Canon’s First 4K Mirrorless Camera Unveiled: New EOS M50

Canon has updated its line of mirrorless cameras and finally added the EOS M50 capable of shooting 4K video, a feature that has been missing from their range of mirrorless options. It packs a new DIGIC 8 processor and 24.1 Megapixel (APS-C) CMOS sensor.

The EOS M50 features Dual Pixel CMOS AF, highly popular on many of Canon’s DSLR and their cinema camera line. The camera can shoot slow motion at 60fps / 50fps in Full HD (1080p) and 100fps / 120fps in HD (720p). An important factor to note however is when shooting 4K there will be an additional crop of 1.7x on the image. The camera comes with the standard camera profiles for video shooters but no LOG gamma or a Wide DR profile, a “must-have” for video shooter professionals who need the extra flexibility in post-production when it comes to color grading.

Canon claims the M50 is now their entry-level M-series camera, which makes sense since there are plenty of professional options missing on it. Having said that, when it comes to price point and features, the M50 definitely seems like a great choice for videographers who are just starting out.

The camera has a vari-angle touch screen (ideal for Vloggers) allowing for touch and drag focus, making the M50 the first of Canon’s mirrorless cameras to include it. There's no image stabilization on the sensor itself, but it handles stabilization digitally which usually equates to some video quality loss or image cropping.

Some additional features include a 3.5mm microphone jack in order to connect an external microphone, but there’s no output option for monitoring the audio. The M50 has a built-in 4K timelapse video function, a new RAW format for photos, and a Micro HDMI output which is unfortunately not clean and a red record dot will be seen on the output just like on some of Canon’s early DSLRs.

The camera retails for USD$799 for the camera body alone, with the option to purchase with the 15-45mm lens (USD$899) or the 15-45mm & 55-200mm kit lens (USD$1,249). You can read the full specs released of the camera on Canon’s website here.