Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat upgrade for earlier M series bodies and makes an awesome travel camera
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2021
I've been using canon products since 2009. I had a 50D, then upgraded to a 5D Mark III and also had a M3. When I go on vacation I take both cameras for various situations (street vs landscapes, and also how much I'm walking around). I decided to upgrade to the M6 Mark II due to the new sensor, increased megapixel count, and more autofocus points. I shoot on the "M" series with the fixed 22mm, the 18-55 or the 55-200 lens.
The good:
-This camera's focus system is far superior to the M3. Its also good for action shots ,where the M3 was sorely lacking IMO
- Color is a lot better overall (the pictures I put above are right out of the camera- note I do use a polarizer and usually a UV filter-- but still those look great- no editing really needed)
- Small size- this camera is tiny. You can throw it in a purse with the fixed lens and not have to take a backpack.
- Battery life - not bad, I think it only died on me once, though I always (ALWAYS) take two extra batteries. It gets more shots than the M3 for sure.
- Video - far superior--- though I don't normally use it for that.
- Image stability- helped a lot in certain situations.
- Ease of use- pretty good, there is a learning curve (see below).
- Price - This is actually affordable for what it offers, something that blows the water out of the larger DSLR cameras that compete with it (like the D90) --- this has far superior photo quality than my D50 or M3 ever had.
- Reliability- this camera is very reliable, turns on fast, and was easy to use for the most part.
This little camera became my go-to for my trip to Germany in October 2021. I took twice as many photos on this little camera than I did on my 5D. Granted, they are used for different purposes, and the quality is not quite that "wow omg professional level with bokeh and whatnot that you get with the 5D Mark III's glass (I refuse to get an adaptor and lug around a monster lens) -- but this does perfectly for walking around the city, getting decent landscapes, or doing pano shots and stitching them together in photoshop.
The cons:
- Controls- these really suck if you got used to the amazing exposure compensation control canon used to have on the M3. Where did it go? Who knows. Canon should bring this back. You have to learn them and get used to them, you can manually assign buttons to different things, so this helped me out a lot. I had like 1 week to figure it out before leaving on my trip. By the end I figured it out all the way.
-ISO *can* be a bit noisy past about 2000. This can be cleaned up to some extent in photoshop but they could fix this.
- Exposure controls- this camera seems to shoot "dark" - its hard to explain, but compared to the M3, you have to work at it a lot more, also only ONE setting allows for more exposure-specific manipulation. This can be annoying when you want to shoot inside, in the dark. Its not exactly a camera good for hand-held long exposures, you need a tripod or to sit it on something and a remote trigger specific to this camera.
In the end I would very much recommend this to anyone looking for a smaller bodied camera to take with them to travel or do street photography. It produces excellent pictures, you will have to learn the controls but it does a great job at what it is meant to do. I have had zero problems with it.