Need Canon Body upgrade advice

Gadgets and Devices Photography, Video, and Drones
1

I’ve been using a Gen 1 EOS M for the last 11-12 years. Used it frequently initially, but my usage has gone down to once or twice a year on trips from the past 6-7 years or so. It works just fine, but has some drawbacks. I wanted to upgrade to a better body (Faster AF, some more features, etc.) that I could use for at least the next 5 years.

I’ve been on the fence about upgrading to an M50 Mark II now, or an R50 in the future.

These are the lenses I have right now:

EF-M 22mm f2 STM
EF 50mm f/1.8
EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS
7artisans 35mm f/1.2 (Manual focus)

As you can see, I like to shoot a bit of everything.

If I eventually go for the R50, I would have to pay an additional 25k approximately, and ditch my 2 EF-M lenses. It feels rough to have to ditch the 22mm f2, since I’ve used it a lot and it has been one of my favourite lenses.

I’m pretty confused. The M line has been discontinued, so I can’t wait too long if I want to go with the M50 Mark II, because they’ll disappear altogether eventually, at least the ones in great condition. But time is not an issue with the R50. The issues with the R lineup are more along the lines of expensive lenses (Unless I stick with the EF/EF-S + adapter route) and having to ditch my 22mm lens.

Any advice would be appreciated!

2

For a similar shooting experience, you can try out the R50V, that’d be my first choice for this form factor. It’s a huge improvement over the R50.

Alternatively, the later ef-m cameras had pretty good autofocus so you could keep your lenses and just upgrade the body.

I have an early ef-m camera that I paired with a ef-s 24mm lens because I couldn’t find the 22mm anywhere, it’s a nice setup.

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I was in the same boat. I went with Sony. The lenses are so much cheaper (with 3rd party options) and the selection is much larger.

None of your Canon lenses are really expensive, so I wouldn’t worry about them too much. Sell them and start afresh with Sony.

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What exactly are you expecting with the upgrade? What is your photo/video ratio? I don’t think you will see a big difference in photo quality between your M50 and current cameras.

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I have a M50ii myself with the 22mm pancake lens. The only reason I am keeping the M50ii around and not completely moving to the Sony system is the 22mm lens, its just brilliant and there is no direct alternative for it in any other system, that I know of.

The autofocus on M50ii is excellent for human subjects, it instantly latches onto the eye and keeps tracking.

My suggestion, if you are happy with the current set of lenses you have, get a M50ii or a M6ii. This should serve you well for a few years.

If you want to get new lenses, then the Sony system is great. All the models after the a6100 have great autofocus, and lenses like the Sigma 18-50 are amazing. The newest models, like the a6700 have amazing low light performance as well, and the autofocus is industry leading, but they also cost a bomb.

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I’ve only briefly checked the differences, but isn’t the R50V geared more towards shooting videos? My use case is pretty much stills, and I rarely shoot videos, if ever.

Yeah, that’s where my head is at right now.

I don’t want to migrate my entire setup since I don’t think I’m missing out on something specific. Plus the hassle of selling stuff, finding equivalent lenses, etc. Sony 3rd party lenses are cheaper than those for Canon? Interesting. I’ll certainly check them out, just out of curiosity.

It’s pretty much all stills.

I know that the IQ difference would be barely noticeable with what I’m looking at, so that’s not my goal. I’d like faster AF, better high ISO performance, a better grip/ergonomics, and faster operation in general. Also, my M body has a degree of wear, like a partially broken battery cover, a scratch on the screen, and I’m worried that it might not last for another 5-10 years, so an upgrade to another body would help with that and ensure some peace of mind. Realistically, I know it’ll continue to function fine like the absolute tank it is, but still. Lastly, monkey brain likes shiny new things.

That sounds quite reassuring.

The availability for both is sparse, but the former is still there. I haven’t seen an M6 in a while, and even those were pretty pricy.

Does anyone have any significant reasons for me to consider the R50/R50V instead that I might have missed, and should take into account? I’m leaning pretty heavily towards the M50 due to a bias, and thanks to some of the supporting comments as well, but I’d still like to make the best decision I could, because I ideally plan to use this body for the same amount of time (10 years or so) like my OG EOS M.

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I suggested R50V for the form factor, rangefinder mirrorless without viewfinder and the upgrades over the R50:

Wifi 5ghz, usb3 vs usb2 and a better quick menu.

I’m not a fan of form factor of the R50 (baby slr), feels way too much of a toy even if it has a viewfinder and better screen.

But then I still shoot with a >20 year old D200.

You’ll probably be just fine with a new ef-m camera.

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Then, don’t new money into a closed and discontinued system (M). Buy R (if you really want to stay with Canon) and an adapter for your EF(-S) lenses if you don’t want to go sony. But, none of your lenses are really worth it to keep yourself in Canon. Your EF-S lenses will work just like native on R cameras with an adapter. There is no electronics in the converter. It is just like native. I would recommend R50 if you want to primarily take photos in a budget. Based on the comment below, I wouldn’t buy M50 at all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/canon/comments/164k2gx/comment/jy8sf37/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The M50ii’s 4K is cropped only, and uses contrast based autofocus (instead of the superior dual pixel it uses in 1080p. Compare to its RF mount successor the R50, which does 4K 30 without a crop, with much superior image quality thanks to over sampling, and with proper autofocus and a variety of subject tracking options. The R50 can also record 10bit video through HDR PQ (which requires post-processing color grading, but allows better dynamic range). There’s a bunch more but most R50 reviews will highlight the improvements from its predecessor.

Canon didn’t allow 3rd party lenses for its R series. They recently opened it for APS-C R cameras, but the selection is quite poor. Full frame R cameras don’t have 3rd party options.