By Canon M50 Mark II Review
Hello there. This is an in-depth review of one of the Best Beginner Video Cameras on the market today; The Canon M50 Mark II. We’ve pushed both this camera to its video limit in different setting to see how it would perform. At the end of these article, we’re going to reveal if we would prefer and recommend.
Throughout the article we’re only going to be looking at video quality and video specs, not photography. We’ll look at the Specs, the Pros and Cons of these Camera, and our honest thoughts about the camera.
Some of the categories covered are just weighed different. I’m just trying to educate you, so you can decide if the camera is best for you, and your needs.
Canon M50 Mark II In-depth Review
Canon M50 Mark II in-depth review.
Price
First things first, it’s Price. As a beginner you don’t have a huge budget, so we wanted to keep this below $800. While that is still a bit expensive, we wouldn’t feel right recommending a camera much cheaper than this, for high quality content. The Canon M50 Mark II with the Lens comes in at $699.
Sensor size and Processors.
The M50 Mark II is the predecessor of the M50. The M50 Mark II is the second edition of this line up with some slight improvements.
The Mark II features a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS Sensor and a DIGIC 8 Processor. This is a great sensor for video, and Canon has been using it for years. It is tried and true.
4K Image
Now let’s go ahead and talk about the best 4K image. How’s the 4K image on the Canon M50 II? To test this, we setup the camera filming at 4K /24fps. After zooming in 400% we noticed the M50 Mark II had a slightly soft image. This is probably because you’re dealing with a 1.5x crop to begin with. And that’s a 1.5x crop on top of the 1.6x crop built-in to all APS-C Sensors. This gives you a grand total of 2.4x crop in 4K.
Auto Focus
The Canon M50 Mark II has dual Pixel Auto Focus, but only when filming in 1080p. When filming in 4K, you only have access to contrast detection. If you’re contempt with 1080p, you can use dual-pixel auto-focus, which allows you to use eye tracking on your subject.
Frame Rates and Formats
This may not matter to some. However, if you’re a beginner hoping to get most out their camera, this part is for you.
The canon does get away with slightly better bit rate, when filming at 4K, capturing 24fps at 120MBPS using the H.264 codes and IPB compression. This does not help in any way due to the APS-C sensor. As far as for full HD 1080p frame rates, you have the options for 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps. The M50 Mark II can also film 120fps but at only 720p.
Slow Motion
The M50 Mark II can only capture 120fps at 720p resolution. However, we don’t find 720p fit for professional work and we’d never use it.
Stabilization
Mechanical stabilization is only offered by the lens. If you have a lens that says IS or OSS on it, you’re good to go.
Moreover, this camera has electronic stabilization. However, the electronic stabilization imposes a crop on the image. That additional crop is on top of that 2.4x crop. Let’s go ahead and breakdown these crop factors.
When filming 4K on the Canon, the crop is as follows; When IS OFF, you have a 1.55x crop, IS STANDARD, you have a 1.73x crop, and IS HIGH you have a 2.2x crop.
Lens Options
This is Canon’s ML on this camera. The problem with this is that there really isn’t a ton of lens options. Moreover, the M50 lenses are very limited in what they can do. Here at Lituptech Digital, we believe in investing in yourself and your equipment. The M50 might not be a good camera purely for it lens options. Why do I say that? The lens will usually outlive the body. You can upgrade your camera but still use with lenses you already own. However, in this this case, your M50 lenses will be stuck with this camera only.
Record Limits
The Canon is limited to 30 minutes’ record time like almost all other Canons. This happens because the M50 is trying to find a happy middle ground between shooting photos and filming videos.
Color Science
One of the main reasons why we still with Canon cameras is their color science. This is because we feel like their colors look less artificial and more “true to life”.
Dynamic Range and Picture Profiles
We did a variety to tests to check out the picture profiles.
The Canon doesn’t have a LOG Profile; you might be forced to create your own picture profile.
Low light
We tested the camera filming at 4K 24fps, 150 shutter speed, and a variety of different ISO levels to find the cleanest image. I would recommend not surpassing ISO 3200 on the M50 Mark II.
LCD Screen
The camera features a fully articulating screen, which is just awesome. The screen is all touch; Settings, Shooting resolution aperture etc. The advantage with this is that you can quickly change your settings depending on what you’re shooting.
Battery Life
When doing the battery tests, we set the camera indoors shooting a single subject.
The Canon M50 will last about 130 minutes, continuously recording at 4K 24fps. However, USB charging is not supported, so don’t lose the charger that comes with the camera.
Audio and Accessories
The internal Mic on the M50 is not that good. However, you have the option to buy it with a creator kit. The creator kit includes a Tripod, tether cable and a microphone. Unfortunately, the external mics audio is not that different from the internal mic’s audio and I would not recommend it.
On the body of the M50 you can also wirelessly live stream to YouTube given that your Wi-Fi connection is strong enough. I think that’s pretty cool.
Conclusion
The Canon M50 Mark II is a great beginner camera provided you understand its capabilities and weaknesses. It has great 4K image, good color science, great battery life, a great LCD screen among others. However, the lens limitations are a bit of a letdown.
If you’re looking for a better beginner camera in this class, you can check out the Sony ZV-E10.
That’s it. If you own a Canon M50 Mark II, let us know how your experience with it has been.
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