Canon EOS M100 Review

October 18, 2017 | Tim Coleman |

Introduction
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Sample Images
Product Images
Rating & Conclusion
Main Rivals
Review Roundup
Specifications
News
Hands On
Preview Images
Comment
More…

Introduction

Meet the Canon EOS M100. It's a new entry-level mirrorless camera in Canon's EOS M range, aimed squarely at those looking to find their first ‘proper’ camera for better pictures. In form and function, the camera represents a logical upgrade from using a smart phone.

The Canon EOS M100 is dinky - without a lens attached it's essentially a compact camera. That’s impressive because you’ll get the same Canon DSLR image quality you would expect, in a much smaller package and with flip up LCD screen for those selfies and v-logs.

Simplicity appears to be the ethos behind the EOS M100, with pared down design and function. Scene Intelligent Auto takes full picture making control. Modes like Creative Assist avoid confusing camera terminology, providing a simple language for users to get the pictures they want. But there is the PASM control available too, once you find it.

Being part of the EOS M series, the EOS M100 is compatible with Canon’s EF to EOS M adaptor, so it is possible to use any one of many Canon EF lenses. It seems like a miss match - all those pro lenses at your fingertips with such a small and simple camera. But hey, it’s good to have the extra options.

For this test of the EOS M100, we had our hands on the Canon EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 kit lens, EF-M 22mm f/2 (pancake) lens. And yes, we went there and used the EF to EOS M adaptor with two of Canon’s most popular EF lenses - the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 and 24-105mm lenses.

The EOS M100 with EF-M 15-45mm lens, choice of colour ‘Face jacket’ and 50GB of irista storage space (iOS or Android) will set you back £569.99 / $599.99. Read on to find out how we got on with the camera.

Ease of Use

For an interchangeable lens camera it is staggering how small the EOS M100 is. Its design and size is reminiscent of the Canon Powershot S range of compact cameras. The exterior is made from a smooth plastic, with a textured thumb grip.

Of course, once a lens is attached all is changed. Any lens sticks out, so you won’t fit the combination in a trouser pocket. That said, for an APS-C format camera, the EOS M lenses are all impressively compact in size - being comparable to smaller format micro-four-thirds lenses.

We had the EF-M 22mm f/2 pancake lens on the camera for a lot of this test - it’s about the shortest EF-M lens. The combination is rather tiny, it’ll slide into a jacket pocket no problems.

There’s not too much to be intimidated by in this camera. On the top you’ll find the on/off button surrounded by a three-option automatic shooting mode dial with; intelligent auto, record mode and Movie Auto Exposure (video).

Alongside the on/off is a shutter release, surrounded by dial that is used for navigation and changing camera settings, plus the video record button.

Front of the Canon EOS M100

The camera rear is pared down too. It is dominated by the 3.0in tilt-up touchscreen and to the right of that is a four-way control pad. If you are a photo enthusiast it will take next to no time to work your way around the EOS M100. If you are a beginner, it won’t take you much longer either.

The EOS-M series of cameras are seen as an ideal second smaller camera for existing Canon DSLR users. The main menu has the same look and there is the Canon EF to EOS M lens adaptor.

For our test we used the adaptor and it works seemlessly - AF speed with the two EF lenses appears to be uncompromised. Yet, when it comes to size and ethos, there is a bit of a miss-match here.

The Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens sits well with a Canon DSLR but positively dwarfs the EOS M100. Using this lens with such a tiny camera feels, well, wrong.

It is fairly easy to operate the camera through its LCD touchscreen, which tilts all the way up to 180° for selfies and v-logging. There is a pop-up flash that erects in front of the screen and it does in part obstruct a view of the screen.

Rear of the Canon EOS M100

The LCD screen has a 1.04-million-dot resolution and is lovely and bright. Its touch function is both responsive and comprehensive. You can use touch shutter, touch AF, plus scroll and pinch-to-zoom in image playback. Nothing is lacking.

The design of the LCD screen works well for selfies and you do of course benefit from the full range of angles between 0° and 180°. This means you can tilt the screen up for ground and waist-level shooting, but it won’t tilt down for above the head shots.

We did not have to clean the screen too often despite all the touch use, which can otherwise leave marks. A dirty screen is increasingly harder to see when in bright daylight. In such conditions it can be worth manually dialling up the brightness of the screen to its maximum setting in order to maintain a clear view.

There is no viewfinder in the EOS M100, nor an option to add one. No, this is not the camera for through-the-eye finder composition. It’s all in the screen, which works perfectly well.

This camera would not operate nearly as well were it not for the excellent dual-pixel AF. Even in low contrast light autofocusing is impressively quick. It’s not as quick as the dedicated phase detection AF in Canon’s DSLRs, but it will satisfy the users of the EOS M100. Video AF is excellent too.

Top of the Canon EOS M100

There’s nothing much new to say about the autofocus speed that hasn’t already been said before in our EOS M6 review - it’s snappy but definitely not class-leading. This is not a camera to take to the races, but it will cater for a family weekend break.

There are a few occasions for us when touch AF for a specific part of the frame has produced back-focused results. For example, we’ve had close up portraits with the ears sharp rather than eyes, plus sharp focusing beyond people walking in the distance through in a forest.

Back focusing happened a little too often for our liking, but if one is trigger happy then the accurate sharp images will be there. Generally, with the camera setup for face detection, those portraits will be sharp.

It is possible to shoot single images or select the high-speed continuous mode, where you can get 6.1fps for up to 89 JPEG images. That is a long sequence of action, although the focus is locked to the first picture.

Start up time is around 2 seconds, which is ok but we’d like to see that improved. Nor is there a silent shutter so it’s hard to shoot discreetly given the camera’s defined shutter clunk.

Tilting LCD Screen

You get three shooting mode choices; Scene Intelligent Auto, Record Mode and Movie Auto Exposure (Video).

In Scene Intelligent Auto there is absolutely no control over exposure settings. You can choose Image Quality (including raw), Movie record size, Drive mode (single or continuous high) self-timer and aspect ratio.

Next up is Record Mode. By default the camera is set to Creative Assist. This JPEG only mode provides some exposure control, but only within certain parameters and it is all communicated in a language for those that know nothing technical about cameras.

Rather than dials to switch between exposure settings, there are sliders. If you want the image darker or lighter, which to a photographer means exposure compensation, you move the Brightness slider towards ‘Dark’ or ‘Light’.

Likewise, ‘aperture’ control is gained through the Background slider with 'Blurred' and ‘Sharp’ at either end. It makes sense to an extent, but you don’t get full control over these sliders. For example, the user can make the image background blurrier (a wider aperture), but cannot choose the exact aperture they want.

Root into the menu or tap the option on the top let of the LCD touchscreen and the camera Record Mode can be switched from Creative Assist. Here you will find the usual PASM exposure controls, as well as a host of picture effects, such as Hybrid Auto, Self Portrait and HDR. We can see how this whole area of other Record Modes could be overlooked.

The Canon EOS M100 In-hand

With such few camera controls on the body, it is often necessary to use the touchscreen to navigate the various camera settings, which works well enough, though doesn’t make for the quickest way of making several manual changes.

In Movie Auto Exposure mode there are the same options as in Scene Intelligent Auto, but in addition there is exposure lock and exposure compensation, picture style (colour mode) and white balance control.

As an entry-level camera it is a little surprising not to see the type of interface we have come to expect - those illustrations and real-world examples that demonstrate what each setting achieves when you change it.

Like other EOS-M cameras, the M100 has a battery life quoted at 295 shots, or 410 shots in Eco-mode. That’s not too bad for the target crowd as it will handle moderate shooting over a weekend.

A button on the rear initiates wireless connection between camera and smart device. Once the smartphone or tablet is connected to the EOS M100, a push of this button will automatically link the two devices. After setup, a wireless connection is as easy and quick as one could hope for.

Users can shoot remotely via live view on their smart device and load images that are already on the memory card. The EOS M100 is about as simple and effective as it gets for paring with a smart device.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 24 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb.

The EOS M100 features the same 24.2-million pixel APS-C sensor as found in some other EOS-M cameras and some of Canon’s DSLRs, like the EOS 77D. We have commented extensively on the image quality in these cameras, for example in our EOS M6 review.

All the images you see in this review are taken using the 24MP Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb. With the EOS M100, it is possible to achieve the same image quality as these other Canon cameras, over the full ISO 100-25,600 range.

We have used the EOS M100 in a wide variety of scenarios and in general we have been very pleased with the image quality with those two EF-M lenses and two EF lenses. It is possible to get sharp detail even with the 15-45mm kit lens, but even more so with the 22mm f/2 pancake lens and Canon EF lenses.

All images taken in good light at ISO 100 to ISO 800 are sharp and vibrant. From ISO 1600 and up there is a gradual loss in crispness and saturation. We’d say images at ISO 12,800 and ISO 25,600 are less useable.

We have looked in greater detail at JPEGs, given most users will not know too much about raw. Pictures in bright light are where these Canon EOS M cameras shine, though this camera is no slouch in low contrast light either.

JPEG processing in images at ISO 1600 and higher smoothes over detail because of corrections to counter noise. The overall performance for noise and resolution is solid without being class-leading.

We suspect that most users of the Canon EOS M100 will set the camera to Scene Intelligent Auto and let the camera do its thing. On that basis we took a lot of our pictures with the camera in this mode.

There is ‘Real-time metering from the image sensor’, with 384-zone evaluative metering, partial metering from centre, centre weighted average and spot metering modes.

The camera seems to switch between exposure modes, depending on the extent of touch focus. Without touch or subject tracking, that 384-zone evaluative metering is active. On the whole, the brightness of images is accurate, if a little bright in certain situations where there is a wide range of tones between light and dark areas.

Where there is input to exposure setting in Record Mode or Creative Assist, we at times used the exposure compensation/ Brightness slider to make the image a little darker.

It’s likely that other metering modes are linked to the 49-point autofocus system. For example, pick a single focus point in the image by touching the screen in single point AF and you get spot metering for the right brightness in the image of the subject in focus - like detail illuminated in a shaft of light.

Spot metering works most of the time, but some times the chosen AF-point/ zone is too big to hone in on a detail and the highlight detail will be too bright. If a face is detected in the scene, the camera will automatically create an image with the right brightness for the face.

Again, in Scene Intelligent Auto there is no way to select the white balance setting, it is automatic. Thankfully, in good light and bad, under different ambient light temperatures, the EOS M100 is able to deliver excellent JPEG images straight out of the camera. That’s one of the highest praises we can give this camera, one that is designed to be as easy to use as possible.

JPEG colour is faithful and accurate. For those with a critical eye, the PASM record modes give manual control over white balance. Also, when the camera is in a mode that allows for manual adjustment of the Picture Style (movie), we sway towards a more neutral setting than a vivid one.

All in all we suspect that those new to an interchangeable lens camera like this will see no issue with the camera’s automatic functioning and the resulting images. Knowledgable photographers will at times find the leaning to going automatic a tad frustrating.

Of course with a large APS-C size sensor, the range of tones in a single image is superior to what is possible with a smart phone camera. The detail in highlight and shadow areas is again good, without being class-leading.

The EOS M100 will shoot some lovely looking full 1080p videos at up to 60fps. Dual Pixel AF makes for quick and accurate focusing through video live view and those 60fps and will allow users to slow those videos down for lovely and sharp B-roll.

That flip-up screen is really useful for v-logs and we suspect this camera could be have been popular in this area had it included a microphone port of some kind, which sadly it does not.

Noise

ISO sensitivity can be set between ISO 100 and ISO 25600 in full-stop increments. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)


ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)


ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)


ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Canon EOS M100 are Auto, Manual Flash On/Off, and Red-Eye Reduction. Here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting nor the Red-Eye Reduction option caused any amount of red-eye.

Night

The Canon EOS M100's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there's a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography.

Creative Filters

Essentially a more extreme version of the well-established Picture Styles, Creative Filters offers 7 options, all of which can be interactively tweaked to suit your taste.

Grainy B/W	Soft Focus


Fish-eye Effect	Toy Camera Effect


Miniature Effect	Water Painting Effect


HDR Backlight

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon EOS M100 camera, which were all taken using the 24 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3.5
Features	3
Ease-of-use	3.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	4

Canon EOS M100 Review

Latest Reviews

Introduction

Ease of Use

Image Quality

Noise

Flash

Night

Creative Filters

Sample Images

Sample RAW Images

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

Main Rivals

Canon EOS M6

Fujifilm X-T20

Olympus E-PL8

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX80

Sony A5100

Review Roundup

»

Specifications

Image Sensor

Type

Effective Pixels

Total Pixels

Aspect Ratio

Low-Pass Filter

Sensor Cleaning

Colour Filter Type

Image Processor

Type

Lens

Lens Mount

Focal Length

Image Stabilisation

Focusing

Type

AF System/ Points

AF working range

AF Modes

AF Point Selection

Selected AF point display

AF Lock

AF Assist Beam

Manual Focus

Exposure Control

Metering modes

Metering Range

AE Lock

Exposure Compensation

ISO Sensitivity

Shutter

Type

Speed

White Balance

Type

Settings

Custom White Balance

LCD Monitor

Type

Coverage

Brightness Adjustment

Display Options

Flash

Built-in Flash GN (ISO 100, meters)

Built-in Flash Coverage

Built-in Flash recycle time

Modes

Red-Eye Reduction

X-sync

Flash Exposure Compensation

Flash Exposure Lock

Second Curtain Synchronisation

HotShoe/ PC terminal

Shooting

Modes

Picture Styles

Image Processing