Setting up the Canon EOS M50 camera 16 July 2020

The M50 was announced 2.5 years ago  and since then is reported to have been  one of Canon’s best selling models. It remains one of the most appealing of the M Series cameras because it has a built in EVF of good quality, a fully articulated monitor screen which is good for stills and video especially vlogging and  Digic8 processor giving very good AF capability and overall responsiveness.

You get all this with the kit 15-45mm standard zoom lens for a modest price, making the package even more attractive when viewed next to competing APSC and MFT models.

I rate the M50 with kit 15-45mm lens a more appealing and user friendly option than most of the compacts on the market.

Downsides include no user modes on the mode dial and only one control dial. However there are workarounds for both these issues which are compatible with a decently engaging user experience.

The M5 might look better on paper but it has an older processor which delivers less capable AF, the screen is just tilt up/down  and there is significant viewfinder blackout after each exposure.

The M6.2 has the latest sensor and processor giving faster servo AF and overall faster performance with better image quality.

But this model does not have a built in viewfinder and has a tilt up/down monitor screen not the more versatile fully articulated type seen on the M50.

In addition it is the only Canon mirrorless interchangeable lens camera to date without the option to set electronic first curtain shutter. As a result image degradation due to shutter shock has been reported with some IS zoom lenses.

Canon has not offered any explanation for this omission which passing strange given that EFCS  is offered on the EOS 90D (DSLR) which uses the same sensor. Go figure…………….

* Batteries.  The M50 uses the small LP-E12 battery unlike the M5 and M6 models which use the larger LP-E17 battery. So battery life is not wonderful and I recommend carrying at least one spare LP-E12.

* As the screen can be folded inwards for transport it is probably not necessary to use a screen protector.

* There are various accessory grips on the market but none is required as the camera handles well as it comes.

* The best carry bag will be determined by the number of lenses you want to carry.

* Neck strap or wrist strap ?  I hate the neck straps which camera makers pack with their cameras. I find they are a nuisance, forever cluttering up my camera bag. However when changing lenses some kind of neck strap is very useful. I have found a thin cord does the job, takes up virtually no space and is easier to manage when moving the camera in and out of the bag.

* Memory cards. The M50 is not fussy about cards but I have found that a fast high capacity card gives me more shots per burst and faster buffer clearing when I am using continuous drive with servo AF. I use SanDisk Extreme Pro 170 MB/s.

* Lenses. Most EOS M series cameras are sold with  either the 15-45mm or 18-150mm zooms. Either of these is a good place to begin acquiring a collection of EF-M lenses.

In the early days of the EOS-M system the two lens kit offered was the 18-55mm  + 55-200mm. But the 18-55mm has been replaced by the 15-45mm and the 55-200mm has received some less than enthusiastic reviews.

I now use the 11-22mm + 18-150mm as a compact twin lens kit and find this works very well for a wide range of photographic requirements.

* The M50 is very popular with vloggers who will likely want a tripod, some means to hold the camera steady during movement and an external microphone.

This guide assumes a user who wants to take control of camera operation by using P, Tv, Av or M mode.

Charge up the batteries, adjust the viewfinder diopter, set the date and time (the camera will prompt this otherwise go to the wrench menu, screen 2) and make a start on reading the User Manual which is well written with plenty of useful graphics making it easy to understand.  The Manual describes many things which you might do but has little to say about why you might select one option over another, hence this guide.

It also has nothing to say about some of the menu options which seems a bit odd.

Next  go to Menu>Display Level (the cyan submenu with camera icon and head icon)

Menu Display can be [Guided] or [Standard]  Set [Standard] which is in practice actually easier to work with than the Guided version.

You can leave Mode Guide and Feature Guide at [Enable] at first then disable both when you are familiar with camera operation.

Go to Wrench menu (yellow) >screen 5 >top item Custom Functions >screen 5 > Custom Controls.

See that user selected functions can be allocated to 8 buttons.

This enables users to streamline  the Prepare Phase of use with preferred options.

* Shutter button. Default is [Metering and AF start] and many users will find this the best option. However it is possible to set up the M50 for back button focus which some users prefer.   In this case select [Metering start] or [AE Lock(while button pressed)] for the shutter button.

* AE Lock (*) button. For back button focussing set this to [Metering and AF start].  Alternatively you can  set Autoexposure lock and flash exposure lock on the (*) button.

Note that during Playback the AE Lock button becomes an image zoom control.  Zoom in with the AE Lock button, zoom out with the AF point selection button just below.

During capture the AF point selection button does what its name suggests.  A short press will  initiate a process by which the AF area position and size can be changed and/or image preview can be zoomed. See prompts on the screen.

A long press on the AF point selection button will send the AF area to the center of the frame.

* Multi-function button. I allocate ISO to this button.

There are 26 options for this and the next few buttons. This presents the new user with more questions than answers.

The underlying principle which I use is to allocate functions to these buttons which streamline operation in the prepare Phase of use. That is the minute or few we use to change settings when presented with a new set of photographic circumstances.

The main parameters which I want to change in Prepare Phase without having to enter a menu are ISO, One shot/Servo AF, AF Method, AF Operation, and Drive Mode. Each of these can be allocated to a button for direct access.

I also want to switch the stabiliser on/off but this action cannot be allocated to a button so I place it in My Menu for reasonably quick access.

Here are the functions which I assign to the buttons. Other users have different priorities leading to different choices.

* Movie button (during stills capture) AF Operation = One shot/Servo.

* Exposure Comp. (Up crosskey). Exposure Compensation.

The M50 has just one control dial which has to perform several functions. Look in the viewfinder or at the screen while repeatedly pressing the [+/-] button. You will see the orange control dial icon change position to indicate which parameter will be affected when the dial is turned.

So if you are in Aperture Priority mode (Av) the control dial icon will jump from a position to the left of the aperture indication to the left of the exposure indication.

Thus to apply exposure compensation press the up key once, turn the control dial to give the required amount of compensation as shown on the exposure analogue indicator then press the up button again to return the control dial to normal function.

* AF/MF (left crosskey). AF/MF.

* Flash (right crosskey). AF Method = Tracking/zone/one point.

*  Delete (down crosskey). Drive Mode.

The control dial alters program shift in P mode, shutter speed  in Tv (time value) mode and aperture in Av (aperture value) mode.

In M (manual)  mode use the (up) key to toggle control dial function between aperture and shutter speed.  Auto ISO is available in M mode.

Menus can be navigated with the control dial and cross keys or the touch screen.

The best place to start is the Setup (wrench, yellow) menu. 

If I have nothing to say about an item this indicates I recommend leaving it at default for most users.

* Set Auto Rotate ON unless you prefer to review upright photos in portrait orientation.

* I allocate Format Card to My Menu for easy access.

* Wireless and GPS settings are for another day but all the connectivity options are well described in the user manual.

* I leave Eco mode off,  but you can reduce battery drain by turning it on. The downside is that the monitor screen dims after 2 seconds inactivity.

* I also leave Power saving options at default but you can opt for displays to shut off earlier for less battery drain.

* Display brightness. Look at the monitor screen to adjust screen brightness. Look in the viewfinder to adjust EVF brightness. I leave both at the mid (default) position.

* Video system. PAL or NTSC.

* Touch control. I leave this at Standard which works well. Note that Canon’s menu system inexplicably has options for touch operation in several different places in the menus.

* The other locations are Camera (red) screen 5 Touch shutter and on the same screen Touch and drag AF settings.

* Beep. Enable unless you want the camera to make less noise.

* Sensor cleaning. The camera attempts to clean the sensor by applying a short burst of vibration. I set Auto Cleaning which performs the vibration on power down.

* HDMI resolution. The M50 can do 4K but I suspect most videographers and vloggers probably use 1080p so set HDMI resolution to 1080p.

* Shooting info. disp.  This is quite an extensive submenu with many options.

* Screen info. settings. This item refers to the monitor screen. Follow the on-screen prompts. Note that there are 5 pre-set display options but also you can press [info] to edit each of these.

There may be a temptation to park too many items on the screen, impeding view of the subject. If this happens you can easily remove items to clean up the display.

* VF info/toggle settings does the same thing for the viewfinder but here you only get 3 basic options.

* Grid display give several options but again beware of cluttering the screen.

* There are several options for size and characteristics of the histogram.  I dislike histograms as they are just another thing cluttering up the screen and can be difficult to read accurately at the highlight end of the scale. But the M50 does not have zebras so if you want an aid to exposure other than the brightness of the screen itself, histogram it is.

* If you get in a muddle, there is always the reset option.

* Reverse display. You want this ON for vlogging with the monitor screen facing forward.

* Disp. performance refers to the refresh rate of the display. Smooth has the higher rate and uses more power but is better for moving subjects.

* VF display format. For some reason this item is nor back with the rest of the VF display options. Display 1 works fine for most users. Those with spectacles might prefer the smaller Display 2.

* Display settings. Here is another one which might have been better located with the rest of the display options.

If Display control is set to Auto the viewfinder will activate when you look through it and deactivate when you take your eye away. This is generally the best setting.

However videographers using the monitor screen most of  the time may prefer to set Display control to Manual>Screen   to prevent screen blackout when hands and fingers pass near the sensor on the right side of the viewfinder.

The main item on this page is the Custom Functions (C.Fn) submenu

There are 5 screens:

Screen 1 ISO expansion. This enables an ISO of 51000 which I have tried and found to be so grainy it is useless. So I leave ISO expansion off.

Screen 2 Safety shift. If you set a shutter speed or aperture which will give incorrect exposure safety shift will automatically rectify your error if it can. I leave this on.

Screen 3. Release shutter W/O lens. Set this to enable if you ever do want to fire the shutter without a lens mounted.

Screen 4. Retract lens on power off. This presumably applies to power zooms which might be usable on the EF-M mount such as the EF-S 18-135mm with PZ-E1 power zoom adapter.

Screen 5: Custom controls. We have already dealt with this screen above in button function allocations.

You can have two screens of my Menu items. The process of allocating items to My Menu is easy enough. Just follow the on-screen prompts starting with MyMenu1> Configure>Select items to register> scroll through a long list…….

For the record I have:

* Expo.comp./AEB

* IS Settings

* Format card

* ISO speed settings

On My Menu 1 and nothing yet on My Menu 2.

My Menu enables easy access to items which would otherwise require trawling through the main menus.

This has the most items with 8 screens.

Camera screen 1

* Image quality. If you shoot JPG set JPG Large/fine. This is the item at the far left of the options.  There is no point at all in using lower settings in my view. Why buy a high quality camera then cripple its output ?

* If you shoot Raw set CRAW. This gives smaller files than uncompressed  Raw with no apparent loss of quality.

* Still img aspect ratio. The native aspect ratio (for still photos) is 3:2. I can’t think of many reasons ever to change this.

* Image review. Why this item is in the camera menu and not the playback menu I have no idea. I always set this Off. Just press the playback button anytime to review images.

* Lens aberration correction. You will see a long-ish list of options here. I shoot Raw so I have all of them Off and make any necessary corrections later in Adobe Camera Raw.

If you are a JPG shooter I suggest experimenting with Digital Lens Optimiser On (which also turns Chromatic aberr corr and Diffraction correction On) and Peripheral illum corr and Distortion correction On.

If you are shooting action with AF-C, Servo AF and high speed drive, these corrections will slow the 

frame rate and reduce the number of shots which can be captured in a burst.

* Flash control. Thee are lots of options here. For the record I have

Flash firing On

E-TTL 2 Meter.  Evaluative

Red-eye reduc. Disable  (it’s annoying)

Slow sybchro  1/200-1/60A

Safety FE  Enable

Built in flash settings: Flash mode  E-TTL 2, Shutter Sync. First curtain, Exp.comp  minus 1 EV step.

* Drive Mode.   I assign this to the down crosskey.

Camera screen 2

* Expo.comp./AEB. I assign this to My Menu, and switch the feature on and off via My Menu.

* Stills and video ISO speed settings. I assign this to the M-Fn button for quick access.

* Auto Lighting optimiser and Highlight tone priority. These are JPG features which try to manage subjects with high brightness range. I suggest experimenting with the features in a variety of subject settings.

Camera Screen 3

* Metering mode. I always use and recommend evaluative metering for most subjects. I find the quickest way to get wrong exposures is to use spot metering.

* Metering timer, 8 sec.

* Expo.simulation  Enable. For all general photography you want the viewfinder and monitor to show (before you press the shutter button) what the picture will look like. This is one of the big advantages of mirrorless cameras.

But for studio flash work where most of the light is coming from the flash set this to Disable.

Camera screen 4

* White balance. When shooting Raw always set this to Auto. JPG shooters might want to experiment with the extensive WB options available.

* Color space. Most experienced photographers recommend and I use sRGB. Adobe RGB has a larger gamut but most screens are unable to represent this.

*  Picture Style.  (JPG only) Canon offers extensive options for this with lots of opportunity for experiment. The best settings will be subject and lighting dependent. I just use Standard.

Camera screen 5

* Long exp. Noise reduction. If you make just a few long exposures this can be set On. But LENR requires double the exposure time for completion. So if you are shooting fireworks or something else requiring a sequence of long exposures switch LENR off so you can make the next exposure when you want to.

* High ISO speed NR. (JPG) My experience is that high ISO speed NR reduces luminance noise (grain) but also obliterates a lot of detail so I leave it Off.

* Touch shutter. If you want the camera to focus and the shutter to fire with one touch on the screen set this On.

* Touch and drag AF settings. By far the best way to control AF area position on the M50 is with the touch screen.

So set Touch and drag AF: Enable, Positioning method: Relative, Active touch area: Top right for easy access by the right thumb.

Camera screen 6

* AF operation. (One shot/servo) This is best accessed via the Q Menu via the center button in the 4-way controller OR via a dedicated button. I have it on the movie button.

* AF method (tracking/zone/1-point). Access via the Q menu or a dedicated button. I have it on the right cross key.

* AF frame size (with 1-point set). There are two sizes and the method for switching from one to the other is a bit roundabout. The sequence is:

Short press the AF Point selection button> see screen prompts> press Menu button to toggle between 

the two sizes.

* Eye detection AF only works when AF method is set to [tracking], and can only be switched On/Off with AF method at [tracking].

* Continuous AF. This is not the same as Servo. In Continuous AF the camera tries to find focus all the time. I find this annoying and it is a great way to exhaust battery power.

* Focus Mode. (AF/MF) This is allocated to the left cross key by default and I leave it there.

Camera screen 7

* Lens electronic MF. Many Canon lenses allow manual focus after one-shot AF. The default for this option is Disable and I think most users will find this best. But you can set Enable which allows manual focus adjustment after one-shot AF.

But  autofocus on the M50 is so reliable that I cannot recall ever wanting to use this feature.  I suspect it might be a carry-over from the Canon DSLR days when autofocus on many models was frustratingly  unreliable.

* AF-assist beam firing. Turn this off. It is an intrusive nuisance and is not required anyway in the vast majority of photos.

* MF peaking settings. Peaking can be a useful aid to manual focus so some experiment with these settings could be worth while. For the record I have Peaking On, Level low, color yellow.

* IS settings including digital IS.  These cannot be allocated to a button so I have them on My Menu.

* The next group of settings pertain to video. My settings are given but you should read around more about video as it is not my strong suit.

Auto level disable, Movie rec quality (PAL) FHD 25.00p IPB, Sound recording manual, Movie servo AF Enable, Shutter btn function Meter+ movie Servo AF, Auto slow shutter on.

I just leave all these at default.

And that’s yer lot for the menus and for setting up the M50 camera..