M3 Review

I bought my M3 when they first became available internationally. Canon was not selling M3’s in the US so I bought mine on eBay from a seller in Japan for $493 back in April 2015.

Here is a short list of the pros and cons for the entire M series including the M3, M5, M6, and M50.

Pros

  1. Image quality looks great. I’ve enlarged pix to 24×36 and they look great. Not as great as my full frame 6D but still impressive. 12×18 prints are indistinguishable from a full frame DSLR.
  2. Easy to understand UI (use a Sony A6000 or A6300 and you’ll understand)
  3. No need to lock up the mirror! (Okay, true of all mirrorless cameras but still one less thing to do when shooting landscapes and macro shots)
  4. Light and small enough you can carry 3 extra lenses and the tripod in the same bag.
  5. Small and light batteries. Only one extra is necessary and rarely do I need the extra battery on a shoot since I get 400+ shots
  6. The LCD updates the image as you change the exposure comp. Way cool
  7. The LCD quality. (I didn’t notice how good this was until I shot with an A7r)
  8. Tiltable LCD.
  9. Prices of the lenses are generally about $300-$400 each. This is half of what Fuji X-T2 lenses will cost you.
  10. EF-M lenses are quite good. All metal barrel construction, IS, optical quality
  11. EF adaptor only $50 at bandh. It works great. I used it for my 100 Macro, but other than that, the EF-M lens lineup works fine for me and don’t need the adaptor

M3 specific

  1. The camera strap hooks are flat and non intrusive.
  2. Price $479 body only! A M5 body is $979, T6i $749, T5i $649, SL1 $400 so $479 is a steal. When traveling through a country where my dslr setup costs more than the average worker makes in two years, I get concerned. Now I only carry $2000 worth of gear with me instead of $5000+ Now that the M3 is discontinued prices have come down.
  3. Record and play buttons are recessed too much so I have to use my thumbnail to press them
  4. The shot to shot time peak is about 4 FPS but then slows down after shooting continuously for a couple of seconds. If you plan to capture images of kids running around or sports photography then I don’t recommend this camera.
  5. Remote control. Since there is no wired remote, the wireless is the only alternative and it works fine.

Cons

  1. Extra battery is $57 This price is pretty standard though for an extra battery regardless of brand and model. The M10 battery the LP-E12 is $59. The Canon LP-E6 is $64. This is the battery that almost all their DSLRs use. The Canon LP-E8 is $47 (T2i-T5i). The LP-E17 battery is compatible with the M3, M5, M6 and the T6i, T6s, T7i, and T77D. I don’t recommend non Canon batteries.
  2. The iOS app – I can’t get it to work.
  3. Needs a lens longer than 200mm. As of 2019 a lens longer than 200mm is not available.

What are the cool features of the M line?

  1. Built in level and grid lines. This helps composition
  2. Battery lasts over 400 shots, a whole day of shooting for me. No flash, minimal review.
  3. Pretty quiet
  4. Flip up and down and out screen is really useful. It flips up over the top so you can mount your M3 on a tripod and shoot selfies and can help you compose shots when mounted on the tripod. The flip screen is also useful for macro shots, low angle shots, high angle shots, and shooting video incognito.
  5. Focus peaking and manual focus! This is really required for macro shooting and works great. Play around with the setting and colors to get a feel for it. The various colors may seem like a useless fluff feature but in reality, depending on the color of what’s in your composition you will find that one color stands out much better than others. If there is low color contrast meaning that the colors look similar, it will be difficult to tell where the focus peaking is and what is in focus. This is one of the most useful features in a world consumed by marketing frames per second, number of autofocus points, number of megapixels, and 4k capability.
  6. Compatibility with EF lenses. No other mirrorless system has this large a lens selection available. The EF to EF-M adaptor can be bought on sale for only $50 and opens your M system up to all the EF lenses.

Who should buy this camera?

If you are an iPhone shooter who wants to move up and get into photography I highly recommend this camera and all 3 zooms and the 28mm macro. Inexpensive and high IQ with iOS like interface of a touch screen and big LCD to compose your shots. What can you do that you can’t do with your iPhone?

  1. Optical zooming! If you want a shot other than the fixed focal length the the iPhone, approx ??mm in 35mm terms then this is a great step up.
  2. Interchangeable lenses! You can shoot a super wide angle 11-22, or a long telephoto 55-200. The 28mm macro is especially fun and unique and only $300! Macro photography is fun with this lens! See M is for Macro
  3. Accessory on and off camera flashes to create interesting shots.

or

The DSLR shooter who wants something lighter to travel with. The question the DSLR shooter will ask, “Is the smaller size, bulk, and weight worth it? Specifically,

  1. Is the IQ as good?
  2. Does it AF fast enough?
  3. Does it shoot fast enough?
  4. Are there enough lenses?

The answers depend on how and what you shot. If you shoot mostly sports, wildlife, or any other movement then no, it’s AF and FPS are way too slow. Regarding image quality, just take side by side shots at the same ISO, F stop and shutter speed. Then enlarge to 8×12, 12×18, 24×36 and compare to evaluate. For me, up to 12×18 there is no real difference. At 20×30 is where I see a difference.

Lenses

I highly recommend the 28 macro, 11-22, 18-55, 55-200. They are all less than $300 so very affordable. All metal construction. The macro even has a built in light. The new 32 f1.4 is an amazing lens and I highly recommend even if the focal length or primes don’t interest you.

Competition:

At $300-$400 there is none!

Nikon oddly enough does not make a mirrorless APS-C camera.

$550 Sony A6000 Poor UI, Ergonomics. I bought one and shot for it for a few months. Did not like anything about it except the USB charging. Sony’s are great cameras for a spec comparison test like the ones dppreview and cnet put in their articles. One spec that is difficult to measure objectively and hard to assess from a webpage is usability. I did not like the Sony A6000 at all. The menus were not intuitive and I had to search for items that I can find immediately with a Nikon or Canon. The camera just didn’t feel right to me.

2019 update. M3’s are available used for $100-$200. A great deal though I suspect most people will be disappointed with the shot to shot times and AF speed. The M50 is a much better all around camera with the fully articulating screen, fast shot to shot times, fast AF, and an intuitive UI.

Other reviews for the M3:

Our Canon EOS M3 Review: A powerhouse with shortcomings –  Canonwatch

Rebel in your pocket: Canon EOS M3 Review – dpreview

Ken Rockwell

Canon EOS M3 : Tests and Reviews – dxomark Using the overall number score of the sensor to determine the quality and the best camera to buy is misleading and pretty much useless.

March 2019 – I wrote this in 2015 but in 2019 the M50 fixes all my complaints about the M3 so for $650 it’s worth the extra money.

I agree 100% but want to add:

I love the 11-22, 18-50, 55-200, and 28 Macro. Positioning and adjusting the camera for macro work is so much easier than an EF DSLR. I use them all the time and highly recommend all 4. I have the 22 f/2.0 but never use it. The 32 F/1.4 makes me think Canon is committed to this camera and lens line, but I don’t use primes much anymore besides the 28 macro. I ended up buying it and love the 32mm though and recommend it to any M system owner.

A great tripod to pair with this is the $225 Sirui T-025x Carbon Fiber Tripod with C-10 Ball Head. Though it’s been discontinued, this one took it’s place Sirui T-025SK Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod with B-00 Ball Head and looks pretty similar for $200. A great tripod mount to pair with this tripod is:

https://www.promediagear.com/PX1-Universal-Arca-Swiss-Type-Plate-1inch-Long-Flat_p_86.html

Pix of it: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57823028

May 1, 2020 I sold my M3 yesterday for $200. I used it for 5 years and paid about $595 for it back in April 2015. Favorite camera I’ve used to date. It’s days were numbered as soon as the M6 Mark II came out though. One of the main reason I kept the M3 was that I could use Photoshop CS6 with it since my old version ACR supported it. Since I figured out that Photoshop Elements 2020 for $60 would read the raw M6II files I figured I could sell the M3 and just use my M6II.