EOS M5. Debut!

"You jumped-ship again to Canon?"
-> No, I didn't.
-> Well, I did... But I didn't totally switch from my beloved Nikon.

Transitioning back to DSLR is tough. Even with the D750, I still find myself lacking the fervor to carry such a chunky (in relative terms to mirrorless) machine everyday. That's why I decided to buy an Canon EOS M5.

I have to be honest, I was struggling between choosing a Fuji X-T20 and the infamous Canon EOS M series of cameras. I finally landed my decision on the EOS M5 for reasons below:

- Canon has a more intuitive and multifunctional touch screen.
- Adobe doesn't really handle X-Trans files well, and I don't plan to ditch my current workflow anytime soon.
- Canon's Dual Pixel CMOS AF is absolutely amazing.
- Support for EF/EF-S mount glass is almost flawless with the Canon adapter.
- That sweet 22mm pancake lens and dirt-cheap 11-22mm wide angle lens.

The EOS M5 needs very little introduction. It's basically a downsized, mirrorless-version of the EOS 80D with way less battery life and worse buffer size. That's basicallly it. I might write something about my detailed impressions in the future.

While I've always wanted an ultra-wide in my kit, I rarely shoot wider than 24mm (in full frame speak), so I have no intension in buying an expensive ultra-wide for the D750. Options from Sigma and Tamron both are tempting, but I resisted well enough to see myself buying this 11-22mm for the EF-M mount instead.

Sure, it has a small aperture value, and sure, it "only" goes as wide as 18mm in 35mm terms. But these didn't matter to me too much to sway me from buying it. Why? Because I can buy this lens for less than ¥40,000 a piece. That's why. I should also add that it is compact and light, smaller than most similar options that I can mount on my Nikon.

The 11-22mm is pretty sharp from corner-to-corner, based on my first impression. There are some obvious vignette in the corners, but that should be easily correctable in post. I consider myself quite picky when it comes to lens quality, but this little gem did not disappoint me from the beginning.

Wow. The 22mm pancake is better than I expected, and it's just like what I've always heard from other owners: It is sharp wide-open, and only gets better when closed-down.

I am seeing good results from the moment I bought it, and in my use it already surpases my experience with the disappointing Fuji 23mm F2 lens in both image quality and compactness. This will indeed become the body-cap lens on my EOS M5 in the future.

But no matter how good the EF-M lenses are, or how great the EF-EOS M adapter is, the future of the EOS M system will likely be dependent on native lenses and fast primes. And for that, I think I'm like most people out there: Disappointed with previous efforts by Canon.

One can easily get shallow DoF with fast lenses even on APS-C cameras. Fuji's proven that in all their F1.4 primes. Even Nikon has cheap F1.8 primes to be mounted on their SLRs.The cold hard fact is that Canon doesn't have ANY fast primes (faster than F2) other than the 50mm F1.8 STM that's affordable. There are amazing L lenses, and there are cheap-ass slow primes with Image Stabilization. Now that is very disappointing to me.

I know for a fact that Canon has the resources and technology to easily develop such prime lenses that are fast, affordable, and well engineered. How Canon's APS-C SLRs managed to sell like hot cakes without fast primes I have no clue whatsoever, but I think that same strategy won't work in the mirrorless market.

So we'll see :D