longtallkarl said:
archiea said:
longtallkarl said:
thanks for the thorough report archiea!
i'm thinking long and hard about the m3, mostly for the evf. i've enjoyed the m1, but it would get used more if it had better af, an evf, and better iq - all things the m3 seems to have.
LongtalkKarl, tell me what you want on the M3 and what you want most improved on a M1 and I'll see what I can tell you. If you do pull the trigger, definitley get the EVF with it. it comes with a little grey bag to protect it when not on your camera. On its own its $240 on B&H, definitley worth it in Kit form
Whoops! didn't see this til now! yes - the main thing i'm interested in about the upgrade is the evf. i find my compositions are sloppier with an lcd at arms length than with an eye level finder. then there's the daylight issue. anyway - what are your impressions of the evf? does the image seem small like you're looking through a 20d, or larger like a 5diii? does it provide the same information as the lcd? and how does switching back and forth between the lcd and evf work, and is it fairly seamless? i assume various changes must still be made on the lcd even when shooting with the evf. how well does that work? many thanks!
LongTalkAri...
some things about the EVF:
the automatic handoff between the LCD and the EVF is slightly delayed but you get used to it. If you like you can disable the automatic handoff and use the button on the side of the evf to switch displays. It works regardless of the setting on the display handoff (auto/manual) in the menu. So just before putting your eye to the EVF you can tap that button.
You can program the trash can button on the DPAD to turn off the LCD. it will turn off the LCD but not the EVF when its on. You have to switch it back to the back LCD then hit the trashcan to turn it off. However once in LCD mode, you can just half press the shutter or press any button to "wake up" the display.
Press and hold the info button for two seconds and the LCD goes to 100 % brightness. This works well out in the daylight when you are under bright sunlight. The display is brighter than my iPhone 6's display.
OK, here's the tricky part when using the EVF and the "tradeoff you have since you loose the touch screen functionality...
The two extra dials that you get on the M3 (the one under the shutter and the rotating D-pad) function to operate the aperture and the shutter. In the EVF (and the LCD for that matter) it shows you which buttons do what with little button icons next to the f-stop and the shutter. Once the buttons are operated, a dedicated display of the assigned functions scrolls across the screen. Without looking, pressing up on the d-Pad activates the iso menu with the rotating of the D-pad allowing you to change the ISO. I've used this in the heat of battle and it works beautifully. SO you an do this all from the EVF or the LCD. This makes the M# way faster to operate than the M1.
Tap on the Q button and you get the quick menu to access drive, WB, modes, etc. This is normally touch but with the EVF, the touchpad operates it where up and down lets you scroll thru the menu but gong side to side OR rotating the Dpad operates the option of the selected menu. you get used to this quick. The whole time your eyeball can be crazy clued to the evf.
the info button toggles you thru 4 display options. Just to be clear, the dedicated Q button enables a fifth, the above quickmenu display. The dedicated menu button displays the system menu which would be the 6th screen. Getting back to the info button, it toggles thru 4 screens: 3 are HUDS, the forth is the old style checkerboard quick menu we've had since the rebel days. with the LCD this is all touch, but the D-pad operates it. This time, hitting up or down navigates you thru the different selections while rotating the d-pad adjust the settings of the selection. However for some reason, despite the redundant button use for the checkerboard quick menu, it does not display in the EVF, you have to look at the LCD. all other displays, including the menu, can be viewed in the EVF. really strange.
The three other HUD display toggles are a clear menu free display, one with the tilt viewer, the other with histogram (you select weather RGB or white in the menu)
Here's whats nice: in the menu you can disable any of the displays, with the exception of the empty one. In other words, you can disable from the display toggle the quick menu, level display and level + histogram display, leaving you just the clear display. Nicely optioned. Of course I tried living without a histogram option for about half a day.. what can I say, I'm a HUD junkie!!
So far it seems like a win win of the EVF/LCD combo, right? well almost..... the problem starts with a small minor issue like, I dunno,
FOCUS!
AHHHHHHH!!!
what is it about the EOS-M and focus... its nuts.....
Touch focus, one of the great aspects of the rear LCD is gone... thats expected. but once your are in the EVF, you are the mercy as to what the EOS-m wants to focus on. you can toggle face detect on or off with the magnify button which switches function to focus mode when in automatic. What IS nice is that D-pad left button toggle manual focus. This is a nice change from the M1. Toggle manual that and guess whats comes up automatically (if programmed in the menu), the long sought after
FoCuS pEaKiNg! !!!!! So your methodology should be that once you are in EVF, likely you want to manual focus. You an auto focus but you are now limited to either auto track or auto face detect.. you have no way of operating the location of the af tracker. You can toggle either single point or tracking with with either the quick menu or assigning that toggle to the MF button, or you can toggle wither face tracking or regular tracking with the magnify button which doubles as a focus mode selector when in AF.
it seems that in EVF mode it will always AF whats in center unless you enable facial tracking, so I guess its lock focus and recompose.
LCD-wise the focus is great. you can touch to focus or touch to focus and shoot. ... I find myself doing this on the 5D sometimes!!! :
touch something to track and it tracks, be it a face or a detail that it can lock on.
Manual focus with the EVF (or LCD) and focus peaking is great, but magnify and it becomes tricky with the EVF. Unfortunately, the multifunction button that is right next to shutter can be programmed to do anything including the dishes and walk the dog, but NOT activate the magnify!!!! ??? I don't understand why. So you can't one hand operate and hit magnify!!!! Your thumb has to lift from the grip and hit the button just below the thumb rest!!!! It makes magnifying to focus a two hand operation JUST TO HIT THE BUTTON!!!! Simply adding magnify as a programmable function would have remedies this!!! I can see when operating the LCD , but even then having it assigned to the multiF button would help as you thumb remains gripping the camera!!!!1
ITs not a deal killer, its more of a WTF thing.. like what were they thinking.... its like some let over from the pre-EVF days.
the second problem with the the magnify is that once I magnify, i get focus, now how do I get out of magnify, let me press halfway on the shutter... no, let me hit the magnify button, nope it magnifies deeper... a feature that you and already do with the rotary buttons ANWAY!!!!! I have to press the magnify button, yup that button that makes me lift my thumb from the camera TWICE to get out of magnify!!!! I can understand this logic in the you select the magnify region on the LCD with you who composed, magnify, focus, then hit the shutter and the photo is taken with the composition you locked in. I do this with the 5D live view when I used lens babies. . Problem is that when you are in EVF mode, you have no preselection of the area.... you zoom, use the D-pad to navigate OR move your framing, manual focus, press the magnify button TWICE to exit zoom.. I dunno, this can be streamlined.
For instance, on the sony alpha 6000, with sony lenses, as soon as you touch focus of the lens, it zooms in.. brilliant!! you an program faces into the system and then recall which face you want to track. Clearly a 21st century AF system.
Either way, for me, I had planned to use some vintage manual glass on the M3 when I'm not using the canon ef-m lenses for snapshooting. the EVF and focus peaking were high on my feature list, but they have to make it so that the multiF button can be programmed for a quick magnify, leave the rotary buttons for zooming and then a quick tap of the multiF again to get out of focus... its the best way IMHO.
Either way, I still luv this little camera. I hope this helps.