Canon EOS M50 - 4K video and dual pixel autofocus under 600 euros
[06:34 Mon,26.February 2018 by Rudi Schmidts]
Canon has announced a new mirrorless camera with an EF-M mount for the end of March, which offers a lot of video functionality at a price of just 579 euros. The EOS M50 is equipped with an APS-C sensor, which is read out from the centre of the sensor with a 1:1 readout when recording UHD-4K images. According to the documents available to us, this corresponds to a sensor window width of 14.27mm or a horizontal 35mm crop factor of 2.52. The sensor/pixel size of the camera should therefore be approx. 3.72µm.
For comparison purposes: 4K-capable entry-level cameras from Panasonic usually have a crop factor of approx. 2.2 with a pixel size of 3.77µm. Sony, on the other hand, offers a full-sensor readout with the smallest 4K-capable Alpha 6300 with a real Super35 crop factor of 1.53 and a pixel size of 3.92µm. However, the Alpha 6300 currently also costs a few hundred euros more than the list price of the new Canon M50 or as a 4K beginner model from Panasonic.
EOS M50
In addition to Canon's popular color science, the M50 offers dual-pixel autofocus as a further unique selling point. This makes the M50 the most affordable 4K large sensor camera with this feature in the Canon portfolio. Unfortunately, the Dual Pixel autofocus only works in photo mode and with FullHD video. Only a "normal" autofocus is available for 4K shooting.
The sensor itself is fixed, but in addition to image stabilization in the optics, surplus pixels of the sensor can also be used for further electronic correction. In a non-public Canon presentation, however, it was made clear that the edge pixels around the 1:1 UHD-4K window will not be used for this, but the crop within the 4K window will be further reduced. Subsequent upscaling to 4K must therefore result in a loss of resolution when sensor stabilization is activated.
EOS M50
As already known from other EOS M models, most of the camera operation is done via touch screen. It is not only foldable up and down but also tilting sideways, which should inspire selfie photographers and youtuber alike. The latter also enjoy the 3.5mm microphone input. However, a headphone output was not installed.
The camera supports picture styles in the Canon Picture Styles menu and offers a live histogram in movie mode in addition to peaking.
Histogram
When using Canon lenses for manual focusing, a magnification of a section in the display or viewfinder can be triggered automatically. Although the HDMI output is not officially "clean", all menu contents can be hidden for external recording. However, if the internal recording is in progress, a red dot appears on the HDMI output in the external recording.
Detailed specifications for HDMI output were not available in advance, nor were accurate data rates for internal recording. The 4K-mounting is done in H. 264 whereas with a PAL-pre-series-model shown to us only 25fps in 4K were offered. In FullHD 50p were also available. Higher speeds up to 120fps will only be available in 720p.
4K menu functions
For wireless communication, in addition to Bluetooth, WLAN has also been integrated, which should even make it possible to automatically "download" video recordings as well as photos to a PC in the same network.
The Canon EOS M50 will be available today in the Canon Online Shop and at official Canon dealerships. The following prices are already known:
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