Before
After
I traveled to San Diego last week with just the EOS M to really put it through its paces and see if I could make it work as a travel camera. This image is the result of an experiment to see if I could do macro photography using my Tamron 18-270 lens with adaptor on the Canon EOS M using a monopod. The answer was not really, at least not really well. The image was shot inside the Botanical House at Balboa Park which is well shaded and fairly dark.
The settings were: ISO 1600 1/30th of a second at f8.0. I would have liked more depth of field for this to be a really successful shot but I couldn’t hold the monopod and big lense still enough to make that happen. I did not even try to use the small flash that came with the EOS M because I was pretty sure the long lens would block the light and I don’t really like the harshness of flash for botanicals anyway. I had realized going into it that one of the issues with the monopod was that I would need an L bracket to do a vertical shot…not in the spirit of lightening the load.
I did feel that enough of the curls on the fern were sharp in this image to go for an artistic look and I didn’t even mind some noise for that look although I did do a little noise reduction and sharpening in Photoshop. I cropped the image to get closer in on the fern, then took it into Nik Color Efex Pro and added a detail extractor, a brilliance/warmth filter and a darken/lighten center filter. I like the vibrant colors and especially the purples in the background.
AS for the EOS M, the jury is still out. The first two days in San Diego I carried around a photo bag with the Tamron telephoto lens, a super wide angle and a set of extension tubes. Since the monopod wouldn’t fit in that bag I needed a separate bag for that. It was awkward and cumbersome and made me tired and grumpy. I’m trying to get to a place where photography is still a fun part of my travel experience. The rest of the trip I just carried the camera with its 18-55mm lens and I was a much happier camper. I did get some great images and I relearned how to zoom with my feet. But I still want a small lightweight telephoto lens. I am also very frustrated with trying to frame an image using a screen that I cannot see clearly in bright light.
I truely think mirrorless cameras are the new wave in photography. I am hearing of many professionals going out and buying a full system from Sony or Fuji or Olympus. I think Canon is missing the boat and needs to step up to the plate with a full system of M lenses or they are going to loose their market share. I have no plans to retire my 7D but I am thinking about how to adjust my photography to fit my goal of traveling light rather than deal with the burden of a full set of creative tools in all circumstances.