On July of 2012 Canon announced their 1st mirrorless camera: the Canon EOS-M. You can check the official press release and additional information here: Announcement: First Canon EOS M Mirrorless Camera.
At that time some hands-on preview were posted on internet by many renowned sites showing some features of the new system.
One of those features shown on the EOS-M was the 3x-10x Digital Zoom that Canon introduced in the EOS T3i/600D but mysteriously disontinued in next models like EOS T4i/650D.
BUT… if you get a Canon EOS-M body now, or read the User Manual, you’ll find that this feature is NOT available anymore. Canon removed it from current firmware of EOS-M.
WHY? Good question to ask Canon.
The Digital Zoom was especially VERY useful at the “3x” low end because there was almost no image quality degradation and you got a Full HD capture of the center of the sensor with almost no aliasing and moire artifacts. Additionally, it was like multiplying your lens’ focal length several times, which was EXTREMELY useful for Macro and Super Telephoto video recording.
The supposed argument that Canon got rid of this feature (also in the T4i/650D) to encourage customers to buy bigger and lot more expensive lenses is not true, because:
- This feature is only available for video, not for stills, so the usage is very limited
- Users of low-end DSLRs will not buy extremely expensive super telephoto lenses to achieve a focal length range that delivers equivalent field of view to this feature
The Preview showing this feature was made by DPReview.com and it’s still online at the time of this post at http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canon-eos-m/6
Below we show a screen capture as testimonial that this feature was there:
Contact Canon
For those who care about video (and all kind of features implementation via firmware updates), we encourage to contact Canon and request this feature to be implemented via firmware update again, just like it was when the camera was announced.
You can reach Canon at:
Canon Customer Support Center:
Phone: 1-800-OK-CANON / 1-800-652-2666
TDD: 1-866-251-3752
Email: carecenter (at) cits (dot) canon (dot) com
Chuck Westfall (Canon USA Manager & Advisor, ITC Group Professional Engineering & Solutions I Division):
Email: cwestfall (at) cusa (dot) canon (dot) com
For additional support options: www.usa.canon.com/support
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February 8, 2013
Cameras, EOS M, Firmware Improvements, REPORTS, REVIEWS