Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Canon EOS M3 Mirrorless Camera

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2016

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mmSet: BaseVerified Purchase

I can honestly say I love this camera. I've owned it for a year now, and used it for a variety of things, from filming to photo shoots to travel pictures. For someone who didn't know much about cameras for the first half year of use, this camera was spectacular, and allowed me to capture some truly unique shots.

Starting with my favorite features: The movable screen is incredibly useful. As well as allowing for cute selfies and vlogging, the screen really helps get angled shots. Especially when I'm outdoors, the idea of lying on the ground to line up a shot isn't appealing, and after a long day of shooting I'm too tired to maneuver like that. This camera allows me to get low angle shots by flipping the screen up and holding the camera my my knees. I only have to bend over, and the touch screen can be incredibly useful to focus in the same instance. The camera is light and portable, I had no problems dragging it along with me on trips. The battery lasts forever, I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to charge it and still been totally fine for a full day of shooting. The battery charges quickly as well, so if you wake up and it's dead, it won't take more than an hour (rough estimate) to charge fully.
My main motivation for buying this camera was film. I'm in the process of shooting a short film, and I enjoy messing around with video when my friends and I go on short trips. I did extensive research on what would work best, and I wouldn't have chosen any camera but this one. After a year of use, I can happily say this still holds true. The mobility of the screen and touchscreen ability makes it really easy to make high quality videos. The camera is compact and light as well, so vlogging is easy. The built in mic is pretty high quality, and for on the go filming, I could get good sound without buying a mic.

There are a few downsides. I had a little trouble working my way around the controls at first, but that may be due to my lack of familiarity with cameras in general. There are times where I wish this camera came with a viewfinder. You can buy the attachment, and for people who are looking to do serious photography, I might suggest it. This is partially personal preference, I think using a viewfinder can feel more natural. I haven't bought this attachment yet, so I can't speak to the quality of the one included in some of these bundles. However, when I shoot film or use a friend's DSLR, the viewfinder can make some shots more comfortable. Others are better using the screen. Occasionally the focus can get a little wonky when it's left on auto, but a switch to manual is the easy fix-- just takes a little longer. The only other real issue I have is finding lenses that are compatible with this body. There's an adapter, which I haven't bought. I've only used the body with the 18-55 lens, and it's worked great, there have been very few instances where I wanted a greater range.

Overall, I think the pros far outweigh the cons. If you're looking for a dependable camera for a reasonable price, I couldn't recommend this one more.

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mahughes

Nice, small, very capable camera with disappointing battery life

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2016

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mm + AdapterSet: BaseVerified Purchase

I am not going to get into the pluses and minuses of this camera. Most of the reviews discuss that already.

I am a casual photographer that enjoys using good amateur equipment. Since 2009 I have been using a Canon SxI DSLR. I decided I wanted smaller gear and already liking Canon cameras I bought the M3. I have not been disappointed except for the battery life. I was aware of the short battery life before I purchased (you have to do your research when buying expensive electronics) so it did not catch me totally unaware. It is not a problem to have a spare battery, but they are expensive.

I set up the camera to use the M-Fn button to switch the ECO mode on and off. This does help. Turning off the continuous AF also helps. But there is no avoiding the fact that battery life is awful.

Over all I really like this camera. I have the Canon EF adapter and allows me to use my EF-S lenses with the M3. AF is a problem with some of the EF lenses, again turning off continuous AF help a lot. The images I have taken so far are sharp and well exposed. The camera and the EF-M kit lens are small, solid, and well built.

The menu's are easy to use if you are used to Canon DSLR's. But coming from one as old as mine was, the number of additional settings was a little overwhelming at first. I have spent several evenings working with the camera and the manual in order to understand how the different options work and the different built-in effects possible. It will take me some time to become completely comfortable with this camera, but this was expected based on my research.

I purchased the EF-M 22mm F2 lens separately. I suggest this lens to anyone purchasing the M3. Laser sharp, quick focusing, and makes the camera somewhat more pocket-able.

I am taking one star off for the poor battery life. Otherwise I have to say that this is a very good and capable camera.

UPDATE* I have been using the M3 for about 3 weeks now and it has really grown on me. I LOVE this camera! With a spare battery there are few problems with the short battery life.

There are 2 things you can do to dramatically increase the battery life.

1. Turn off the continuous auto focus. With this on the camera continually focusing. Wasting battery power for no purpose.

2. Use the ECO setting.

All in all, I think this is a five star camera.

****UPDATE****

I have been using the M3 for a little over 1.5 years and I really have learned to like it a lot. Much easier to carry around than an SLR and is a large improvement from my Canon XSi.

The battery life has not turned into as big a problem as i was afraid it would be. I agree with the person that commented on my review about the cost of extra Canon batteries, but I chose to make the investment just the same. They are small and easy to pocket, so it hasn't been an issue.

Image quality is excellent, and the auto focus is quite good. Not instantaneous, but does a great job!

All in all, this camera has lived up to my expectations completely.

11 people found this helpful

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customer

Perfect for street photography

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2016

Color: BlackStyle: Body OnlySet: BaseVerified Purchase

Great camera. I use it with a 22mm f/2 lens EF-M lens and this is a fantastic combination which produces absolutely stunning images and the whole set up fits into my pocket. I compared M3 with 22mm f/2 lens against my full frame 6D with 17-40 f/4 lens set at 35 mm. I sold my 17-40 after that. The crop sensor M3 with 22/2 wide open produced at least as good images as my 17-40 set at 35 mm at f4. Of course, the 17-40 is a zoom lens and you have an option for incredibly wide 17mm shots. But M3 + 22/2 is a stunning combination.

I have read that autofocus of M3 is not good, and that is partially true. However with the native EF-M 22mm f2 lens, autofocus is very fast and accurate. I was able to get well focused shots on the street while walking most of the time. So it's very fast and accurate. I have really no complaints at all about aufocus speed with this lens. My 100mm f/2 worked with M3 great as well. However, my 400mm f5.6 lens focused extremely slowly with M3. The same goes for my 80-200/2.8 lens. Usable only for static subjects.

Regarding image quality, it is a good as it gets for a crop sensor camera from Canon. There's nothing better from Canon. There's not much to say except that is great. It's Canon and that says everything. High ISO performance is great for a crop sensor camera. My 6D (full frame) is better obviously because of full frame. But M3 performs really solidly at high ISO. Colors are great as in all Canon cameras. Dynamic range could be slightly better at base ISO, but as soon as you increase ISO to 1000 or above, it is the best in its class. When I say dynamic range could be slightly better at base ISO, this doesn't mean it's bad. It's great, but there's room for improvement. That's all.

This camera really shines with the 22mm f/2 lens, and in my view it's worth buying this camera only so that you could use this lens. With this lens, M3 is perfect for street photography. Light, compact and with image quality comparable pro grade L zoom glass on full frame. Last, but not least, it's cheap.

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Staticlag

A mini camera worthy of Canon!!!

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2015

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mm + AdapterSet: BaseVerified Purchase

I am a pro photographer and a pixel peeper, I have owned 5 professional bodies starting with the 1D back in 2002. I have 11 Canon lenses.

Let me start with a list of pros and cons of the m3 kit with 18-55mm kit lens.

M3
Pros:
+Low Noise
+Well Built
+Very Small
+Dedicated EV dial
+Grippy handgrip area
+No Moire (great digital processing)

Cons:
-Finicky Menu layout
-Tiny buttons
-Buffer fills up fast when shooting RAW, I can get ~4 shots before I need to wait for the card to write. with a SanDisk Extreme PRO SDSDXPA-064G-X46 SDXC Flash Memory Card with up to 95MB/s

18-55mm Lens
Pros:
+Excellent Sharpness
+Excellent Contrast
+Great Colors
+Small!

Cons
-Chromatic Aberrations everywhere past .5 (half the distance from the center of the lens to the edge of the lens) even stopped down
-Vignetting
-Barrel distortion
-Slightly soft wide open

The autofocus:
In good lighting It is similar to a modern prosumer slr like the 5D maybe slightly faster. With the kit lens in auto mode it always stays focused wherever I point it, very snappy.

With other full size Canon EF lenses it can hunt a bit in auto mode to the point where you want to turn off auto mode and put it into focus on demand mode where you half press the shutter button like any slr. It has a bit more trouble with telephoto lenses, and slower consumer lenses. It slows down slightly indoors but is still of slr speed. Indoors it really needs the infrared focus assist light to be quick, but you have the option to turn off that front red light.

Let's approach this realistically... Is this camera going to beat a top end slr? Is this lens going to give a $2000 lens a run for it's money? No.

That all being said, this is an excellent kit for anyone from your pro photog who wants a walk-around body, to a family going on vacation. For it's size and price it's a must buy! Some of the greatest photos were not taken on the best equipment, they were taken on small portable cameras. There's a great adage we pros used to use in the film days: " f/8 and be there!" Meaning being present for the event is 90% of the photo. This is just like owning a DSLR body in a tiny frame. Great unobtrusive camera. And with the adapter to attach your canon lenses and speedlites this camera has some serious guts to backup your kit in a pinch.

If you want a camera for family or vacation this is the one to get to have amazing pictures! Just set it to full auto and its all the point and shoot you would ever need!

268 people found this helpful

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Men'sRightsActivist

What a dumb move on Canon's part

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2016

Color: BlackStyle: Body OnlySet: BaseVerified Purchase

This camera offers no remote live view computer control by either USB cable, or WiFi, making it largely a worthless investment for me. What a dumb move on Canon's part. Canon is behind other manufacturers on this camera. Even though this camera allows use of other Canon lenses (with an adapter) it's limited abilities otherwise make it a very, very bad choice. I have a friend who has the Sony Alpha a6000 and will explore getting the camera I probably should have bought instead of this slow focusing, mediocre camera.

Update: Additionally, the autofocus on this camera is horrible. I used it over the weekend just for photos and compared to current Canon DSLR's and even my SX130 this camera is substandard in autofocusing. I'd give it a zero if possible.

7 people found this helpful

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Piaw Na

Excellent image quality

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2015

Color: BlackStyle: Body OnlySet: BaseVerified Purchase

A few years ago, Peng-Toh and I were talking about mirrorless cameras. At that time, I'd spent some time with the EPL-1. The EPL-1 did a good job of pretending to be a good camera: shutter speeds were fast, and previewed images looked sharp and beautiful. But once you imported the images into Lightroom, the results were ugly: you quickly discovered that most of the time, the focus was off, and while the images were sometimes usable, they were never ones you were proud to share. Even photos from point and shoots such as the S90 were better. The consensus between Peng-Toh and I was that Canon would enter the mirrorless market, and do it right.

Canon did enter the mirrorless market a few years ago, in the form of the EOS M, but it did everything wrong. Apparently, auto-focus was awful, so much so that I didn't even consider the camera. Peng-Toh did buy one, but he was disappointed. The one thing that Canon did right, apparently, was that the image quality was superb, but that was apparently insufficient to overcome all the other flaws.

Canon had an EOS M3 sale during the holidays (and it's still running today). At $430, it's not cheap (though in the same ballpark as say, the Sony A6000), but online reviews indicated that Canon had solved the autofocus issues with the camera. The photo community seems to think that Canon isn't serious about mirrorless, and to some extent they're right: there are only 4 dedicated EFM lenses, and the M3 doesn't sport any high end features such as in-body image-stabilization, and Canon doesn't have any full frame mirrorless cameras like Sony.

Pit against that, however, is that for any long lens work, you might as well stick the full frame EF lenses on the camera. Sure, the lens is huge compared to the camera, and you could have shaved a couple of hundred grams off the lens if you weren't carrying so much glass, but when you have a long lens that weight difference is really lost in the noise. Furthermore, those full frame mirrorless Sony cameras are very expensive, and when you come down to the same price level of the EOS M3, you get cameras like the Sony A6000. Even a cursory glance at the sample images comparing the EOS M3 to the A6000 using the kit lens easily reveals that the combination of a Canon lens and the EOS M3 utterly destroys the Sony equivalent as far as image quality. And if you're knowledgeable, you won't be shooting with the kit lens!

With that in mind, I took the plunge and got the EOS M3 for my wife on her birthday. Along with the body, I purchased the EF-M 22/f2 and the EOS M mount adapter. We also bought and returned the EFM 18-55mm zoom. The zoom was surprisingly nice, but it had a strange color cast that I didn't find appealing.

When building a new system, my philosophy is where possible build it around primes that provide roughly a doubling of focal length. So paired with the EFM-22, I got out my ancient EF 50mm/1.8. The two lenses yield a full-frame equivalent of a 35mm lens and an 80mm lens, which nicely covers the "normal" range, with the 80mm providing a great portrait lens. The 50mm together with the EF mount weigh just 80g more than the zoom, but provide a 1.8 maximum aperture which lets you isolate a subject in its surroundings. If Canon had made a wide angle prime EF-M lens, I would have bought it as well, since that's what's missing.

When the camera arrived, I was impressed by how small it was, especially with the 22mm prime attached. It was tiny, just a bit bigger than the Sony RX100. But what blew me away was that my wife tried the camera, and then declared that she wasn't going to shoot with just her phone again. The biggest feature for her was the NFC wireless transmittal of photos from the camera to her smartphone. She'd always hated having to use lightroom to extract photos from a camera: by contrast, photos that go into her smartphone are immediately available for sharing and posting onto social networks. And the quality difference was obvious: this clearly is a DSLR in a point and shoot body.

The nice thing about the EOS M3 if you're already a Canon user is that all your existing accessories work with it. My flashes and my collection of EF lenses were immediately compatible. When you put that together with high quality primes, it blew away anything produced by anyone who owns a crappy 18-200mm zoom instead of a decent lens. To put it all together, we went to a physical store and picked up a Think Tank Mirroless Mover 25i (after trying a bunch of other bags). It fit a flash, a mini tripod, the charger, and various other accouterments for serious shooting. In practice, Xiaoqin mostly carried it around with just the 22mm/f2 attached. With a 24MP image output, even severe cropping still grants usable photo quality.

In practice, the camera produces superlative images. Low light performance is impressive:

The biggest flaw in the camera is that shot-to-shot times are slow in one-shot mode, and the 50mm tends to hunt a bit. (An upgrade to the latest and greatest 50mm STM would probably solve this problem) But by far the biggest benefit is that the camera's much likely to be traveled with than my ancient EOS 5D2. That alone made my wife decide to keep the camera instead of sending it back to Amazon.

Since I'm not the primary user of this camera, don't expect any long term reviews from me. But if you're a Canon user looking for a travel setup (especially if you're a landscape person who needs a camera for backcountry camping or cycling), I won't hesitate to recommend this to you. The image quality is superb, it's small and light (it's smaller than even the G series of point and shoots), and a landscape shooter won't have any issues whatsoever with the shot-to-shot times. Canon might not have "done it right" yet, but for someone who's got 2 kids and would like to travel with a serious camera that's nevertheless still light enough to bring on a trip, the M3 is an great alternative to the DSLR and produces far better photos than even the Sony RX100.

Recommended.

14 people found this helpful

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T. Wicker

A Little Camera That Can

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mmSet: BaseVerified Purchase

My primary camera is a Canon 6D, backed up by a 7D Mark II. I've been an amateur photographer since the mid 1960's and shot with Leica, Minolta and Contax film cameras before moving to my first Canon digital point and shoot in 2000. I switched to a Canon 10D in 2004 and thought that I'd never use anything other than a DSLR since then. Even so, from time to time I would look at different point and shoot cameras and think about having a smaller, lighter alternative that I was more likely to carry with me. Like most photographers, there have been times when an opportunity presented itself and I wished I'd had a camera with me. Even with the vast improvement in cell phone cameras I wished for more control over exposure, depth of field, etc.

My first experience with mirrorless cameras was with the Olympus OM-D E-M10. That is a great little camera, but I found the IQ - while very good - to not measure up to the Canon M3 and the Fujifilm line of mirrorless cameras and I decided not to try the higher end 4/3 cameras. I've been very impressed by the IQ of the Canon M3, including at high ISO values. I've tried several of the EF-M lenses and have been impressed with their quality as well (including the 18-55mm kit lens). I've also tried the adapter with some of the smaller Canon lenses and have been impressed with the quick focus and image quality.

This camera won't replace my DSLR (and maybe I'll have enough money someday to move up to one of the 5D's), but the size and weight are fantastic for the images I've seen so far. I've also bought the Fuji X-Pro2 and am very impressed, but I see it as more of an alternative to DSLRs given its size and the size and weight of some of its lenses. Don't get me wrong, I love the X-Pro2 and already have some great images from it, but it can't beat the M3 for size.

I've included a shot of Johnson grass to show how well the camera focused on the grass that the wind was blowing all over the place against a busy background; a shot of some horses that I took from my truck and that I took quickly as I pulled to the side of the road because I wasn't sure when another vehicle might come along; and a shot of a sunset sky to show how well the camera performed at higher ISOs (in this case 2500). I've also included two photos showing the size comparison between the M3 with the adapter and an EF 40mm pancake lens compared to the Canon 6D with the 24-70mm f/2.8 II and to the Fuji X-Pro2 with the 16mm f/1.4 WR.

The M3 isn't a "pocket camera", but it's about as small as you're going to get and still be able to change lenses and control aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, etc. I carry this camera or the Fuji (or sometimes both) with me just about all the time. It fits nicely in the center console of my truck when I have to leave it behind. I've found the best bag for this camera and two or three lenses and accessories to be Think Tank's Urban Approach 5. I initially thought I'd miss the view-finder, but it really hasn't been a big problem so far. I might still buy one, but it'll sort of defeat my purpose for this system - which is small and light and great IQ. A definite five stars for a very compact mirrorless camera.

69 people found this helpful

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harvey

Love it.

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2021

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mmSet: BaseVerified Purchase

Great camera, and the Peacock store people did extremely well on this used camera. I saved a ton of money getting it used with them. And they provided all the things you would normally get brand new: body, lens, strap, charger (after market), SC Card, and even a UV lens as a bonus.

I chose this camera because it has a hotshoe, useful for flash. (There are ways to use an external flash without, but let's have the option available.) I could have went for the M50, but there is one advantage I wanted from this camera: CHDK. I love Magic Lantern and CHDK. As of now, these can not go on the Digic 7 sensor.

This camera was closer to the early days of Canon mirrorless. That means the face follow is a little less than my M100, and it's high speed shutter count stops short of the M100 too. I was a little turned off at first, but found that 5 shots at high speed shutter is not much different than 15. :) I still will find the best one in there.

Overall, love the size, love the options and controls, the response time is a little lagging, but I'm okay with it. Don't feel the menus are quite as extensive as I would expect from a mid range camera. Close to the Powershot menus. As always, love my APC sensor size. Would say you better budget in the viewfinder, because we are all being a bit silly with what we can expect from a LED display.

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M. Dillon

Good travel-light camera but needs another iteration or two

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2015

Color: BlackStyle: Body OnlySet: BaseVerified Purchase

(Edited a month later after returning from my long vacation using the body, see second half below)

I just received this camera and have been prepping two of them for our European vacation. Unlike prior wildlife trips I've decided to try traveling light this time. Usually I take the full menagerie (5DM2 body, 6D body, 100-400 4.5-5.6L, 50mm(1.2L), 24-105L, plus backups). So obviously with the M3 I got the adapter so I could bring along one or two of my L lens. My wife will be lugging the M3 with the stock 18-55 M-lens. I will be lugging the M3 with my full-sized 50mm and my 24-105 zoom only. I won't be bringing along my 100-400. So this review is mainly for folks who have regular glass and are interested in the M3. I'll edit the review when I get back from the trip, so far this is just initial testing at home and in the yard.

First thing to note is that you won't be taking pictures as quickly as on a 6D, nor would I expect to be able to. That said, generally speaking, once it gets a focus lock the single-shot shutter button is nice and snappy. The focus lock speed depends on the lens. It is pleasantly quick with the stock lens and the adapted 50mm. In fact, with the 50mm I was very pleased with the very quick focus response! With the 24-105 it is quick about 50% of the time and lags a little 40% of the time and has real problems 10% of the time (runs the gamut or gives up). But for that 90% it is still much faster than a point-and-shoot. With the 100-400 it is quick about 20% of the time and lags a bit 50% of the time and has real problems 30% of the time. As other reviewers have noted, if the focus is already close it tends to be quicker.

The focus, once locked, is essentially perfect and even less error prone with the 50mm at F1.2 than the 6D, so I'm happy in that camp. Manual focusing is possible with zoom mode but not even remotely as easy as the 6D with an S-type focusing screen. But not necessary unless you want to be defocused in an artistic way. Note that "MF Peaking" mode only works with the stock M lens, not with external lens (it can't figure out when you are manually focusing, it would be nice if they added that feature since it would be easy to detect via the sensor). In anycase, I'm extremely happy with the AF when using the 50mm 1.2L prime.

Continuous AF mode should not be used with any adapted lens, though it almost works 'ok' with the 50mm. Driving larger lenses continuously will drain your battery quickly and the sound can be annoying. Similarly, Servo mode doesn't work all that well with adapted lens because it tends to get confused quite often and can't track.

Second item... don't expect to be able to use the built-in flash with a full-sized lens. Theoretically you can tilt it backwards with a small wedge for a 45-90 degree ceiling bounce but it doesn't seem to have the feature natively. But hey, the M3 has a hot-shoe (but I won't be bringing my external flash, not with the F1.2 50mm available). You can laugh when you put a real flash on this diminutive camera.

In-camera image-review and storage: Works as expected but I always take pictures in RAW mode and with RAW-only the review doesn't do any cleanup on the photo and it is fairly difficult to use it to check fine detail or focus. The review looks much better when a JPG is available, so be aware of this and use something like RAW+S2 (RAW+S3 is worthless). Needless to say, nobody in their right mind should be using this camera without at least a 64GB SDXC card (x a couple), and nobody in their right mind should ever use JPG-only storage mode for stills. Always use RAW or RAW+something. I didn't test movie taking but I've found generally that a 400x (speed) card is just fine and it is a waste of money to buy a 1000x or faster card, but YMMV.

ISO operation is pretty much as expected. My one recommendation here is to go into the menu system and reduce the max auto ISO from 6400 to 800 or 1600 for stills, and learn to set the ISO manually when you need to go higher. You will be happier. I usually leave exposure safety-shift turned off for myself and on for my wife. Movies can use higher ISO values. As with most recent sensors, higher ISOs have less noise when more light is available, allowing for quicker shutter times so YMMV. I leave the auto max at 6400 for my wife.

Resolving power using the L lens seems to be down the pixel on this 24Mpix camera, so for vacation shots I don't think I will have any trouble framing in post-production. I intend to use mostly the high-end 50mm prime for its fine depth of field.

The M3 has a solid feel. The M3 with the 18-55 also has a solid feel though the manual focusing ring is a little rough when moving it (considering that it isn't mechanical, it shouldn't be rough). The adapter pushes the L lens out a bit the overall result has a reasonably solid feel to it. The 50mm certainly, and also the 24-105. The 100-400... well, it's hard not to laugh at the tiny camera connected to a big lens. Don't torque the camera mount!

Negatives:

#1 Honestly, Canon needs to produce more lens for this form factor. They are deathly scared of losing volume in their higher-end DSLRs but HEY CANON! EITHER LOSE VOLUME TO YOUR OWN PRODUCTS OR YOU WILL LOSE VOLUME TO A COMPETITOR'S PRODUCT! WAKE THE HELL UP! Other than that the M3 was what I expected.

#2 The AF, which is all software, could be significantly improved for adapted zoom and telephoto lens and I eagerly await a firmware update from Canon. The servo AF is also pretty bad and could easily be improved.

#3 There doesn't seem to be a picture-in-picture zoomed focusing mode for manual focusing, which is a shame. Current manual focus helper features are not well designed. I hate it when the camera flips between magnifications when taking a shot, it's stupid and unnecessary and frankly it is inconvenient because the shutter button half-pressed is very sensitive, making it difficult to hit other buttons at the same time.

#4 If you use auto-review mode (e.g. like set to 2 seconds or something), you can't hit the 'Q' (magnify) button while it is reviewing the shot to automatically go into the normal review mode. You have to hit the normal review mode first, then magnify. This would be a trivial software fix for Canon to make.

What I can't comment on yet:

#1 Battery life, I'm taking extras on the trip, will report back. (Note to new camera buyers, it takes several full charge cycles for a new lithium-ion battery to reach full capacity!).

#2 I did not do any resolution tests on the stock 18-55 M lens, will report back (wife is using that lens). Quick tests looked reasonably good (or at least, as expected, which is to say I'm not trying to compare this baby to a 5D/6D/7D/1D or similar camera).

---- VACATION RESULTS ----

I took this body on our month-long European vacation, and specifically did not take my larger DSLR (6D) body. I really wanted to see how I felt using the M3 in a setting where I wanted good pictures, but wasn't doing wildlife shots (which the M3 definitely cannot do). Here is my take after returning.

First the pluses - The body is much lighter than the 6D. Handling of the camera in my hand was fine even with the EOS 50mm F1.2L and 18-105L zoom. Obviously my left hand was mostly holding the lens and my right was around the camera. I was able to take the pictures I wanted without too much trouble. The only real trouble I had was taking pictures of moving birds. The M3 AF just couldn't handle it.

Now the negatives - and there are many.

* Reading other reviews I bought a second battery, and boy did I need it! Two batteries got me through a day without any problems but one battery definitely wasn't enough. If you intend to do any significant photography with the M3 you need at least one extra battery, and be sure to charge everything up overnight.

* Mode changes did some fancy mode-change graphics on the display and ignored my attempts to get back to display mode (half pressed) or to register other function changes until it finished with its fancy graphics. REALLY ANNOYING. The camera is useless for ~3 seconds or so after every mode change.

* Display stuttering. In numerous situations the camera did not immediately go into live mode or execute the AF, but 'froze' for a second or so, causing me to lose the moment. Also true after taking a picture. It was decently fast taking multiple pictures with the shutter button held down but the moment I released it it couldn't take another picture for ~2 seconds or so.

* AF search non-optimal. This was expected. It did fairly well with the 50mm and a bit less so with the 28-105, but sometimes couldn't lock focus and would give up for no reason. When it did lock focus, it did a good job in most cases. The one case where it got confused with with the 50mm at F1.2... the very thin depth of field confused it if the focus box encompassed a range that couldn't be focused (i.e. dead center in focus, edges not due to the depth of field, which is what I wanted but the camera was often not happy doing AF in that situation). I feel that Canon could easily fix the most egregious AF issues with a firmware update if they put their mind to it.

* Way too easy to mess-up settings due to the controls being so sensitive. The screen touch wasn't too bad and I left it on, but it was just too easy to hit the multi-way rocker. I'm used to reviewing all settings while taking a picture but my wife is not and half her shots were messed up due to accidental key/rocker-presses.

* The pop-out screen was useful, but it also popped out on several occasions when I didn't intend it to.

* Similarly the flash sometimes popped out when not intended (and of course the built-in flash is unusable with any EOS lens attached, so I didn't want to use it at all).

* Software regressions. I think Canon explicitly degraded some of the software features to differentiate the camera (unnecessarily) from their higher-end DSLR bodies. HEY CANON, THAT'S STUPID! YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE YOUR MARKET IF YOU KEEP DOING THAT S***.

* The best use of the M-fn button was to set it to 'display-off'. I started with it set to stop the camera down to show the depth of field, but the battery life was so abysmal and the timeout settings in the menu so badly designed that I soon changed it. I set the display timeout to a high value in the menu so it wouldn't keep turning off on me while I was fiddling with my EOS lens (such as when doing manual focusing), and then set M-fn to turn off the display. Hitting the button after taking a shot was more optimal, despite the camera wanting to turn the display on again with almost any action (so e.g. when putting the camera back into my camera shoulder bag it would often turn on again). Canon really needs to rethink the display timeout stuff in the software.

* Camera uses higher ISO values too aggressively. There needs to be a menu option to skew in favor of a slower shutter speed. I was focused to change the menu setting for max auto ISO back and forth depending on whether I was doing day, evening, or night shots to work around the problem. 800 is a reasonable max auto-ISO during the day, ~1500-ish evening, and 3200 at night.

My final update is to drop it to 3 stars for the reasons listed above. The low battery life is totally unacceptable. The flash and display pop-outs both need to be redesigned. And the camera firmware is totally unacceptable considering how long Canon has had to work on it. Please note that despite my dropping it to 3-stars, I was able to get some very nice (non-wildlife) photos out of the camera with my EOS lenses.

-Matt

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Mano Chandra Dhas

Canon EOS M3 Mirrorless - for about half the price of the M5

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2017

Color: BlackStyle: 18-55mmSet: BaseVerified Purchase

This small camera packs a lot of power. For a photographer who always only shoots RAW, this is a little gem. I live in Colombia. There are areas here in this country, where it is not advisable to take my Canon EOS 5D MII, and my favourite L Lenses. This little machine is a decent camera that one can take anywhere.

It however has two handicaps: a) no built-in viewfinder, and b) focussing issues. The built in viewfinder issue has been corrected by Canon with the release of the Canon EOS M5. It however costs almost double this one. For me however, unless I am in bright sunlight, and I cannot see the image on the LCD screen very well, the built in viewfinder is not a very serious issue. It would have been fantastic if Canon had got it right with this particular model.

A lot has been written about focussing on this little camera. In this area, there are two issues: the capabilities of the camera, and the knowledge of the user. Granted, that some other manufacturers came up with their own models that offer better focussing facilities; but this little gem is not too far behind. The main issue is that the manual that comes along with the camera is not too user friendly. it also does not tell you much about focussing. I would recommend that you go to the Canon Website and download the complete manual for the EOS M3. It tells you everything you need to know about focussing on the M3. In fact there is so much to learn about how this mirrorless handles focussing that I could not master it in one sitting. There really is a lot to learn, which is not the way cameras that I am used to, really work. The touch screen method to focus is interesting. It however is true that you cannot rely on the Autofocus mechanism of the camera. It is reassuring to note that there is a combination of touch screen and manual focussing. That will get you the best results.

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