Mirrorless Pics: Vintage BSA with the Canon EOS M6

I really liked the EOS M6, but the system was snakebit from the start with its unique mount and inability to be adapted to full-frame mirrorless, which was obviously the wave of the future once Sony's marketing machine got cranked up.

The panda-colored M6 had good looks, but no EVF and, despite having normal camera-type controls (unlike the original M), it was tough to figure out what kind of camera it was trying to be.

Mirrorless Pics: Neighborhood people with the Fuji X-T2

Here are a couple more shots from the Fujifilm X-T2 and the XF 50mm f/2 R WR "Fujicron" short telephoto.

Fuji XF portrait lenses...

I really enjoy candid... well, technically I guess "casual" would be a more accurate term ...portrait photography. I'm usually relatively close to the subject, so anything in the 85mm to 135mm focal length (in full-frame terms) range generally works for what I'm doing. Probably a fast 85mm would be my favorite axe.

I would love to get a dedicated portrait lens for my Fujifilm XF cameras. I'm in more or less constant danger of winding up with their 56mm f/1.2 or 90mm f/2 if I find a deal on a used one.

The only thing that's saved me so far is that I got a smokin' deal at Roberts on a used XF 50mm f/2 R WR. While the 75mm equivalent focal length is a little shorter than I find ideal, it's compact, fast, and sharp as a tack. It sure spends a lot of time on my X-T2.

Premature Fossilization

I don't really have a hard & fast rule about what makes a piece of electronica a "fossil". Generally, ten years is enough in the world of computers to make something pretty thoroughly obsolete.

At this point only the very oldest of Canon's EF-M crop sensor mirrorless cameras meets that definition, Canon having been slow off the blocks in the mirrorless fad. The original EOS M, with its 18MP sensor lifted from the Rebel T4i DSLR, didn't launch until the middle of 2012.

The M6 in the photo above launched in 2017 and its 24MP sensor and DIGIC 7 processor makes it one of the most modern cameras I have, but the latest news from Canon would seem to indicate that the days of the EF-M series are truly numbered, which would prematurely fossilize a five year old camera.

While the body of the M6 is marked Made in Japan, Canon is coy about marking cheaper lenses with where they're manufactured. Given that the now-shuttered Zhuhai plant made millions of lenses a year, and the fact that pretty much all EF-M lenses are cheaper lenses, this probably signals the looming end for the EF-M crop sensor cameras.

The final nail in the coffin will be the launch announcement of a crop-sensor body using Canon's newer RF lens mount from their full-frame mirrorless line.

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