Canon EOS M200 Review

Canon EOS M200 Review: Canon EOS M200 for compact and affordable mirrorless entry – Now with 4K video and latest image processor

With the Canon EOS M200, Canon is bringing its mirrorless entry-level series largely up to the latest technical standards. It features the Digic 8 image processor and a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor with dual pixel CMOS AF and 4K video function.

Canon EOS M200 main characteristics are a touchscreen that can be tilted upwards by 180 degrees, face and eye recognition, as well as WLAN and Bluetooth, are also on board. The intuitive user interface is suitable for beginners to achieve the best shooting results with a minimal setup.

Canon EOS M200 Pros And Cons

Pros

• Small housing
• Simple operating concept
• Many help functions
• Good image quality up to ISO 1,600
• Separate memory card slot

Cons

• Cheap housing material
• Missing TTL system hot shoe
• Low manufacturer object selection

The new entry-level DSLM Canon EOS M200, here with the EF-M 15-45 mm set lens, is extremely compact and lightweight. [Photo: Canon]

With the Canon EOS M200, Canon is upgrading its entry-level mirrorless APS-C camera. Although the 24 megapixel CMOS sensor remains in APS-C size, new and extended functions and a current Digic-8 image processor are hidden in the small housing.

We took a closer look at the camera with the testing software and in practice and report on our findings in this test report. Will the M200 manage to clearly distinguish itself from its predecessor?

Measuring just 10.8 by 6.7 by 3.5 centimeters and weighing just under 300 grams, the Canon EOS M200 is extremely compact and lightweight thanks to its lightweight polycarbonate body. The lens is of course added.

The camera is only offered in a kit with a 15-45mm zoom, but it is particularly compact with the separately available 22mm pancake fixed focal length.

At the heart of the Canon EOS M200 is the new APS-C sensor with an effective 24-megapixel resolution. It offers a dual pixel CMOS AF (hybrid autofocus) including face and eye recognition.

Sensitivity is down to -4 LW, so AF should work in fairly dark environments, such as at a party, festival or concert.

During 4K video recordings, however, only the contrast autofocus works, which means that the sensor is not the current model from the EOS M6 Mark II or EOS 90D.

Thanks to the maximum sensitivity of ISO 25,600 without and ISO 51,200 with expansion, photos should still be possible even in darker environments. The sensor is supported by the current Digic 8 image processor, which thanks to its computing power is also capable of correcting lens errors.

The Canon EOS M200’s APS-C sensor resolves 24 megapixels in still images and 4K in video. [Photo: Canon]

The back of the Canon EOS M200 is almost completely taken up by the touchscreen that can be tilted upwards. In contrast, there are only a few operating elements. The monitor of the Canon EOS M200 is very bright and very precise with the touch operation, furthermore, it can be folded up by 180 degrees [Photo: Canon]

Almost the entire back is occupied by the 7.5-centimeter LCD touch screen. The resolution is an unspectacular but sufficient 1.04 million pixels.

It can be folded upwards by 180 degrees and is therefore also suitable for ground level as well as selfie recordings and vloggers. For the latter there is now a video recording button on the touch screen. If you want, you can even record portrait videos for viewing on smartphones, but there is no microphone connection.

Speaking of connections: You won’t find a flash shoe in Canon’s entry-level class either, only an integrated pop-up flash with a guide number of only five is built in. Furthermore, there is a USB and an HDMI interface, both in the micro version. However, there is no USB charging function. The lithium-ion battery, sufficient for approx. 315 exposures, is filled externally in the supplied charger. After all, raw recordings in HDR can be played back on a television via the HDMI interface.

The Canon EOS M200 also offers only a few control elements on the top side. Instead of a program dial, there is only a simple photo/video auto selector. [Photo: Canon]

The 4K video function operates at either 24 or 25 frames per second, and the recording time is limited to just under 30 minutes at a time.

The battery should be sufficient for a maximum of 90 minutes of video recording. In Full-HD, 120 frames per second are possible for slow-motion effects, and a time-lapse video function is also on board.

In addition, a digital image stabilizer can be activated during video recording, which can be combined with an optical image stabilizer in the lens. The SD memory card slot is compatible with SDHC, SDXC and UHS I.

The Canon EOS M200 offers a fully automatic function including subject, face and eye recognition. In addition, the simple user interface should make it possible to select the background blur even without knowledge of the technical context.

With additional tips and tricks, the camera should help beginners to take better photos. But also a semi-automatic, as well as manual control of the camera, is possible.

The Canon EOS M200 should not only be available in black, but also in white. With the EF-M 22 mm, which is available separately, a particularly compact combination is created. [Photo: Canon]

Thanks to WLAN and Bluetooth, the Canon EOS M200 can communicate wirelessly with smartphones, tablets and computers and transfer images. But remote control via an app is also possible, including live image display.

Since January 2020, the Canon EOS M200 is available as a set with the EF-M 15-45 mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM at a price of just under 600 dollars. For the case, the buyer has the choice between the colors black and white. Color white became available a bit later in May 2020.

Canon EOS M200 with EF-M 15-45 mm IS STM. [Photo: Canon]

Ergonomics and Workmanship

The Canon EOS M200 is only available as a set with the EF-M 15-45 mm IS STM and the small set lens also fits the 108 x 67 x 35 mm (W x H x D) compact body very well. Ready for operation, the camera with lens weighs only 422 grams, so it is also light. The lens itself even weighs just over 120 grams.

But the low weight also has its price and this is noticeable in the case material. The plastic housing feels “gravelly” and instead of a rubber coating, the camera only has a grained plastic surface on the front. The same haptic continues with the small but sufficient thumb cavity on the back of the camera.

In spite of the material, the processing is clean and precise. The EF-M bayonet of the camera is made of metal, whereas the lens is made of plastic.

Unfortunately, Canon does not include any elements in the housing that could make it easier for the photographer to hold the camera. While smaller hands should have no problem with the housing, larger hands will be a little more cramped in holding the camera.

The distribution of the control elements is well done by Canon, which is mainly due to the fact that there are hardly any.

On the upper side of the camera is a mode switch that switches between photo, video and subject auto. Of course, the shutter release is also located on the upper side. The camera’s only rotating wheel is located around the shutter release button.

On the back, as is usual with system cameras, the screen, which is a touch screen, dominates. The Canon EOS M200’s 3″ (7.5 cm) monitor can be tilted up 180°, so selfies are no problem.

The maximum brightness of the display is almost 860 candela per square meter, which makes it surprisingly bright for an entry-level camera. Brightness is especially important in that it determines whether the photographer can still see something on the display even in bright ambient light, because there is no viewfinder, not even optional.

In addition, the control elements are joined by a control pad with predefined quick-select buttons and three dedicated buttons (video trigger, menu and playback button) on the rear panel.

Operating the camera via the touch screen is easy and precise. This is mainly due to the successful user interface that Canon presents to the photographer. An integral part of the operating concept is the Quick Menu key or Q key for short.

By pressing the button, the photographer instructs the camera to change shooting settings. These depend on the selected operating mode. However, to change shooting settings such as exposure time, ISO sensitivity, aperture, etc., the camera borders the elements that can be changed on the display.

A tap on the setting is enough to change the corresponding value via the touch screen, the control pad or the rotary wheel.

Like other Canon entry-level cameras, the Canon EOS M200 also has a “guided” mode that shows with hints what kind of function is hidden in the different menus. If you no longer need the simple way of menu navigation, you can simply switch it off. However, the explanations in the menus are not affected by this, they must be deactivated additionally. This means that the camera can be adapted to any level of competence and rarely leaves the photographer alone.

The M200 is powered by an LP-E12 lithium-ion battery, which Canon claims is powerful enough to take 315 pictures. This value was determined by the manufacturer using the CIPA test procedure. The battery is charged in an external charger (LC-E12E) included in the scope of delivery. The Canon EOS M200 does not provide for charging the battery via the USB port. For this purpose, the camera can be supplied with continuous power from an optional AC adapter (CA-PS7000). However, a battery compartment adapter (DR-E12) must be inserted into the battery compartment.

In the Canon EOS M200, the memory card has its own lead-in (flap) on the right side of the camera. Memory cards with SD form factors are used as memory. SDHC, SDXC, and UHS-1 are supported by the camera. How fast the memory card should be, respectively which speed the M200 reaches when saving, will be explained later in the text under “Equipment And Features”.

In order to use the Canon EF-M 15-45 mm IS STM, it must be moved out to “working focal length”. [Photo: Canon]

The camera is also away from the display and that is at the interfaces. Here, however, there are only standard features that were fine in 2020 such as Micro-USB and Micro-HDMI as well as Bluetooth and WLAN.

Unfortunately, one must renounce an NFC function like with the EOS M100. The photographer also has to do without a system hot shoe; unfortunately, the integrated flash is also not capable of wireless TTL flash control. According to Canon, the small manually flip-up flash has a guide number of 5, and according to our measurement, it was even slightly higher with guide number 6 (at ISO 100).

Equipment And Features

The heart of the Canon EOS M200 is the image processor, which basically takes care of everything in the camera. In the M200, as in various other Canon cameras, a Digic 8 is used.

Even though the M200 is an entry-level camera, it is extensively equipped. For example with the automatic scene control. In this case, the image processor analyzes the subject and recognizes what kind of shooting situation it is. He then selects the appropriate time-aperture combination and the image formatting settings accordingly.

Of course, the photographer can also use normal program mode, manual mode or aperture priority mode. Of course, the M200 also has scene mode programs, which can be found under the modes that can be selected on the display.

The right side of the Canon EOS M200 is free of connectors and controls. [Photo: Canon]

Friends of special effects will also get their money’s worth in the Canon EOS M200. Seven effects are available during shooting, which can also be applied later to previously taken photos. In addition, the photographer can instruct the camera to process colors, contrasts, and details according to certain aspects. These image styles can be adjusted according to your own wishes. There are also three memory locations for your own picture style creations.

Canon’s autofocus system, the Canon EOS M200, also uses the dual-pixel CMOS AF system. This enables fast and very precise focusing directly on the image plane. They function according to the same basic principle as phase AF sensors. This type of sensor uses two sensor units with a beveled microlens. The grinding of both microlenses is in opposite directions. If one of the sensors now detects a contrast edge, it compares the signal of the two sensors.

Depending on how the two signals differ, the image processor detects how far away the object to be focused is and whether the focus distance needs to be reduced or increased. Only when both signals are identical, the focus is correctly adjusted.

The photographer has a total of 143 AF points at 80 percent of the sensor height and width. These fields can be selected either manually one by one on the touch screen or by using larger zones. In addition, the AF system has a tracking function where you can register an object. The camera then tracks the object in the field of view and automatically sets it as the focus point.

Of course, the camera also recognizes faces and can also follow them. Also, an eye recognition is not missing. With our AF speed measurement from infinity to two meters, the camera found the focus in about 0.3 seconds at wide-angle and 0.35 seconds at telephoto. The pure shutter release delay is 0.05 seconds.

Compared to the lens, the Canon EOS M200’s body looks rather slim and delicate. [Photo: Canon]

The activation of the manual focus is hidden in the menu, as with the predecessor. A quick switch from auto to manual focus is therefore not possible. After all, one can arrange one’s own menu, so that all the functions that are needed more often do not have to be laboriously collected again and again in the camera menu.

The Canon EOS M200’s 24-megapixel sensor has a native aspect ratio of 3:2, but you can also capture images with aspect ratios of 4:3, 16:9 and 1:1. The photographer can choose between the Canon raw data format and JPEG as the file type. For the latter, different compression rates are available.

While the EOS M100 could only record videos with a maximum FullHD (1,920 x 1,080), the Canon EOS M200 is able to record 4K videos with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. The maximum frame rate is 25. 4K video, unfortunately, does not read the whole sensor but only a part of it.

As a result, there is a crop and the angle of view of the lens is reduced. This is not quite as optimal, but nothing unusual with entry-level cameras. The electronic image stabilizer additionally crops the image when activated. In addition, 4K videos only use a contrast autofocus and not the much faster dual-pixel system.

On the left side of the Canon EOS M200, the interface cover and SD memory card slot are located. [Photo: Canon]

The maximum recording time for videos is 29 minutes and 59 seconds. The range of video functions is quite decent. For example, the camera offers a manual recording mode, the sound can also be manually controlled and an electronic wind filter reduces strong wind noise.

Unfortunately, the camera does not have a connection for external microphones, so that one has to rely on a somewhat asymmetrically positioned stereo microphone of the camera.

In addition to the conventional video functions, the M200 has a time-lapse video function that allows impressive time-lapse videos – even in 4K resolution – to be recorded. The photographer can choose from three presets or select his or her own setting options for this function. There is no interval shooting function for still images, nor is there an exposure bracketing function or silent electronic shutter release.

In continuous shooting, the Canon EOS M200 offers rather moderate speeds. We conducted the test with a 64 gigabyte Panasonic SDXC UHS-II V90 Class 10 memory card and came to the conclusion that the camera writes data to the memory card at about 59 megabytes per second. Raw data is recorded at six frames per second.

The camera can only maintain this speed until eight shots have been taken. Then the series turns into an uneven stuttering with an average of about 1.6 frames per second, while the camera tries to empty the buffer memory. With JPEG recordings, the M200 also achieves almost six shots per second, but still 40 in a row.

In addition, the stuttering welcomes the photographer here as well. Other cameras work much more evenly with a full buffer memory, which offers more useful results in practice. On average, the camera here achieves about four shots per second.

On the bottom side, the tripod thread of the Canon EOS M200 is located in the optical axis. The battery compartment flap with the rubber cover for the power feed-through is also located here. [Photo: Canon]

The Canon EOS M200 also comes with a Bluetooth and WLAN function. To connect the camera to a smart device, the free Canon Connect App must be installed on the device. The app is available for iOS and Android in the corresponding virtual stores.

Setting up the app is quite easy, at least if you follow the instructions for establishing a connection presented in the app. The two types of camera connections have different tasks. While the power-saving Bluetooth connection is primarily used for the permanent transmission of position data and a simple remote trigger, the WLAN connection can be used for much more, such as camera control including LiveView.

The transfer of image data to the smart device is also possible without any problems. In addition, the WLAN connection can be used to integrate the camera into an existing WLAN network – but for this purpose, the EOS Utility software must be installed on a computer in the network.

Image Quality Of The Canon EOS M200

We have tested the Canon EOS M200 together with the EF-M 15-45 mm IS STM, which is available as a set.

Without a lens, the Canon EOS M200 looks almost like a compact camera. In spite of the beginner’s class where it belongs, it has a metal bayonet. [Photo: Canon]

With the Canon EOS M200’s 24-megapixel CMOS sensor, Canon is rather conservative and, unlike the EOS M6 Mark II, not so bold as to install a 32-megapixel sensor.

In direct comparison, however, it does not harm the camera. The maximum resolution at 50 percent contrast is just under 62 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm, in 35 mm equivalent) in the center of the image and 45 lp/mm at the edge of the image and is achieved at F5.6 in wide-angle.

In all other focal lengths and aperture settings, the resolution is below these values. Diffraction fuzziness becomes noticeable from F11.

The lens shows the typical weaknesses of a set lens. Although no color fringes are visible, distortions appear in all focal length ranges. The wide-angle range is most affected by this. Here the barrel distortion reaches a whopping 2.5 percent. This is clearly visible.

The telephoto focal length has a less pronounced barrel distortion and the medium focal length goes into a small pincushion distortion. The latter is, however, within the scope.

The battery compartment of the Canon EOS M200 can be found on the bottom of the camera. Unfortunately, it is positioned very close to the tripod thread. [Photo: Canon]

The internal sharpening of the camera is low in standard mode and the artifacts, i.e. artificial details resulting from re-sharpening, are at most about 15 percent. Image noise is well suppressed by the Canon and is therefore low.

The detail display is good up to ISO 1.600 and even at ISO 3.200 fine details can just about be differentiated. From ISO 3.200, however, brightness noise becomes visible, while color noise is not important even at extreme ISO sensitivities. In this area, it shows that it was the right decision to be conservative and use a 24-megapixel sensor in the M200.

Managing light and shadow is an important criterion for a camera sensor. The input dynamic range indicates the dynamic range the camera can handle without burning out lights and drowning shadows. Here the M200 performs extremely well and reaches a maximum of about 11.5 f-stops at low sensitivity.

At ISO 3,200, there are still more than ten aperture stops. Only above ISO 12.800 does the input dynamic become low, which is not unusual. When displaying the output tonal values, the camera has very good 256 brightness levels up to ISO 200, after which the brightness differentiation decreases, but remains good up to ISO 3,200.

The memory card compartment of the Canon EOS M200 is conveniently located on the left side of the camera, so that the SD card can be easily removed even from a tripod. [Photo: Canon]

When it comes to color reproduction, Canon shows more of a creative side. The reason for this is the sometimes significant color shifts. These mainly concern yellow-green, yellow and magenta shades. On average, however, the color deviation is small, because other color areas are reproduced faithfully from the original. The color depth is good up to ISO 12.800.

Conclusion: Is The Canon EOS M200 Worth It?

Like its predecessor, the Canon EOS M200 is an ideal entry-level camera. She helps the photographer where she can and where he wants. Nevertheless, it offers a lot of creative potential and the opportunity to experiment photographically.

Unfortunately, Canon has failed to upgrade the Canon EOS M200’s case, and so it presents itself like its predecessor with a cheap-looking, yet cleanly processed plastic case without rubber coating elements.

It is a pity that the camera does not offer a TTL hot shoe and the internal flash is not able to address external flash devices as control unit.

There is nothing wrong with the operating concept, however, even if the advanced photographer has to put together an individual menu to quickly get to basic functions such as manual focus.

Even though the sensor resolution has remained the same compared to its predecessor, Canon has made some improvements in signal processing, so that fine details up to ISO 3,200 are still preserved.

The somewhat soft adjustment of the images may not be everyone’s favorite, but it can be quickly adjusted by presets or individual settings.

The biggest innovation is the 4K video function. With its maximum of 25 frames per second, it also offers enough potential for demanding videos. Unfortunately, not the whole sensor is read out for the 4K exposure, so that the image angle is cropped.

All in all, the Canon EOS M200 offers enough unique features compared to its predecessor model, so that the camera is not just a purely “cosmetic” product care. It’s a pity, however, that Canon offers less than ten lenses of its own for the EF-M bayonet so far, other manufacturers are much better positioned.

Canon EOS M200 Datasheet