delay in focusing. The Elmer is small but not light weight. The overall picture quality is even better than the 20/2.0. it will be in my EOS-M bag from now on. Due to the fore-mentioned reason, the Summicron had never seen the daylight.
The 18mm on EOS-M seems to be quite a bit narrower than the 17mm on the 40D. Quite a few times, I feel that the 18mm is not wide enough. I end up doing a lot of stitching.. I am considering either the 11-22 Canon EF-M or Rokinon 12/2.0 EF-M
Conclusion: The EOS-M system will be my travelling system. I need to live with the forementioned short coming also
Equipment: EOS-M, 22/2.0, 18-55mm Zoom, 90/4.0 Elmer, 35/2.0 Summicron, 8X32 binocular, SD 800 IS (as backup, in case the EOS-M dies, fortunately, it never got used), additional lens caps,. Lens hoods, 2 spare batteries, lens cleaning stuff. All packed in a Lowepro Nova 2 with a Lowepro Dashpoint 20 in the Nova 2 to fill in empty space. The total weight of the bag is 7 lbs.
Since this is a small system, That make me feel a lot more comfortable in both the size and the weight of the bag.
Both Canon EF-M lenses feels very slippery. Since the Nova 2 is packed very tight, it makes the changing of lens a little bit scary. The Dashpoint 20 can be attached to the strap of the Nova2. That make it become an additional pocket for the lens or camera.. That makes live a lot easier. I have also put the EOS-M with 22/2.0 in it for easy access. Thanks Nuero for the suggestion of Dashpoint 20. I have actually drop the EOS-M with 22/2.0( in the dashpoint10) from chest level. Nothing is broken. Lucky!!
In bright sunlight, I have to turn the screen brightness all the way up to make the camera usable. If the sun shines right on the screen, all bets are off. Fortunately, I have a 25mm view optical view finder. With my glasses(with the sunglass attachment to push my eye even further away from the view finder. That make it almost the same angle of view of the 22/2.0.
Battery life: since I have to turn up the brightness of the screen, the battery is only good for about 200 to 250 shorts. I am glad that I have 2 spare batteries.
Touch screen is both a blessing and a curse. It makes adjustment very fast, especially AF points. I need to make sure that I do not touch it by accident and change something . One way to combat this problem is to use wrist strap and turn the camera off when I am taking a break in shooting.
Both lenses perform well as expected under normal condition. The 20/2.0 is slightly sharper than the zoom. The AF of 20/2.0 is slightly slower than the zoom. Both are lenses are sharp enough even Wide opened. Both have proved to me that they are suitable to do ”shoot and run” in an organized tour. The AF speed on both lenses on EOS-M is no match to USM lenses on the 40D. But the difference is not subtancial.
At low light (4 EV, 2.9 at 0.5escond with ISO1600) ,the zoom refuses to AF when the AF assistant light is out of range. The 20/2.0 can still AF at that condition.
Manual focusing: Since the screen of the EOS-M does not like bright sun light, the Magic Lantern with focusing peaking or LV Digic Peaking are very hard to use under the sun. It is a slow process. Not suitable for “shoot and run”. However the 90/4.0 Elmer proves to be indispensable during the balloon ride. I preset the distance at 300 ft and let the DOF takes care of the rest. That is zero delay in focusing. The Elmer is small but not light weight. The overall picture quality is even better than the 20/2.0. it will be in my EOS-M bag from now on. Due to the fore-mentioned reason, the Summicron had never seen the daylight.
The 18mm on EOS-M seems to be quite a bit narrower than the 17mm on the 40D. Quite a few times, I feel that the 18mm is not wide enough. I end up doing a lot of stitching.. I am considering either the 11-22 Canon EF-M or Rokinon 12/2.0 EF-M
Conclusion: The EOS-M system will be my travelling system. I need to live with the forementioned short coming also
