Canon EOS M100 Field Test

Following up on the Canon EOS M10, the new entry-level M100 mirrorless camera is a solid addition to the EOS M lineup for Canon. The touchscreen-centric M100 does not include a lot of physical controls, but it is affordable, compact and can capture nice images. It is equipped with Canon's excellent Dual Pixel CMOS AF and their latest DIGIC 7 image processor. Let's take a closer look at how the Canon EOS M100 does during real-world shooting.

Key Features and Specifications

• Compact interchangeable lens mirrorless camera
• 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• Native ISO range of 100 to 25,600
• Dual Pixel CMOS AF
• 3-inch tilting touchscreen
• DIGIC 7 image processor
• Up to 6 frames per second continuous shooting
• Full HD video at up to 60 frames per second
• Built-in Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth
• Available for around $500

Camera Body and Handling

The M100 looks a lot like the M10 it's replacing. One immediately apparent difference when using the camera is that the M100 has a gripped surface across the front, whereas the M10 had a smooth plastic surface. While the grip does help a bit, the M100 remains difficult to firmly hold. The camera would be much easier to hold with a small front grip.

Recap of Field Test Part I

In my first M100 Field Test, I focused on the camera body itself, the image sensor and image quality, autofocus and performance. I was impressed by the M100 and found it offered a good amount of versatility in a compact form factor.

In this second Field Test, the focus will be on video and other features. I will also discuss the shooting experience more generally before wrapping up my Field Test and giving an overall view on the camera's performance in real-world shooting.

Video

The M100 follows suit with many recent Canon cameras in that its resolution tops out at Full HD. The camera can record 1920 x 1080 video at up to 60 progressive frames per second, which is competitive with other EOS M cameras, but the lack of 4K recording continues with this model. With that said, the M100 is an affordable camera, so 4K inclusion would be somewhat surprising, irrespective of Canon's previous cameras.

Videos are recorded as .MP4 files (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding with AAC-LC stereo audio) with a maximum duration of 29 minutes and 59 seconds, and a maximum file size of 4GB. Resolution and framerate options include Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 60 (59.94), 50, 30 (29.97), 25, or 24 (23.98) fps; HD (1280 x 720) at 60 or 50 fps; and VGA (640 x 480) at 30 or 25 fps.