Canon’s Long-Awaited EOS M2 Hopes To Improve On Canon’s First Mirrorless With Improved AF

Canon’s first kick at the mirrorless market was without question a disappointing debut: The EOS M first launched in 2012, and was a let-down mostly because of its incredibly sluggish autofocus, as well as other quirks like a screen blackout that happened immediately after taking a picture. Canon seems to have addressed both issues with the new design, added Wi-Fi, and left most of the rest untouched.

The M2 has been officially announced via Canon China and Canon Japan so far, with English-language countries likely due for releases later today. The details of the camera are known, however, and include a body design that resembles the original, but that’s actually slightly smaller and packs new Wi-Fi connectivity for sharing and image transfer.

The big selling point however remains the improved autofocus, which was by far the biggest area requiring improvement on the original. Canon promises more than double the AF speed with its new Hybrid CMOS AF II system, which double checks the window for focus information that the original did for that improvement. Canon has kept the same APS-C 18 megapixel sensor in the M2, but the sensor wasn’t the issue, so this could be a very good entrant in the MILC field, so long as the AF actually does provide significant improvements over the original.

The M2 will ship in Japan in mid-December, but no word yet on when it’ll come to the U.S. A pre-holiday ship date would definitely help Canon move a few of these via the under-the-tree crowd, however, so fingers crossed it arrives before the new year. I always like the look of the EOS M, but with the M2, it might have some substance behind all that style, too. Check out Canon Rumors for the full spec sheet if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty.