I am very disappointed and not sure what to do. I have really liked my M5, particularly for travel. Then, I bring it and a variety of M lenses and leave the 5D4 and big lenses at home. I typically don’t have a tripod when traveling with my wife. She has no patience for that kind of thing. So, it’s pretty much what I can snap as we move along (although sometimes I go out in the evening or morning when she stays in the hotel, etc.). Anyway, it has worked pretty well as a travel system. The issue is that I had the M5 converted for full spectrum infrared. I have had fun so far (it’s been a few months) with the infrared, but most of the pure travel stuff really wants to be in normal color photography. So, I have the “hot mirror” filter for the lenses, which basically allows normal color photography with the converted camera. So far, so good. The problem is that when I change lenses I also have to move the hot mirror filter. And, of course, there are various filter sizes involved, which means I have a bunch of step up rings to match the filter to the various lenses. And, of course, the filter tends to get stuck on the step up rings. And yes, there are also filters for the various types of infrared photography (I have a 580 and 830) so those get stuck as well. And often even with filter wrenches, I can’t get them unstuck. So, not a great system for quick swapping of lenses as I wander around trying to keep up with my wife. What to do. My original plan was to buy the new M5 Mark II when it came out, thinking it would pair well with my original M5. Two cameras, sharing lenses, but with difference purposes. Small enough to fit into my little sling bag with a bunch of lenses. What could go wrong? Well, Canon could decide to scrap the M5 Mk II and only bring the M6 Mk II. Lay out is different. Hard to switch between cameras that have controls in different places. But, I really hate the idea of the removable viewfinder. I had the M3 for a while with the detachable viewfinder. Can’t really put a camera into the bag with the viewfinder attached. The idea is to be able to have the camera at the ready, easily accessible, without screwing around attaching and detaching stuff. Often, it is fine to compose and shoot using only the screen. But, in the sunlight (which is often, because by definition its the travel camera and I’m shooting whenever I’m wherever, regardless of the light) it is often just too hard to see the screen. So, right now I can get a refurbed M5 with the 18-150 (which I don’t have but think would be great for a vacation walk around lens) for about $650. That’s about 2/3s of what I paid for the M5 body only. No, it isn’t 32 megapixels, but the photos I get from the M5 are just very nice. And I don’t do video, so don’t care about any of that. And, I never even put the m5 in high speed burst mode, rarely low speed burst mode, so none of that is really all that appealing. Well, I imagine few of you have followed to the end of this rant. I thank any of you who have. I don’t really expect any advice, just wanted to express my disappointment that there apparently will be no M5 MkII.
