The Canon EOS M50 has proven to be one of company's best-selling mirrorless cameras, and it's easy to see why. It's the most affordable EOS M model with a built-in viewfinder, snaps crisp 24-megapixel photos, and offers speedy autofocus.
Today, it's being refreshed and replaced by a new model, the EOS M50 Mark II. The updates are minimal, though. The camera is powered by the same Digic 8 imaging processor and 24MP imager, so you can expect absolutely identical image and video quality.
Photographers won't find much fault here. We were happy with the first take on the M50 from a still-image perspective. It's a small, interchangeable lens camera with a small library of native, compact lenses to match, and compatibility with Canon SLR glass using an adapter.
The M50 handles well, too. It sports a very comfortable grip, balances well with compatible EF-M lenses, and sports both sharp OLED viewfinder and a vari-angle touch display to frame and review images. We expect the Mark II to match it.
Built-in wireless radios pair with a smartphone to transfer photos for social sharing, and the Mark II can work as a webcam too. You'll just need to install the Canon EOS Webcam Utility to get it up and running. Streaming to YouTube Live is also an option, though you'll need to meet YouTube's subscriber requirements to get there—if you don't have at least 1,000 followers, you're shut out.
It may not have the latest, most advanced toolkit, but even with an older sensor, the M50 Mark II remains competitive as a still camera. Canon promises some tweaks to autofocus performance too—the Mark II supports face and eye detection in its continuous AI Servo focus mode.
Unfortunately, the same isn't true for video-first creators. Despite promising 4K support, vloggers should still think of the Mark II as a 1080p camera, where it offers an uncropped view and speedy Dual Pixel autofocus. This is despite the camera offering a forward-facing LCD and support for external mics, features that would typically excite vloggers.
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Switching to 4K adds a heavy crop, so it's no good for handheld selfie vlogs. It also limits the frame rate to 24fps—fine for cinema projects, but not so much for action or slow-motion—and slows down autofocus significantly.
The M50 Mark II is set to go on sale in late November for $599.99 as a body only, or $699.99 when bundled with the EF-M 15-45mm lens. Canon is also offering a two-lens kit, with the 15-45mm and EF-M 55-200mm for $929.99.
Speedlite EL-1
Canon is also adding a new, high-end flash to its Speedlite series. The EL-1 is a powerful strobe with built-in radio transmission, a 197' guide number, and an all-weather build that will pair well with a 1D series camera.
A rechargeable battery, a first for a Canon flash, is good for up to 355 full power flashes, and the strobe sports a 0.9-second recycle time at full power. It can fire faster, and for more shots, at more commonly used power settings, and it can be set for as low 1/8,192, so you can add just a little bit of fill for natural looking low-light portraiture.
It also includes a LED modeling lamp with adjustable power and color temperature and an active cooling system to prevent overheating. The EL-1 is built for pros and priced to match—you'll pay $1,099 when it goes on sale in February.
One More Thing...
Canon also brings the PowerShot Zoom, a unique monocular point-and-shoot, to the US market today. Read our first impressions.