Canon EOS M100 Performance

Good overall performance for an entry-level mirrorless camera.

Powering on and taking a shot was close to average for a mirrorless camera, taking about 1.5 seconds. Switching from Play to Record and taking a shot was a bit faster, at about 1.2 seconds. Both measurements were about a second faster than its predecessor, the M10.

In terms of the Canon M100's ability to determine that it's properly focused when shooting the same target multiple times using the EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens, its single-shot full autofocus shutter response was quite fast a mirrorless camera. We measured only 0.107 second for full AF shutter lag using single-point (center) AF, compared to 0.345 second for the M10 with the same lens. Enabling the built-in flash added considerable delay for pre-flash metering, though, resulting in a capture lag of 0.454 second, but the M10 took considerably longer at 0.804 second.

Shutter lag with manual focus was 0.105 second, not much faster than full AF lag but still faster than the M10's 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 0.067 second, about average for a mirrorless camera but also faster than the M10's 0.088 second.

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.

Single-shot cycle times were good, taking about 0.6 second for best quality Large/Fine JPEGs and RAW+ L/F JPEG files. The M10 took between 0.7 and 0.87 second. (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 high burst mode speed was good for an entry-level model at 6.1 frames per second no matter the file type, meeting Canon's specification, though keep in mind that's with AF locked at the first frame. (The M10 topped out at about 4.5 frames per second.) Canon says up to 4.0 fps is possible using the M100's continuous servo AF mode, however we can't test that in the lab.

Buffer depth for best quality JPEGs was excellent at 91 frames, slightly better than Canon's 89 frame spec. Also note that the buffer-full rate was almost as fast at 5.5 frames per second, meaning you can shoot at 5.5 fps until you run out of memory with a fast card. When shooting RAW files, buffer depth dropped to 19 RAW frames and 17 RAW+JPEG frames, and buffer-full rates were about 2.1 and 1.6 fps respectively. The M10 managed over 80 JPEG frames in a burst, however RAW and RAW+JPEG buffer depths were very shallow at only 6 and 5 frames respectively, even though the M10's burst rate was lower and files smaller.

Buffer clearing times were pretty good with our fast Lexar Pro UHS-II card considering the class, resolution and buffer depths, ranging from 3.8 seconds after 91 best quality JPEGs to 11.4 seconds after a max-length burst of RAW+L/F JPEG frames. (Note that the M100 is not UHS-II compliant, but we've found that our Lexar Pro 2000x UHS-II SDXC card is about as fast in UHS-I mode as the fastest UHS-I cards on the market so we didn't test the M100 with our usual SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I card.) Be aware that you cannot view just-shot images and you can't change most settings while the buffer is clearing.

The Canon M100's built-in flash took an average of 4.6 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is slower than the M10's 3.1 seconds.

Bottom line, the Canon EOS M100 generally offers good speed for an entry-level mirrorless camera, and performance is much improved over its predecessor, the M10, in most respects.

Battery Life
Below average battery life for mirrorless camera.

The Canon M100 uses a custom LP-E12 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a dedicated battery charger. Its CIPA-rated battery life of 295 shots per charge is improved over the M10's 255 shot rating, but still below average for a mirrorless camera and much lower than typical DSLRs. The M100 does however have an "Eco Mode" which boosts that figure to 410 shots by dimming the display when not being used. Still, 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 M100 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))