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Canon EOS M10 Performance


Timing and Performance

Slow to average performance for a mirrorless camera.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot
~2.5 seconds

Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.

Play to Record,
first shot
~2.2 seconds

Time until first shot is captured.

Powering on and taking a shot was sluggish, taking about 2.5 seconds. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot was only a bit faster at 2.2 seconds.


Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus
Single-point (center) AF
0.345 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture.

Full Autofocus
Single-point AF
TTL flash enabled
0.804 second

Time to capture while forcing flash to fire. Preflash metering pulses from flash often slow shutter response.

Manual Focus
0.155 second

For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".

Prefocused
0.088 second

Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

In terms of the Canon M10's ability to determine that it's properly focused when shooting the same target multiple times using the EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM kit lens, its full autofocus shutter response was slower than average for a mirrorless camera. We measured 0.345 second for full AF shutter lag using single point (center) AF. Enabling the built-in flash added considerable delay for the pre-flash metering, though, resulting in a capture lag of about 0.8 second.

Shutter lag with manual focus was good at 0.155 second. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure resulted in a lag time of 0.088 second, also slower than average for a mirrorless camera but still pretty quick.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large/Fine JPEG
0.70 second

Time per shot, averaged over a few frames.

Single Shot mode
RAW + L/F JPEG
0.87 second

Time per shot, averaged over a few frames.

Early shutter
penalty?
No

Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.

Continuous mode
Large/Fine JPEG
0.22 second (4.57 frames per second);
80+ frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 80 shots with no signs of slowing.

Continuous mode
RAW
0.24 second (4.24 frames per second);
6 frames total;
3 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 6 shot buffer capacity, then slowed to an average of 0.45s or 2.22 fps when buffer was full.

Continuous mode
RAW + Large/Fine
JPEG

0.23 second (4.40 frames per second);
5 frames total;
3 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 5 shot buffer capacity, then slowed to an average of 0.66s or 1.51 fps when buffer was full.

Flash recycling
3.1 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle times were about average for a mirrorless camera, taking about 0.7 second for best quality JPEGs, and about 0.9 second for RAW+ L/F JPEG files. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG modes.)

Full-resolution continuous mode speeds were slow by today's standards, at about 4.6 frames-per-second for best quality JPEGs, and just a bit slower at about 4.2 frames per second for RAW and 4.4 fps for RAW+L/F JPEG files.

Buffer depth for best quality JPEGs was excellent at over 80 frames with no signs of slowing. When shooting RAW files, however, buffer depths were quite shallow at only 6 frames for RAW and 5 for RAW+JPEG frames.

Buffer clearing times were quite good, ranging from 2 seconds after 80 best quality JPEGs, to 3 seconds after a burst of RAW or RAW+L/F JPEG frames. You can take additional photos while the buffer is clearing, but you can't view just-shot images or change settings until the buffer is cleared.

The Canon M10's built-in flash took an average of 3.1 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is not bad.

Bottom line, the Canon M10 offers pretty mediocre performance overall making it less than ideal for sports or fast moving subjects such as active kids and pets, though this isn't unusual for an entry-level model.

Battery

Battery Life
Below average battery life for mirrorless ILC.

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Still Capture,
(CIPA standard, LCD)
255

The Canon M10 uses a custom LP-E12 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a dedicated battery charger. Battery life is below average for a mirrorless camera, rated at only 255 shots per charge with 50% using flash. We recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand.

The table above shows the number of shots the Canon M10 is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

 

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