EOS M

The Canon EOS M was Canon's first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera — arriving in 2012 with an 18MP APS-C sensor, a 3.0" touchscreen, and the new EF-M mount. It was a significant departure from Canon's DSLR heritage: compact, touchscreen-driven, and designed to attract photographers looking for something smaller than the Rebel series. In practice the EOS M was hamstrung by its contrast-detect-only AF system — notoriously slow to lock on, especially in video — and the EF-M lens ecosystem never reached the depth of Sony's E-mount or Fujifilm's X-mount. Canon eventually acknowledged the system's limitations by launching the RF mount in 2018. The EOS M is a fascinating slice of camera history: the camera that proved Canon needed a mirrorless strategy, even if the execution wasn't quite there.