Canon

One man's Odyssey through a collection of pinholes and a bunch of cameras leads to an unexpected cup of T. Stephen explains...

I bought the Canon EOS M because it was cheap. £199 for an APS-C compact with an 28-88mm (equivalent) zoom has got to be worth considering. As I explained a couple of days ago, this camera started off as a much more expensive beast but seems to have been unloved. Perhaps there are better competitors out there at the original £700-plus price. But at £199 it takes some beating.

Canon omitted the EOS M4 from the succession and went straight to the M5 because four is an unlucky number in Japan. Should they have considered the fate of the Leica M5?

There is no denying the Canon EOS was not a major success. I wrote about it last June and even bought a bargain-basement version just out of interest. I tried it with Leica lenses with some success. I liked the touch screen controls and I enjoyed using it with a a 35mm optical viewfinder matched to the rather good 22mm prime lens. But it didn't last. There were no compelling reasons to pick up this camera in preference to, say, a Fuji X-E2.

So often in life we see what we want to see. I was aiming my new £199 Canon EOS M across a busy London road when, out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed what looked like a vintage camera, a Leica no less, on a bus advertisement. I punched the rear screen of the Canon right in the middle of poster as the bus passed. My eye registered the words Hector and Happiness at the same time.