Reviews |Canon EOS M5: price, specs, release date confirmed

Canon EOS M5: price, specs, release date confirmed

Canon EOS M5 front no lens
News

At last Canon has a mirrorless system camera with a viewfinder built-in – the Canon EOS M5 has been announced

Canon has announced the Canon EOS M5 – price tag £1,049 body only – a new flagship camera in its EOS M range of mirrorless cameras and it seems to be its most enthusiast-friendly mirrorless system camera to date.

Inside the Canon M5 is an APS-C format CMOS sensor with 24.2 million pixels and Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology for smooth, fast focusing of stills and movies. This sensor is coupled with a Digic 7 processing engine – a first for an EOS camera. In the M5 it enables high-speed shooting of up to 7fps (frames per second) which can be pushed to 9fps with AF lock. Sensitivity runs in the range ISO 100-25,600.

Sadly there’s no 4K video on offer but you can shoot Full HD at up to 60p in MP4 format.

Perhaps the biggest news for enthusiast photographers, however, is that the Canon M5 has a viewfinder. This is an electronic unit with 2,360,000-dots placed at the centre of the top-plate to give a DSLR-like design. There’s also a tilting 3.2-inch 1,620,000-dot touch-sensitive LCD screen that can be used for selecting settings and even setting AF point while looking in the viewfinder. The screen can be tilted up through 85 degrees and down through 180.

Control is via a largely familiar collection of dials and buttons including a Mode Dial, Main Dial, Quick Control Dial, Exposure Compensation Dial and a Dial Function Button. This combination should speed settings adjustment.

SEE MORE: Hands-on Canon 5D Mark IV review

It’s connected

Following Nikon’s lead, Canon has given the M5 Bluetooth connectivity alongside Wi-Fi and NFC, technology and this allows a constant connection to be created between a smartphone or tablet and your camera. This enables images to be viewed on your phone screen or transferred automatically via Wi-Fi. And of course, your phone can be used as a remote control for the camera.

Canon EOS M5 price and availability

The Canon EOS M5 body will be available from the end of November 2016 and will sell for £1,049/$979.99 body only. It will also retail as a kit with the EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens for £1,149/$1,099 and from mid-December with the new EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens (announced at the same time) for £1,399/$1,479.

The EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens will be available from mid-December 2016 for £429/$499.99.

There is a launch offer that includes a free EF-EOS M mount adapter in the box with the EOS M5 or M5 kit.