My new EOS M3 arrived last week from Japan. Since this camera was not being released in the US, I ordered direct from Amazon.co.jp, and used a forwarding service (Tenso.com) to get it to my door. After a few days of getting use to the new camera's features and design, I've discovered a few things that I really like about the M3, but to my surprise (and dismay!), there are also things that really, really bug me.
Things I like:
- The external/optional EVF. Clear, crisp display with only a hint of lag. Makes shooting in direct sunlight a non-issue.
- The rear LCD. i love that it now flips up 180 degrees, and down 45. Those low to the ground and overhead (or pointing downward) shots are much, much easier.
- The physical exposure compensation dial. This actually wasn't so bad to change on the M, but when using the new EVF, the physical dial can be manipulated without removing your eye from the finder.
- Focus Peaking. This is going to be really nice when using my vintage, manual lenses on the M3. The implementation is pretty good, IMO, and will take the place of Magic Lantern (ML) that I use on the M for this same purpose. Good thing too, as I doubt ML will ever be available for the M3 given its limited world-wide distribution.
- The built-in, tiltable flash. I don't expect I'll be using all that much, but it's certainly nice to have when needed. It will definitely save me from packing the little 90EX flash under the same circumstances.
- WiFi. I don't think I'll use this feature a lot either, but again... nice to have for when I do. With WiFi, I can use Canon's EOS Remote Android App to wirelessly shoot and transfer images to my smart phone. I tested this out fairly quickly, and found that it works even better than Canon's Camera Connect App with my PowerShot G7X. With the M3/EOS Remote, I can shoot images in RAW, and still transfer full size JPEGs to my phone. With Camera Connect/G7X... I have to shoot in JPEG (or RAW+JPEG) since the app (at least the current version) refuses to work with RAW files alone.
- The grip. Feels good, and fits my small-medium sized hands well. I can carry the M3 dangling at my side (with wrist strap attached of course) without issues, just like i can my M with Richard Franiec's custom grip.
- The new 24MP sensor. Image quality seems perhaps slightly better than the 18MP sensor of the M (which was already quite good). High ISO noise in particular seems well under control, and does not show signs of linear banding either vertical or horizontal when pushed hard.
- Image Dynamic Range. Seems good, no worse and maybe slightly better than on the M's images.
Things I don't like:
- The magnify AF feature works very differently on the M3. I've convinced myself through my own testing that the area used for focus is NOT just the magnified area. This is a HUGE disappointment for me, as I use this all the time on the M for achieving critical focus.
- Back button focusing (BBF) works very differently on the M3. There are only 2 settings for changing the behavior of the shutter button and the splat (*) button on the M3, down from 4 options on the M. The main issue I have is you can no longer (easily) use the shutter button to lock exposure (AEL). see below...
- There seems to be a 'bug' in the M3 firmware that actually does allow you to AEL by half-pressing the shutter, however you MUST continue to hold down the splat button after focus lock. This is very awkward to do given the positioning of that button. Additionally, this 'bug' only works in evaluative metering mode, and not partial, spot, or center-weighted metering (which would actually be the more relevant modes where i would want to AEL). see below...
- The above AEL issue is compounded by the fact one can NOT assign the AEL function to any of the other three re-assignable buttons (the MF.n button, the trash can button, or the movie record button).
- In addition to the AEL issues w/BBF, the M3 provides NO exposure simulation on the live view with BBF unless you keep the splat button pressed the entire time, until the shutter is released.
- Setting max brightness on the LCD to compensate for bright sunlight washing out the display now takes a full 1 second hold on INFO button to enable/disable this feature. On the M, it was a function you could assign the trash can button, and only required a 'momentary' press to enable/disable.
- Playback review button is small, stiff, creaky, and awkward to press given its location and orientation angle. Very poor design, IMO. I use this button A LOT to review the photo just taken, and it takes a very concentrated effort on my part to engage it in just one press. Totally unlike the M, where it was quick and easy to engage.
- Image stabilization (IS) is continually activated and doing its thing as soon as you power on the M3 and/or mount a lens (either EF-M or EF/EF-S) that has IS. On the M, IS would only engage with a half-press of the shutter button, and disengage within a few seconds (just like on all EOS DSLRs). On the M3, IS only stops when it powers down. Heck, it's even activated when in playback mode viewing images! I've got to believe this is a bug and will be fixed with a firmware update. In the meantime, I'll have to remember to always power down the M3 to minimize the battery drain impact these constantly activated IS servos will have.
- The battery is different form factor than the M, and you can't use M's batteries in the M3 (and vice versa). The new LP-E17 is just a tiny bit longer than the LP-E12 (perhaps 0.5mm) and a tiny bit thicker (again maybe 0.5mm), and has a higher capacity (1040 mah vs 830 mah). Canon could have easily released a higher capacity version using the same form factor (like they did for the LP-E6N, the higher capacity version of the LP-E6). But instead Canon changed the size and the location of the 'notch' at the base of the new battery so it physically will not seat all the way down. It seems that Canon is taking a page out of the 'ink jet cartridge' business model.
- Can't assign many of the menu items to "My Menu". The original M seemed to provide just about every menu item as an option to add to "My Menu" (as on all the Canon PowerShot cameras I have). For some reason, Canon has decided this is no longer necessary, and only provides a limited number of settings to pick from now. Notably missing is "Format", which I use quite a bit, and custom function menu items.
- Image review stays displayed until the camera auto-powers down after 5 minutes, regardless of LCD display timeout setting. More battery drain unless one is diligent about powering down the camera after shooting.
- Often changed settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are no longer touch sensitive on the M3. They are displayed on the LCD, but you can not simply "touch" them to activate the adjustment screen and slide your finger across the LCD to change the values. You can only adjust them by manipulating a physical dial.
- Adjusting ISO can only be done by rotating the rear dial, not with the directional arrows. Most (all?) other adjustments can be done with either, but try to lower the ISO by pressing the "left" button, and you'll find that you've just engaged manual focus.
- Overall, the touchscreen UI has changed for the worse, IMO. The original M's UI was a pleasure to use. It was clean, quick, logical, and intuitively presented. The 'new' UI on the M3 is looks and feels like the PowerShot touchscreen UI now, in fact it's nearly identical to my PowerShot G7X.
- A minor nit about the build quality. In addition to the stiff, creaky playback button, the M3 body doesn't feel as solidly built as the M. It has a more plasticky, hollow feel... reminiscent to some of the PowerShot cameras I've owned or played with. The exterior texture also feels like my dad's G15... which isn't necessarily a bad thing since it's pretty grippy. It's just not as 'premium' feeling as the M's body, which feels like you're holding a solid hunk of metal.
- UPDATE 8/9/2015: The image displayed during playback/review mode is a low resolution JPEG, instead of a full or high resolution image. This makes it impossible to verify critical focus "in camera". When zoomed all the way in to a review image, you can clearly see the poor quality pixelated mess. The last time I recall this 'feature' was looooong time ago (circa 2005) in my older compact Canons and even my EOS 20D. Essentially using a low quality JPEG as the embedded image in the RAW files - which in turn was used during image playback/review. That was somewhat excusable 10 years ago, when perhaps the early camera's image processing capability was limited and didn't allow smooth panning and scrolling of the review image (or flipping through images) at full resolution, high quality settings. But today, in 2015? In Canon's latest and greatest M3? I verified that my 3 year old EOS M does NOT have this failing, so it's something new on the M3. Another clue that the firmware of the M3 is a mashup with the PowerShot line... as I also verified that my Canon G7X does the same thing! Why, Canon? Why??? This is somewhat mitigated in both the M3 and the G7X by shooting in RAW+JPEG (Large/Super Fine) - which seems to use *this* JPEG image as the embedded image instead of the default low quality junk. Thing is, I never shoot this way. To me, that's just extra files taking up space on the memory card, and extra clutter to remove after downloading images from the card to my PC.
As you can see, the list is a bit lopsided on the negatives. Some of the usability issues, presumably, will be fixed via a firmware update at some point. Others, I'm afraid are here to stay.
