Canon EOS M: specs, features, release date, and price for the long-awaited mirrorless camera

Canon's long-awaited mirrorless camera is here in the form of the EOS M, but by waiting so long to announce the camera the company gave its competitors a lot of time to build mirrorless cameras of their own. And build they did: from Sony's NEX line to the thriving Micro Four Thirds ecosystem, there are plenty of solid options out there for buyers looking for a shooter that puts a big sensor in a small package. Check out the comparison below to figure out which mirrorless camera is the one for you.

William Savona contributed to this story.

When we picked up the EOS M, our first impression was "this feels like a PowerShot." Despite being headed further upmarket, everything from the design language to the control scheme very closely mirrors the company’s point-and-shoot lineup. Comparing it to the competition, it feels a little thicker and heavier than Sony’s NEX–5N, but isn’t noticeably bulkier (photo below). Importantly, it isn’t any more or less pocketable than Sony’s offerings, and not so much heavier — 0.58 pounds for the EOS M body versus 0.46 for the 5n, and 0.81 pounds for the EOS M with its 22mm pancake lens, versus 0.61 for the 5n and its 16mm pancake.

Once you fire up manual mode, you can see that Canon has a lot in store for the enthusiast. First and foremost, while the EOS M has a jog wheel, instead of following its competitors and relying primarily on it to control everything on the camera, Canon is using onscreen controls for everything from switching between shooting modes to selecting aperture and shutter speed values. The interface for the latter uses sliders (see the video below) that make it easy to make necessary adjustments and get back to shooting. That doesn't mean the jog wheel is useless, though — if you're more comfortable with the old-fashioned controls, they're still available, too.

"Video will be the real strength of this camera," reps told us. It shows: the EOS M will shoot MPEG-4 videos (as .MOV files) in a variety of framerates, including 1080p at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second. It offers Canon's Movie Servo AF, which gives users continuous autofocus while recording video. The hybrid system combines both phase-detect and contrast-detect autofocus to deliver fast, continuous autofocus in almost any mode, and was one of the most impressive new things about the T4i. The EOS M also has stereo mics plus an input for an external mic, and there's on-camera audio monitoring as well.

There's plenty of manual control offered while recording video, and a 3-inch, 1.04-million-dot LCD for viewing your footage. Unfortunately the screen doesn't rotate or tilt, which is surely a space-saving measure — but it's also another differentiator for the T4i. The LCD is a touchscreen, and is the home of nearly all the EOS M's settings and controls. There are few dials and buttons on the device itself, which will certainly be a turnoff for some, but the touchscreen is excellent, responsive and accurate even on very small touch targets.

Update: Well, Canon Rumors has added credence to this rumor by acquiring what appear to be actual photos of the EOS M. From the back we can see that the camera is indeed light on physical controls, and while it's impossible to tell the exact size of the sensor it does look to be pretty large. If this does turn out to be a real product, it would appear that Canon is taking the route Sony traveled with the early NEX cameras — minimal, beginner-friendly controls paired with hopefully high image quality.

Update 2: CanonPriceWatch has more renders of the camera, including the top and back: It appears to have stereo microphones and a three-way mode switch to jump to full automatic shooting or video recording. Thanks, intergalactic_turkey!