Journeys From A Small Room

So, I thought I would share my thoughts on   why I chose the Canon Eos M5 and sold my Canon 70d for it. Now this is purely from my point of view and in no way trying to tell others what to do, yes I expect I could have chosen better, maybe? But I chose in the end what suited me. So here it goes.

I have been residing in Thailand now for the last 5 years, from my home country the UK. That involved a massive life change and with the most positive effect for me.

Always with my life (as I am sure it is for many) there is always the fine balance of money for living/traveling and camera kit (yes I know for many I will have that the wrong way round, but I have a wonderful partner who facilitates this life I now lead, and without that I would not be here).

I have had and  loved my 70d for 6 years now, but I have noticed that increasingly even I have found it a heavy piece of camera to carry and use for prolonged periods of shooting. That is aside from carrying it with its lenses around whilst travelling to and from destinations. It has not gone amiss in my continued interest of all things new in Photography, that technology is moving forward, and more importantly for me Smaller and lighter!

So you may remember my short article back in October 2019, I bought myself from Carmarthen Cameras a 2nd hand, mint Canon Eos M, and 18mp Apsc sensor camera
Great price (£80) and great condition. This was my try out into the mirrorless world. Why this one? Well it could take my current collection of Efs lenses with adaptor. No brainer, no change in my current lens collection.

I have just spent five days in Singapore (last week) with just my Canon Eos M, the sigma 8-16mm, the 18-135mm stm, 55-250mm stm. Along with my viltrox adaptor. I ended up using the Sigma most of the time and the 18-135mm the rest.

What I liked;

• I loved the light weight of the M;
• I loved the anonymity of the M.
• I loved the IQ of the M.
• I loved the portability of the M,
• I loved the direct focus point touch screen of the M.
• I loved the crisp clear screen of the M

What I didn’t like;

• The biggest  thing that got to me was the lack of a viewfinder, which meant I was struggling to frame properly, in strong sunlight, of which there is a lot here. It doesn’t move, and whilst this works for most f the time, there is also a lot of time where it is just plain impossible to see, Yes I have tried the screen shades and loupes, but all add to the size of what I was trying to reduce.
• I actually found it quite arm aching holding it out at arm’s length all the time. Even more tiring than the 70D. This goes back to the lack of a viewfinder, but a 2nd reason that the viewfinder becomes a critical piece of the camera.
• Also the inability to change settings on the fly also frustrated me, there are few buttons on the M and apart from the focus touch screen, you have to do everything else through the screen to get to the menus, Which means that you have to take your eye off what you are photographing.
• The last one surprised me, as it had not been an issue up until this trip, the  little to no grip on the camera itself. Not an issue with small lenses, but with the larger ones made it quite the hand ache, not to mention the feeling of dropping it from your hand. Whilst I have a para-cord strap attached to the camera, I still found I was getting hand cramp clutching the camera and lens combo for prolonged periods of time.

So  when I got back here I knew had to do something about it, so I sold my 70d for around 9,000bht = *283$ , on the Facebook online market place. Along with my longer needed but much loved Tamron 10-24mm lens, which fetched 3000bht =*98$.  I considered this a good price as I have been watching the prices plummet in the UK, and bought this M5 for 11,000bht =*346$, also from a seller on the Facebook Market place. Now I know that the two cameras have been around similar prices 2nd hand and the M5 has been always edging it against the 70d, mostly because of the newer tech. So it was a loss I knew I would have take. Yes I was sad ;-( , I have owned and used the  70d from new some 6 years ago now, it’s been a trusty friend, but times move on and so do cameras. I would still recommend it to anyone!

So my current kit is and still will be for the foreseeable future;
Canon Eos M,Canon Eos M5,Sigma 8-16mm EFS,Canon 18-135mm stm,Canon 55-250mm stm,Canon 15-45mm EFM,Mieke 24mm 2.8 EFM

Apart from the Sigma which is heavy, the rest of my lens collection is very lightweight, as are the cameras.

Things to be aware of;

Now I have since found out that the software that the M5 runs on is completely different to the 70d and the Eos M. what does this mean in the real World? Well, you can’t run Magic Lantern firmware, and all the extras it gives you on the 70d. That for sure I will miss, notwithstanding being able to see you actual shutter count!
Otherwise I am not sure yet if I will notice any other differences, I will keep you posted.

The Raw files from the M5 don’t open in my Lr5.7 without me running them through Adobe DNG converter first! Another tedious step in the pp workflow, but hey it’s not insurmountable. Especially as I am not in the position to start paying adobe anytime soon for their “subscription” based software upgrade.

I am sure once I have flexed the M5 in a decent trip, i will return with my further thoughts on it!

*Prices worked on currency exchange at time of writing and publishing this article