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Canon EOS M50 - an accidental 4K Digital Bolex


Andrew Reid
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It's 2018 and a good video feature arrives on a Canon EOS! I immediately assume it's an accident, so taunt is Canon holding the leash on performance. The 6D Mark II even managed to step back on quality from the 2012 predecessor which was already dreadful by the standards of 6 years ago. That's no accident!

Indeed, what makes the M50 appealing to me is the happy accident of what crop factor you get when you cut an 8 megapixel window out of a 24 megapixel sensor. All the best things are happy accidents when it comes to Canon, who gave us DSLR video by accident, then later RAW video on a 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern by accident, then with the M50's ridiculous crop - a Super 16mm camera!

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Nice video Andrew - your work?

It definitely has a distinctive aesthetic, with the combination of distorted bokeh and chromatic aberration, which the emphasised colours in the video played up.

The lightweight combination of the M50 and C-mount lenses would be prone to camera shake (and the last shot shows some) so pairing the setup with some kind of folding stabiliser might yield benefits.  I shoot primarily hand-held and in my research have come upon a lot of products and some are quite innovative.

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I’ve been making the C-Mount lemonade since its release and this article sums it up perfectly.

There are some 1” TV lenses that should cover at wider focal lengths, making this camera even more fun.

For me, this seems like the perfect little, glovebox camera. If you want to shoot casual, friends and family stuff, throw on the 22mm and shoot in 1080p with DPAF. If you wanna go out and experiment with a different look for a short film or just for fun, there are dozens of cool options in c-mount. 

It would be really cool if there was an Arri STD mount to EF-M adapter for sale to use those old Schneider S16mm lenses like you tested with the GH5.

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Aaaand it can be better. 

It runs EOS firmware. Not a Powershot firmware like the EOS M5 and M6. 

https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern/commits/f6e763a002080605887dcc4a5c882b626fe97553

If the last EOS M to run an EOS firmware (the first one) is now shooting RAW 2.5k with ML. I only can expect good things for this toy...

Raw with this Dual Pixel focus would great in such a little camera. 

Saddly the battery sucks.. Is there a battery grip? 

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7 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

"...There’s something going on in the blacks by the way, with custom Picture Profiles. With a lot of the third party film profiles that have a raised black level, it reveals quite a lot of fixed pattern noise and even a split down the middle of the sensor as if there’s two sensors stitched together. You don’t notice it with the built in picture profiles though or when the scene is normally exposed. I’m going to see if there is a workaround. It is something the other Canons do not have. Is it a bug? Possibly."

That's funny because it sound like a similar problem i have found in my GH5 a few month ago. 

I have made a post about it but almost nobody saw it. I have tried two gh5 bodys and they do the same.

 

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Keep in mind if you turn on EIS (which you really should not), the crop factor goes up or way up (2 levels of EIS are available).

I consider this a pretty nice 1080p camera, for the price. Too bad about the lens selection, but that may change soon-ish if Canon really does jump head-first into the mirrorless market.

I also liked my EF-M 11-24 lens, back when I had it. It had IS, and was by far the best EF-M lens with IS.

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1 hour ago, tyger11 said:

Too bad about the lens selection, but that may change soon-ish if Canon really does jump head-first into the mirrorless market.

I also liked my EF-M 11-24 lens, back when I had it. It had IS, and was by far the best EF-M lens with IS.

There's no doubt that Canons huge lens catalog helps to keep customers from changing systems, and we definitely live in a time of ecosystems.

If they did decide to jump head-first into the mirrorless market how long would it take for them to build up a decent lens selection?  It would be interesting to know how long it took them to build previous lens systems - I'm assuming they happened slowly and steadily but I could be wrong.

Considering how important lenses are, it could be a huge factor in their business model in coming times, and if the rumours about an ILC XC20 eventuate then they'll need to have a decent collection for it.  Maybe that's why the first two had fixed lenses - they weren't ready to unveil their masterpiece EOS-M lens lineup!!  (Here's hoping!!)

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2 hours ago, kye said:

There's no doubt that Canons huge lens catalog helps to keep customers from changing systems, and we definitely live in a time of ecosystems.

If they did decide to jump head-first into the mirrorless market how long would it take for them to build up a decent lens selection?  It would be interesting to know how long it took them to build previous lens systems - I'm assuming they happened slowly and steadily but I could be wrong.

Considering how important lenses are, it could be a huge factor in their business model in coming times, and if the rumours about an ILC XC20 eventuate then they'll need to have a decent collection for it.  Maybe that's why the first two had fixed lenses - they weren't ready to unveil their masterpiece EOS-M lens lineup!!  (Here's hoping!!)

I don't think it would take that long for them to roll out a good selection of EF-M lenses, considering how many mirrorless lens patents they've filed over the years since the original EOS M camera came out - they just haven't manufactured them. I think the EF and EF-S lineup is much larger than is actually necessary (well, pro EAF-S lenses don't exist). A full lineup of primes from 20mm to 85mm at f/2 apertures, and 100 to 135 f/2.8 would be fine. 200mm+ at f4, and 2.8 for the zoom trinity are for pros, really. The big problem with rolling out a new lens lineup is that it'll actually be TWO lens lineups for mirrorless - APS-C and Full Frame. That's what would wind up taking a while, I suspect. They've never come out with a true pro-level APS-C lens, though the 17-55 f/2.8 IS is close.

I think the possibility of a 1.5" sensor XC20 with EF-M mount would be pretty great, especially with 40k60p, DPAF and CRL at high bitrates would be pretty killer - some competition for the GH5.

But for the price, nobody is going to compete with the Pocket 4K, unless you need good AF.

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30 minutes ago, tyger11 said:

I don't think it would take that long for them to roll out a good selection of EF-M lenses, considering how many mirrorless lens patents they've filed over the years since the original EOS M camera came out - they just haven't manufactured them. I think the EF and EF-S lineup is much larger than is actually necessary (well, pro EAF-S lenses don't exist). A full lineup of primes from 20mm to 85mm at f/2 apertures, and 100 to 135 f/2.8 would be fine. 200mm+ at f4, and 2.8 for the zoom trinity are for pros, really. The big problem with rolling out a new lens lineup is that it'll actually be TWO lens lineups for mirrorless - APS-C and Full Frame. That's what would wind up taking a while, I suspect. They've never come out with a true pro-level APS-C lens, though the 17-55 f/2.8 IS is close.

Maybe a small selection will be announced with an appropriate camera when (if!) the time comes :)

30 minutes ago, tyger11 said:

I think the possibility of a 1.5" sensor XC20 with EF-M mount would be pretty great, especially with 40k60p, DPAF and CRL at high bitrates would be pretty killer - some competition for the GH5.

But for the price, nobody is going to compete with the Pocket 4K, unless you need good AF.

The Pocket 2 will be an absolute killer even if it only has half the features promised, but it depends on what particular features your style of film-making requires.  The lineup of cameras is getting better and better but each still has significant flaws - there is no perfect camera unfortunately (or if there is - please let me in on the secret!!)

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I'm eagerly waiting for the 4K video feature to trickle down to the rest of Canon's EOS-M line, most importantly the successor of the EOS-M100. That camera is one of the most compact APS-C bodies ever made, barely larger than the (discontinued) Panasonic GM series, and a killer street photography/always-with-you camera in combination with the 22.5mm/f2 pancake lens.

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1080p is good for sure but it’s not any better than all the other canon dslrs and the 5dmk4 1080p and super35 1080p on 1DC are in a different class than that really. 

4k is where it’s at. Perfect happy medium. It’s not mind blowingly sharp like GH5 but it’s really usable and runs so smooth on my base model MBP. It’s a shame the rolling shutter is so so bad. I’m putting the camera in a cage to add some weight and make me use it more like a real camera. I think once you add the weight and stuff it’s usable. 

I want to try the c-mount veydras on it. I feel like those would be amazing on the m50 crop. 

Also, what wide lenses actually work on it? @mercer can you give me a list of those 1” c-mounts you keep talking about?

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