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The mirrorless camera market has long been notable for what it lacked -- cameras from Nikon and Canon.
Technically Canon has had a mirrorless offering for about four years, the EOS M, but it was a low end model that felt more like a token gesture than a real camera. Then for four years the company largely ignored the mirrorless market in favor of the DSLR. Canon fans have been hoping in vain for a more capable successor to the EOS M for some time and, with the new M5, I can now safely say, the wait is over.
That's not to say the M5 is perfect -- I have several reservations about this camera -- but it's certainly a step in the right direction and it shows that Canon can make a very capable higher-end mirrorless camera.
Imagine the Canon EOS 80 -- one of the company's more popular consumer-level DSLRs -- shrunk into a smaller body and stripped of the mirror and you have more or less the M5.
One thing that's worth pointing out up front is just how small this thing is. Pictures on the web did not fully prepare me for how small it really is. It's slightly taller than the Panasonic GX85 that I tested recently.
It's not the lightest thing though. Despite the diminutive size the M5 is surprisingly weighty. Not heavy exactly, but it does have a solid feel to it.
Unlike Canon's previous mirrorless offerings like the M3 and M10, the M5 sports an SLR-style body with a built-in electronic viewfinder. A very good EVF in fact, with a 0.39-inch OLED that packs in 2.36M dots, which is to say it's bright, clear and easy to compose through. There's also a built-in diopter underneath the rear edge, which means it won't get spun around in your bag. If you want to shoot without the EVF the 2-axis tilting 3.2-inch touchscreen display is equally bright and sharp.
The 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor is very sharp even if it does eschew current trends and include an anti-aliasing filter. The chip features the same on-sensor phase-detect AF common in Canon DSLRs, which is a first for Canon's mirrorless line and, to my mind, the number one sign Canon is starting to take mirrorless seriously.
The dynamic range is quite good, especially next to similarly specced DSLRs in Canon's current line up, though this is an area where Canon seems to struggle. The dynamic range of its APS-C chips has never been the best and while the M5 continues the recent improvements Canon has made with these chips, it still doesn't quite match what I've seen coming out of the new Sony a6500.
The autofocus portion of the equation is, however, much better. I found that the "dual pixel" phase-detect system was fast, but more important, extremely accurate even in challenging situations. In fact I would say the M5 one of the fastest, most accurate mirrorless camera AF systems I've tested. Is it DSLR fast? No. But it's 95 percent of the way there.
Unfortunately the speed of autofocus is marred by one significant downside -- the viewfinder blackout time when shooting is, to put it diplomatically, pronounced. It's downright awful really. This can be overcome a little bit by the 7 fps burst shooting speed. Just mash the button and hope for the best. Alas, that will fill the buffer after a mere second or two if you shoot RAW. I also found the shutter button to be a little unreliable, more than once I mashed and nothing happened.
So the M5 might not be the best thing to bring to the Olympics, but that's not really the market here. I can't imagine a pro tossing their 5D in the trash to run out and grab an M5. The M5 is aimed at what the marketing folk call "enthusiasts" -- those of us who enjoy photography and are willing to spend some money on it, but aren't pros. Pros will not accept the trade offs of the M5 just to save a couple pounds. For rest of us, however, the trade offs might not be a big deal.
For the enthusiast market, especially the subsection who already own some Canon lenses, the M5 makes a great lightweight camera. The biggest downside to the M5 in my view is the lack of native lenses. Canon sent me the 15-45mm f/3.5 and the longer 18-150mm f/3.5-f/6.3, which were both capable lenses though neither one bowled me over. However Canon also sent along an adapter (sold separately) that allows you to mount EF and EF-S lenses on the M5 and enjoy full autofocus. You could even bring some L glass to the M5 if you want, though the size and weight of L lenses generally defeats the purpose of getting a compact, lightweight body like the M5.
One other nitpick with the M5 is there's no 4K, which feels like a painful omission at this point. That said I was quite happy with what I got at 1080p/60fps. The M5 allows for touch screen focusing while shooting, but even better the AF system is again wonderfully accurate.
In the end the M5 is not the perfect mirrorless offering Canon fans have been hoping for. It's tantalizingly close though. In fact I could overlook everything except the viewfinder blackout. On the bright side the M5 clearly shows that not only is Canon actively exploring the mirrorless market, it's starting to target the higher end portion of it.
wired: Fast, accurate AF, small and light weight, excellent EVF and touchscreen
tired: Lacks fast native lenses, viewfinder blackout is pronounced, no 4K video
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