What’s up everyone, Sagi here and welcome to another Tech Gear Talk. Today I’m going to cover some of the most frequently asked questions about the Canon M50. The M50 is Canon’s first consumer mirrorless camera and has definitely been one of the most popular cameras of the year. I did a more detailed review a few months ago and so far I received almost 1300 comments and questions. I’ll leave a link to that video in the description if you’re interested in learning a lot more about this camera, but what I did was put together a list of the most frequently asked questions I got about the M50.
Spoiler alert: I decided to include a super important bonus question at the end so make sure you read to the end to find the answer.
Alright, let’s get going. One of the most frequently asked questions I got was “Is the Canon M50 a good camera for vlogging?”. And the answer is that it’s a fantastic camera for vlogging. It’s small and light so you can easily take it with you everywhere. It has a flip screen so you can make sure that you’re framed well when you’re in front of the camera. It has the best autofocus system on the market, so your video is always going to be super crisp. It has an external mic input so that you can use an external microphone and get better audio for your vlogs. And it has an excellent ASP-C sensor to help you get great image quality in different lighting conditions.
A couple of slight limitations I want to make you aware of have to do with 4K video. if you’re wanting to vlog in 4K (which I absolutely don’t think the vast majority of people need) the M50 doesn’t use the Dual Pixel Autofocus system anymore, it uses a phase-detection system instead. Still works great, but I like the Dual Pixel AF better. You will also need to apply an additional 1.6X crop factor when you’re figuring out your focal length. I explain this in more detail in the full review, so when you’re finished with this video go check it out if you would like to know more.
Another question I received was “Is the Canon M50 a good camera for a beginner photographer?” Once again, the answer is a resounding yes. This camera lets you immediately pick it up and start shooting if you want to let it take over and use it on full auto. As you get to know more about photography and how the camera works, you can then work your way to aperture and shutter priority modes. And then finally, once you’re ready, you can go to full manual mode and have complete control over your exposure. Something else that’s rarely discussed in videos is ergonomics and user interface. I’m a huge fan of Canon ergonomics and with the exception of maybe wanting one more dial, so I can control aperture and shutterspeed with different dials, there really isn’t anything I would change about it. There is a button on the back that lets me toggle the functionality of the top dial between aperture, shutterspeed and ISO and now that I’m used to it, it’s actually nice to be able to repurpose the 1 top dial. The Canon menu system is super simple to use. I like the top-level breakdown into Shooting Settings, Playback Settings, Function Settings and Display Level Settings. And within each section, the items are clearly marked and intuitively organized.
The next question I want to share with you is “Does the Canon M50 have a clean HDMI Out and can I use it for streaming”. Because the M50 is such a great camera, a lot of people want to use it for streaming. And in order to do that, the camera has to be able to output what you see on the LCD screen, but without all the menu options, because of course, you don’t want those showing up in your stream. That is called a clean HDMI out. The M50 does not have a clean HDMI out but there are several ways to get around this limitation. I’ll shoot a complete tutorial showing 2 very different ways that let you use the M50 for streaming. And once you learn how do set it up, it does a fantastic job. If that’s something you’re interested in, let me know in the comments section and hit the subscribe and notification buttons on my YouTube so that you’re alerted when it’s published.
Another really popular question was “Does the M50 have In-Body Image Stabilization?” Image stabilization is something that is beneficial in both photography and video. For photography it’s really nice to have when working with slower shutter speeds or with longer focal lengths. For video it’s great to help remove some of the shakiness you get when shooting handheld, when you’re walking around or moving the camera. There are two types of camera image stabilization. The first is digital image stabilization where essentially, the camera is using software to digitally manipulate the image and compensate for the shake that’s being introduced by camera movement. The second type of image stabilization is In-Body Image Stabilization where the sensor of the camera actually makes slight moves to compensate for camera shake. An example of this is what you find on the Sony A6500. The M50 uses 5-axis digital image stabilization which is “ok” but not the absolute best. In my opinion you are better off using lenses with image stabilization like this 15-45mm kit lens which does a pretty good job. Now, if you’re really interested in buttery smooth camera movement, I would always recommend using a 3-axis gimbal.
This leads me right into the next question “What gimbal do you recommend to use with the M50?” The fact is that no camera or lens image stabilization is going to do as good a job as a great dedicated 3-axis gimbal. It’s just not a fair fight. The camera and lens have slight enhancements to help alleviate some of the camera motion whereas a 3-axis gimbal is a tool specifically dedicated to do one thing: keep the camera stable. There are a lot of options on the market right now and some of my favorites are the MOZA Air 2 and the DJI Ronin S. I have reviews of both coming very soon but I have been super impressed with the results. I’ve also used the M50 with the Ronin M, and here is some sample footage to show you the difference between handheld and stabilized footage.
The next question I want to answer is “Which microphone should I use with the M50?” One of the reasons I like the M50 for video is the fact that it has an external microphone input. This allows me to use a much better microphone than the built-in omnidirectional microphones and get significantly better audio. There are a lot of microphones out there and it can be quite intimidating to try and pick one out of the blue. I did a review of a complete lineup of directional video microphones, ranging from $59 to $350 and I’ll put a link up in the corner and in the description so that you can check it out and find one that is a good fit for your budget. Which microphone you choose will come down to how good you want your audio to sound and what is the value of that investment. That video will give you, what I think is a fair comparison so that you can make an informed decision. The best thing is that regardless of which option you choose, your audio will immediately improve.
The next question I want to respond to is “Can I use the M50 for sports photography?” When shooting images, the M50 can shoot at up to 10 fps in both Raw and Jpeg formats. That means that you can hold the shutter down and the camera will keep firing until the buffer is full. For sports photography, this is a great feature because you can point the camera at the action and fire away, then go back later on and choose the exact shot you want. So yes, I think the M50 can absolutely be used for sports photography when paired with the right lens.
Another question I got a lot is “How good is the battery life on the M50?” And the straight answer is – it’s not that great. The M50 uses an LP-E12 rechargeable lithium-ion battery and it’s rated for 235 shots per charge – and that’s when using the EVF or LCD. There is an Eco mode that can boost the battery life to up to about 370 shots. To turn Eco mode on click on the MENU button, go to FUNCTION SETTINGS->PAGE 2->ECO MODE, click on it and set it to ON. Regardless, I recommend that you pick up an additional battery so that you don’t have to worry about running out of battery if you’re going on a trip and will be shooting all day.
The next question has to do with something that has bothered me about some other Canon cameras, like the M6 and the G7X MKII. The question is “Can I use the Canon Camera Connect App with the M50 for video
and can I transfer video files to my phone?” With some older models, the Camera Connect app would work for photography, you could control some settings and trigger the shutter, but when you changed to video mode, poof, everything went away. One of my absolute favorite features, as a creator, is that the M50 can be fully controlled using the app. I’m talking about resolution, framerate, focus mode and point, aperture, shutterspeed, ISO, white balance, audio settings, and of course you can start and stop recording. This lets me use my phone as both a remote monitor and a controller. I don’t have to constantly get up or mess with the camera in order to make adjustments or to start and stop my video. I can sit down, pick up my phone, make sure everything looks good and start. For photos, I really like this when I do macro photography, because I don’t need to touch the camera to trigger the shutter.
The next question I want to discuss in this video is “What are some good wide angle lenses for the M50”. A lot of people are interested in landscape, street or architectural photography. Or maybe they shoot video and are tight on space, or want to vlog in 4K and find the additional crop factor challenging. Regardless of the reason, I’m going to share with you 2 great options. If you need to go ultra-wide, Canon offers an EF-M 11-22mm f4-5.6 STM lens with image stabilization. This zoom lens will give you a wider angle of view than the 15-45 kit lens. You may not think this small difference in focal length is going to matter, but you would be surprised. If you have the EF-M adapter for EF/EF-S lenses, this opens up a whole world of opportunities, not just for wide-angle but for lenses in general. This will let you use the entire line of Canon EF/EF-S lenses which includes all of the high-end L-Series USM lenses. Going back to the wide angle question, this gives you the option to use the very popular EF-S 10-18mm STM lens which also has image stabilization. This is another excellent choice for getting those wide angle vlog shots or for stills.
I wanted to include a bonus question which is actually going to be the topic of a more in-depth video. The question is “How is the low light performance on the M50”. This is of course a loaded question and has to do with what are we comparing it to but I wanted to give you a quick test of what the M50 looks like throughout the ISO range. We’ll start way down at 100 and work our way up to 25600. Like I said, this isn’t intended to be super detailed but just used to give you an idea of what you can expect from the M50. If you want to see a lot more examples the low light performance should be published soon.
So these were some of the most frequently asked questions about the Canon M50. I hope that I was able to go over some things that you may be thinking about whether you’re considering buying the M50 or even if you already own it. If you have additional questions, please ask me in the comment section. I do my best to answer every question I can.
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Good luck, and see you soon.
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Thank you
This was helpful! From a long time subscriber