My Review of the Canon M50

I bought my Canon M50 in 2019. I didn't know how far it would take me in my video journey. Yes of course this camera takes good images as well but I mainly bought it for making videos. From that time forward I never looked back at my older equipment and even when I've recently upgraded I find that I still use this trusty tool.

My video making started with the humble GoPro 7 Black. I was vacationing and I wanted something small and portable to take with me wherever I go. It was used pretty much like a portable vlogging camera. It worked great but it did have some setbacks that forced me to want to upgrade. The quality of the video was great during the day at peak lighting conditions but was horrible whenever there was any low light situations. I found that sometimes the record button wasn't very reliable and at times the memory card would get corrupted.

When I decided to upgrade there was still a plethora of options to choose from. This would be a really big step up from the GoPro. I was watching videos online and they'd always push me towards the Sony and it did look enticing. The problem was that the price range of the Sony cameras that I did want were outside my budget. In addition to this it was said that the Sony cameras didn't have that great of a user interface.

The only other popular camera that peaked my interest was the Canon M50. I was lucky enough to find one for sale online for $800 Canadian. This package also included the EF and EF-S adapter to EF-M mount, 2 extra batteries, two chargers, a battery pack that allowed you to use a power bank to power the camera and the kit lens. This was an incredible deal!

I have to admit even with the easier user interface it took me a little while to get used to the camera. I've never played around with an interchangeable lens camera. It was a new toy that took me a little while to figure out. I learned things about aperture, iso, white balance and shutter speeds. Using this camera really made me more aware of the circumstances I should take care of when composing my shots.

Making videos soon became more interesting because I was aware of some of weaknesses of my videos. Low light capabilities were still not the best with this camera but I was able to purchase a Sigma 16mm f/1.4 that helped out a ton in low light. The low light capabilities eclipsed the trusty GoPro's and I was never able to really go back to the GoPro.

The audio of my videos enhanced significantly because this camera has a headphone jack. It allowed me to put on an external microphone. I also purchased a portable Rode Go set-up in case I had to do shots away from the camera.

It wasn't before long that I bought the Canon's 11-22mm f/4 wide angle lens. That lens was a game changer because it pretty much gave my M50 the same depth of view that my old GoPro had. I loved the wide angle because it would allow me to see the environment a lot better. Plus I didn't have to have the camera so far away from me.

The only problem was that the Canon didn't have GoPro's Hypersmooth steady shot. I soon remedied this with the Zhiyun Crane M2 gimbal. This gimbal was able withstand the payload of my camera with the lenses that I had. Still this was a lot bigger than the GoPro. That's one of the beautiful things about the GoPro. It allows you to shoot around in stealth. That's not the case with the M50.

I would soon get over the hurdle of getting used to people seeing me run around with this M50 setup. Unfortunately that's what you're going to have to get over if you're going to be using any sort of mirrorless camera. Luckily my setup wasn't too big and it was portable.

That's the big thing that I didn't quite understand until I started upgrading my setup again to a full framed camera. This M50 is small and light and it is ready for travel. Sure the shots aren't going to compare to a full framed camera in low light or quality of images but it does a good enough job. The shots that I get from this little camera is really all I need because I'm not a professional videographer or photographer. I'm not selling anything, it's for my own personal use.

I'm sure 10 years down the road I'll be looking at the images and videos like we look at videos and images 10 years ago today. Unfortunately that's just how technology works. I think for the price, size and versatility of the M50 it is absolutely worth the money. I would much rather get this than any point and shoot camera especially since it's close to the same price.

With video now going to 4k, there's this question of whether it's worth it to grab this camera when it only good video recording is in 1080p. I would say yes if you don't have a powerful computer. 4k videos take up a lot of memory and can be quite taxing on a computer. If you have a computer that can render 4k videos no problem you probably should get something above the level of an M50.

1080p works just fine for me. I can render the video into 4k in post. The quality of the video with its autofocus system is absolutely fantastic. I never had to deal with autofocus before with the GoPro because it's set at infinity. Now that I look back at some of those GoPro videos I do notice that some of the GoPro footage was quite blurry.

One nice feature that the M50 doesn't have is 120 fps slow motion in 1080p. It would be a nice option but I never even used it on my GoPro when I had the option. So I don't miss the option at all but it would have been a nice thing to have.

Altogether with the cost of all of the things I got for my M50 would have cost the same amount as the Sony A6400 at the time. That was the camera I was really looking forward to getting when I was deciding on cameras. In retrospect I don't regret my purchase decision at all because of the options that I accrued on such a small budget.

Overall, I would say this M50 is great for people that travel a lot or would like to start shooting vlog material. It's a great all in one camera that's pretty easy on your wallet. I have to give the M50 an 8 out of 10. There are a few features that I wished it had but really I could live without those features. They just would have been really nice to have.