It’s been predicted since the launch of the Canon EOS R system and its APS-C models, but now Digital Camera World reports that the EOS M system is officially discontinued by Canon Japan. It’s still listed on some regional Canon websites, but it’s surely only a question of time before stocks finally dry up.
Should be we sorry? No-one likes to see a camera system disappear, but Canon never seemed to put its full weight behind the EOS M system, and it’s surprising in a way that it carried on as long as it did – 11 years, in fact – without either expanding it into a proper camera system or dropping it completely.
I didn’t use every Canon EOS M model. I wrote a review of the Canon EOS M5, Canon’s early EOS M flagship, I also reviewed the Canon EOS M50 (though not the barely altered EOS M50 II) and I won an EOS M100 as a prize in a little photo competition at the camera’s launch. If only I liked it a little more!
The problem with the EOS M system, I always felt, was that Canon never seemed committed to more serious models and, especially, too premium lenses. While the EOS M6 and M6 II were, arguably, ‘serious’ cameras, an EVF was still an optional extra and, while it did have a grip, even this EOS M flagship lacked the secure handling of a DSLR-style body. Worse, Canon’s range of EOS M lenses never quite got going, sticking at a handful of consumer-orientated optics which were good enough for the intended audience but were never going to tempt professionals.
So now Canon is going to give the APS-C mirrorless market another bash with its EOS-RS models – the EOS R100, EOS R50, EOS R10 and EOS R7. These cameras share the same EOS R lens mount as the full frame EOS R models, so there is now at least a common lens mount and an upgrade path from these APS-C cameras up to the full frame models.
But the signs are that Canon does indeed see these APS-C cameras as a stepping stone to the larger format. There may not have been very many Canon EOS M lenses, but there are fewer still designed for the APS-C EOS R models.
Canon may have given up not just on the EOS M but the whole idea of a complete APS-C mirrorless camera-lens ecosystem. The old days of the APS-C Canon EOS DSLR system and its rich ecosystem of EF-S lenses now look like a distant memory.