The Canon EOS M10 is the latest is the company’s attempt at competing in the mirrorless market. The M10 features an 18MP APS-C sensor and a very consumer-ish approach to the mirrorless camera. The EOS M10 does several things very well.
First up, live view autofocus is great. It’s fast and accurate with the included 15-45mm kit lens. The lens is compact and lightweight, which makes it a perfect pairing with the M10 body.
The camera pushes to the LCD to handle major controls on the camera – and it works great. The first thing I did when I picked up the M10 was tap the shooting mode in the top-left corner, which brought up a full screen selection menu for PASM modes. I tapped the mode I wanted and I was back in live view and ready to shoot. The operation is intuitive and the touchscreen is the best I’ve used on any camera. Responsiveness of the display now rivals smartphones.
The EOS M10 is not the first camera to features a 180° tilting display but it was the right choice for this camera. My wife tagged along with me to PhotoPlus this year and instantly gravitated toward this camera and was impressed with the tilting display. Again, for a consumer camera, it’s checking the right boxes.
Depending on your shooting mode, you can change aperture, shutter speed and ISO on screen. It’s another fluid touchscreen operation that works well and touching the appropriate parameter to change it is completely natural for this camera.
Using EF lenses works quite well. The EF-F to EF adapter works well for swapping to standard lenses. Autofocus performance remains acceptable, although not as fast as the native EF-M lenses. I tried the EOS M10 with the adapter and EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens and was pleasantly surprised with results. As I explained to my wife that the adapter allows you to use all of your existing EF lenses, her response was, “I think we need this camera.”
And I think she has a good point. I’m not going to stop shooting with my Canon DSLR but I may very well pick up the EOS M10 for her and give her the ability to use my existing bag of lenses on top of whatever EF-M lenses are necessary for her to use it as a daily carry in her purse.
I think a lot of other photography enthusiast and consumer couples may fall into this same category and Canon knows that. Canon is finally up to snuff on overall performance for a mirrorless camera (the lagging AF system is no more). And, even if Canon is leaving us hanging on a pro-level mirrorless model, the consumer range is where the sales numbers are at.
There are a number of other mirrorless cameras that probably have better image quality or a better feature set than the EOS M10 (and I almost hate to admit this) but I don’t know that anyone makes a better overall consumer camera than what the EOS M10 delivers in a total user experience. I think it could very well be a big hit.
The EOS M10 will be available in white or black and ships with a new EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM kit lens for $599. A 2-lens kit option is available, adding the 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens for $849. The EOS M10 will be available in November 2015. Check it out here at B&H Photo.