Tech Review: Canon’s EOS M100: Not Just for Lazy Hipsters

When I first took the EOS M100 out of the box, I was dubious. I saw a top switch with only three auto settings and no manual exposure options apparent, and I thought “what’s the point of a camera compatible with Canon’s full range of mirrorless lenses, but no manual exposure controls? Who would invest almost $900 in what’s essentially a fancy point-and-shoot camera – lazy hipsters?!” But once I took a look through the manual, and the more I used it, the more it surprised me – the M100 ticks all the boxes for both the keen enthusiast who wants a light and convenient kit to carry, and the happy snapper who wants amazing photos without necessarily having to learn how to “work” a camera. This is actually the perfect camera for your mum.

No really, hear me out. When I travel, I usually take a stripped-back version of my D-SLR kit with me – one body and two prime lenses – carry it everywhere with me, and shoot in manual. When I travel with my partner’s family, his mother carries a compact camera. We often take a similar picture of a landmark at the same time, and then she asks me “why doesn’t my photo look like yours?” I tell her it’s because I make better decisions than her camera does.

The issue is usually that her camera has a hundred different scene settings designed for different situations, but cycling through them all is tiresome so she leaves it set to a general auto mode. Lighting conditions (or the lack thereof), or the way she frames her photo combined with the camera’s standard matrix metering mode confuse the camera into over- or underexposing or choosing a shutter speed too long to handhold, and there’s no editing going on in her workflow – she shoots the photo, she shares it on Facebook. There are no steps in between.

The more I used the M100, the more I thought I’ve finally found the camera she needs – but she would have to read the manual to get the best out of it, or get a walkthrough from me first. The APS-C sized sensor – which is photographer-speak for almost-as-big-as-a-pro-camera-sensor-but-not-quite, is big enough to allow good image quality in low light and decent bokeh when shooting close details. The colours it produces are rich and its autofocus is speedy, with precise face recognition. It can’t do anything to improve composition – the photographer will always be responsible for their choice of framing – but at this stage, the composition is the only choice the photographer has to make. The M100 comes coupled with it’s included 15-45mm lens that captures plenty of scenery on the wide end and a nice portrait on the closer end.

The M100 has only three settings on its top switch: Scene Intelligent Auto, a completely automatic shooting mode; a program option which houses your manual and semi-automatic shooting modes as well as several creative presets; and Movie Auto Exposure which is exactly what it sounds like – a movie mode that takes care of everything for you. It takes almost no time to switch the camera to the mode you need and get the shot, or start recording.

I was surprised to find, on digging through the manual, that when your mode dial is set to the second position you can tap the icon in the top left corner to open a menu of shooting modes that will better your chances of taking a great shot. The M100 body I tested was brand new – I was the first to open the box – and the default setting is “creative assist”, which is an auto mode with the option to nudge temperature and tint levels around to get a different white balance. It could be that I’m just not savvy with the trends in cameras with touch-sensitive screens, but before opening the manual it didn’t occur to me to tap the tiny icon in the top left corner – which is exactly what you need to do to access the full range of creative presets. Everything from a smooth skin mode to food to handheld night scenes can be found here, as well as – lo and behold – full manual, aperture and shutter priority modes. The dial around the shutter, which until now I’d assumed to be purely for aesthetic reasons, actually has a purpose – to control the aperture and shutter speed. I was so relieved to find these functions – to have such a powerful and versatile camera without the ability to control your results seemed like such a waste to me, so I’m glad it’s not the case with the M100. Of course, the lack of buttons then confused me once again – how do I control the aperture if the dial is set to control shutter speed? Luckily I learned from the above, and found quickly enough that tapping the aperture or shutter setting on the screen will change what the single dial controls.

Extending the lens might prevent something of a challenge to the older generations – you must simultaneously slide a switch and twist the lens to extend it. It’s all too easy to slide past “extended” and end up at “completely zoomed in”, but it’s part of what makes the camera so compact and light, and it’s worth the adjustment period.

In what might be the most convenient feature ever, the touch-sensitive screen reduces shooting to a one-step process: tap the area you want in focus, and the camera will automatically focus (and in auto modes, meter) for that area AND take a shot. For users like my own mother, who routinely chop heads off when they accidentally drop the level of the camera while pressing the shutter, that could be the shooting method they’ve always needed. For the younger crowd who’ve grown up taking photos by pressing a button on a phone screen, touching the camera screen might feel more familiar and comfortable than pressing the shutter. It’s also incredibly handy when you need to put the camera in an unusual position to get a great shot, like very low to the ground or high in the air, and may need to hold the camera in such a way that you can’t reach the shutter easily – just pop the screen out so you can see what you’re doing and tap when you’re ready to shoot.