Battle of the Budget Mirrorless Cameras| Canon vs Sony | M50 vs A6100

what's up guys to get here and welcome to another tech gear talk today we're gonna compare two outstanding entry-level mirrorless cameras the Canon M 50 and the sony a6000 I got the M 50 as soon as it came out I've been using it ever since if you're not new to my channel you know that I have a ton of em 50 related videos it's one of my favorite cameras and one that I recommend all the time as an entry-level mirrorless camera it's small it's portable it's easy to use it has dual pixel autofocus shoots in 4k has a fully articulating touchscreen and it does embody time lapse then last year Sony came out with the a 6100 as the little brother to the a 64 and a 6600 and while it doesn't have all of the features of the to more advanced models it does offer fantastic image quality and ISO performance beautifully sharp 4k 120 frames per second for slow-motion incredible autofocus and a clean HDMI output so today I'm going to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of both cameras when it comes to photography and video and hopefully I can help you decide which option is best for you my goal with every camera comparison is to give you a detailed overview of the cameras and compare them in a way that relates to real life use I will go over some of the important aspects of these two cameras but I'm going to focus on sharing my actual user experience with you now before getting into the detailed comparison want to quickly go over some overall key features in case you're just starting your research you can feel free to skip around if there's a particular section that you're interested in by using the timestamps that are in the description the m50 has a 24 point 1 megapixel aps-c CMOS sensor it uses canons dual pixel autofocus system which is awesome has a brand new digit 8 processor which improves speed and performance as well as image quality it has a 3-inch fully articulating touchscreen LCD and it can shoot up to 4k 24 frames per second it's got combination image stabilization that uses 5-axis digital image stabilization with lens based I asked there's also a nice oullette electronic viewfinder and it has Wi-Fi with NFC and Bluetooth so you can easily move your images to a mobile device finally you have full control over the camera for both photography and video using the canon camera connect app the a 6100 has a 24 megapixel aps-c sensor and it uses the by N's x image processor which again helps with operating speed performance and the great image quality it uses a hybrid autofocus system with 425 phase and contrast detection points with the real-time autofocus for Stills and impressive subject tracking has a 3-inch 921,000 dot flip LCD screen and it can internally record 4k up to 30 frames per second for 200 or externally at 4 to 2 there's also an entry-level 1.4 4 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder it can shoot continuously at up to 11 frames per second and has an expandable ISO up to 50 1200 finally we have a built-in flash and external mic input for better audio okay so let's get to the comparison and I want to mention that the m50 currently sells for 479 dollars and the a 6100 sells for five hundred and ninety eight dollars so there's about a hundred and twenty dollar difference and we'll see if that comes into play at the end I want to start out by talking about the sensor and the processor in both the a 6100 and the m50 come with a 24 megapixel aps-c CMOS sensor now the sony aps-c sensor has a crop factor of 1.5 x the canon aps-c sensor has a craft factor of 1.6 x so we're gonna get a slightly wider angle of view with the sony sensor but it's not really enough to make it a deciding factor for me to put things in perspective if you put a 50 millimeter on the a 60 100 and apply 1.5 x crop it will give you a full-frame equivalent field of view of 75 millimetres on the other hand if you put that same lens on the m50 apply 1.6 x crop you're getting an 80 millimeter equivalent field of view so again not a huge difference this may become more of an issue when we're looking at the wider angle like something like the sigma 16 millimeter F 1 point 4 which is available for both sony e-mount and a canon EF m mount so I've got it here on both cameras and the Sony were getting a 24 millimeter full-frame equivalent now in the Canon it's a twenty five point six when we're looking at wide-angle lenses it's always nicer to have more width so I'm gonna give this slight advantage to Sony here now both cameras have an ISO range of 100 250 1200 but in terms of ISO performance or what many people call low-light performance I'm gonna give the edge again to the a 6100 because I'm able to shoot at higher ISO values and get a cleaner image so as far as the sensor goes I'm gonna give the edge to Sony because of the improved ISO performance a slightly lower crop factor now this is only telling part of the story we're gonna get to the full story in the image quality section as far as processors the a 6100 uses the baiance x processor and the M 50 uses the digit 8 processor we're seeing manufacturers using the same processors and these entry-level cameras as they do on some of the higher-end models and the combination of sensor and processor on both of these cameras produced very nice images and video for me in addition general menu operation is fast for both cameras both have very quick start up and things like image preview and video playback are nice and fast because of how I shoot one of the features that I look at for every camera that I get is continuous or burst shooting and this lets you just point the camera at a subject and hold down the shutter and the camera will just keep firing and this is a nice feature to have if you're photographing sports pets kids running around or any fast-moving subject and of course the more frames you have per second the more exposures you'll have to pick from later on so the a 6100 can shoot it up to 11 frames per second and burst and the m50 can shoot at up to 10 frames per second so not a huge difference there now when we look at buffer memory will see that Sony reports 77 JPEGs and 33 RAW images for the a 60 100 versus thirty six JPEGs and ten RAW images for the m50 so while both cameras give us similar frames per second capabilities at 11 versus 10 the Sony can shoot almost twice as many continuous images when shooting JPEGs more than three times as many when shooting raw now it's important to me that when we look at features or functions you take a moment to consider how you actually plan to use the camera and when we see advantages in one direction or another that you take into account whether it will actually matter to you in this case when we look at 77 JPEGs versus 36 it seems like that's a big advantage to Sony but do you actually shoot 36 continuous frames and will this actually matter to you so look there is no right answer here it has to do with what and how you shoot so maybe you don't shoot 77 continuous shots but you like to shoot sports or birds in flight so you may shoot 10 or 15 picture bursts and then another one and you're gonna take a second and shoot another one and another one and the buffer space means that you can continue to shoot that without interruptions my only goal is to help you pick the camera that will work best for you so if you have any questions let me know in the comment section to sum things up as far as sensor and processor I'm gonna give the edge to the a 6100 because it has better ISO performance slightly faster burst shooting and a larger buffer before I move on to the next section if you like what you've seen so far let me know by giving this video a thumbs up it helps me know what kind of content you like so that I can make more of it if you're in any groups or forms and you think this video will be helpful to other members go ahead and drop a link and if it's your first time here hit the subscribe a notification buttons so you can stay up to date on all the latest gear and tutorials alright moving on one of the most important things for me with any tool that I use is ergonomics in terms of both handling and user experience as far as size goes both cameras are small importable which makes them great options for travel vlogging and street photography the a 6100 is a little longer but it's a lot shorter due to the EVF on the m50 protruding from the top that makes it easier to get the sony in smaller pockets and just provides a more compact solution now even though it's smaller the a 6100 has a deeper grip which in my opinion makes it more comfortable to hold and use and this becomes more of a factor as you start using larger and heavier lenses the build quality seems about the same for both we're getting fairly plasticky bodies in both cases which is expected from an entry-level model and neither offers weather or dust resistance as far as battery life the a 6100 uses the older NP FW 50 batteries and it's rated for 420 shots the and 50 uses the LP 12 battery and it's rated for 235 shots so here I'm giving the clear edge to the a 6100 which has almost twice the battery life one feature that I like about the a 6100 is that it can be used while it's plugged in so if you record long video sessions or for live-streaming I don't have to worry about the battery just plug it in using a micro USB cable and you're all set the m50 has a similar feature but you have to use a coupler and if you're interested I published a video that shows you how to do that and helps with the m50 sport battery life and I'll link to it up in the corner and down there in the description now when it comes to chargers the a 6100 does not come with a battery charger so you have to charge the battery in camera or you buy an external charger and the m50 does come with a dedicated battery charger so you can keep additional batteries charged but you don't have the option of charging the battery in camera so you have to pick what's better for you let's talk a little bit about the viewfinder because of the a 6100 rangefinder style design the viewfinder doesn't protrude from the body and it contributes to a more compact form factor both view finders are 0.3 9 inch in size but the sony has a 1.4 4 million dot resolution and the Canon has a 2.4 6 million dot resolution it's sharper and in my opinion it provides a better viewing experience now next I want to discuss the buttons and dials on both of these cameras and I think that if you're buying a camera and you're just using it the way it came with the factory settings you're really missing out a big part of what you get when you're buying a camera like this is the ability to customize it to work better for how you shoot now the a 6100 uses the top dial and the control wheel on the back for aperture and shutter speed and it has 2 custom buttons that you can program to get quick access to frequently used features the m50 only has one top dial so you have to use the top error on the directional pad to alternate between aperture and shutter speed and there's only one custom button both cameras allow you to program each button in the directional pad so you can really set them up to work well for how you shoot I'm going to give the edge here to the a 6100 because having dedicated aperture and shutter speed buttons provides a better shooting experience in my opinion and it has a little more flexibility in terms of custom buttons now both cameras offer quick menu options on the a 6100 it's called the functions menu and on the m50 it's called the quick menu the m50 has a fixed quick menu meaning that you can't change the features and functions that show up on the other hand the a 6100 gives you 12 programmable spots that you can populate with your most-used settings I don't really feel like a lot of things are missing from the m50 quick menu but I do like the flexibility of having control with the a 6100 for quick access to features like audio levels face detection and animal IATA focus all of which I'll discuss later on in the video now as far as ease of use I'm gonna give the edge to the m50 I just find it a lot simpler to use the main menu is much better organized I love the fact that I can use the touch screen to make selections from the main menu change camera settings like aperture shutter speed and ISO and make selections from the quick menu so in my opinion it might make a better option for beginners now this is a bit of a double-edged sword because the a 6100 has more features and settings that by definition make it a more complex camera to use but also more powerful so you have to choose what's more important to you next I want to talk about resolution frame rates and image quality so for photography both cameras have a 6000 by 4000 pixel image as far as strict head-to-head resolution it's gonna be a tie both cameras can shoot in JPEG and RAW so you can decide just how much information you want to capture depending on what you plan on doing with the images in post-production I was really happy with the images I got from both cameras and the photos were clean and crisp as far as color and specifically skin tones my personal preference is the m50 I find a much easier to get pleasing accurate skin tones Sony colors are improving with time again specifically for skin tones but it still has a little bit of that Sony look which some people like and some people don't I always mentioned that there's definitely some personal preference here so I'm just sharing my impressions and of course any of this can be easily worked at imposts in terms of image quality it's a split decision for I like the color rendering on the m50 but I like the ISO performance and a noise reduction on the a 6100 when shooting in low-light now if you're interested in low-light shooting or high ISO performance I have a video that's dedicated to that for me it's not much of an issue because especially when you're using such fast lenses you can get so much light in the camera but if you're interested in learning more about that again I'll put a link up there and an in the description moving on to video the a 6100 can record 4k at 24 and 30 frames per second with full sensor readout and in full HD or 1080p at 24 30 60 and 120 frames per second now the m50 can shoot 4k only at 24 frames per second and full HD or 1080p at 24 30 and 60 frames per second now 4k in the m50 is also limited by an additional 1.7 X crop factor which makes it pretty challenging to get wide shots and it's also hampered by the lack of dual pixel autofocus I'll talk more about this in the autofocus section but it's a very important distinction so the a 6100 has a significant advantage when shooting in 4k there's no crop in 4k 24 and just a 1.2 X crap when shooting 4k 30 which the m50 can't do it all we also get 120 frames per second in full HD for great slow motion and the fact that 4k isn't impacted by inferior autofocus the a 6100 can also record up to 4k 34 - 2 8-bit via a clean HDMI output at a hundred megabits per second which give you the option of using an external recorder now overall 4k footage from the a 6100 it's just better than the m50 a full sensor readout gives a sharper footage and the autofocus is absolutely fantastic so if you plan on shooting in 4k I would definitely suggest that you go with the Sony for 1080p I'm happy with the footage I get from both cameras at 24 30 and 60 frames per second but again this sony has the option for 120 frames per second which gives it the edge the a 6100 also offers a video option called snq which if you're not familiar with allows you to select a frame rate ranging from 1 preme per second all the way up to 120 frames per second then the camera will either slow or speed up the footage to either 24 30 or 60 frames per second so what does that mean it means that if you're using s and q 120 and you watch the clip in the camera or on your computer it's already slowed down versus shooting at 1080p at 120 frames per second which you still need to slow down using a video editor next let's talk about time-lapse the a 60 100 offers interval shooting which lets you have full control over your time-lapse you can drag your shutter and get the results that you want now once you're done shooting you'll need to take the individual photos and compile a time-lapse video using software the m50 comes with in-body 4k time lapse meaning that the camera will actually compile the time-lapse for you so that it's ready to be viewed and this is where you're gonna have to make a choice the a 60 100 gives you much more control over your time-lapse and a higher resolution but it means you have to do work in post-production the m50 does the work for you but you're more limited in terms of exposure and resolution I'm not gonna pick a winner here because different users are gonna have different preferences and you're gonna need to pick what's gonna work best for you an area where I will give the edge to the a 60 100 is that it has a clean HDMI output so it's a great option when it comes to live-streaming the m50 does not have a clean HDMI output and the only way to use it for live streaming is either to use manual focus or to use special software now Canon did recently release the eos webcam utility which lets you stream with the m50 using a micro USB cable but it's at a smaller resolution of 1024 by 576 and with more limited framerate options if you're interested in learning more about how to do that I have a dedicated video which I'll link to up in the corner and in the description and the software is available for both Windows and Mac and it's completely free now another feature that I love about the a 6100 is that there's no longer a 30-minute recording limit for video this allows for continuous shooting of longer clips and it removes a hassle of having to keep track of the length of the current clip so you don't accidentally reach the 30-minute limit and have the m50 automatically recording so if you're using this for YouTube or you shoot long interviews you're gonna love the fact that it can record continuously for much longer alright so now let's move on and talk about autofocus and before we get to numbers and specs I'm gonna tell you that the autofocus on both of these cameras is absolutely fantastic the a 6100 has 425 phase and 425 contrast detection points and it cover 84% of the sensor the m50 uses canons amazing dual pixel autofocus system and it has somewhere between 99 and 143 autofocus points depending on which lens you use for photography the a 6100 is faster and a bit more accurate especially for continuous shooting the eye autofocus has been good with the m50 but it's better with the a 6100 especially when a subject is farther away from the camera with both cameras I absolutely love this feature when I shoot portraits because I don't have to worry about getting the focus point exactly on the subject I and I can just concentrate on framing and by the way if eyes are not detected both cameras will revert back to face tracking the a 6100 also offers animal IATA focus which is really important to me because I take a lot of pictures of my dogs and traditional zone based autofocus systems would focus on their nose because it's closer to the camera for video I've always been a fan of canons dual pixel autofocus system and the m50 doesn't disappoint I'm completely confident that when the camera is facing me my face is detected it's being tracked and there'll be no hunting now the a 6100 also has face detection which works extremely well and I didn't experience any type of hunting that I got from some older Sony models and both cameras offer subject tracking which is great and can be activated using the touchscreen but the m50 has an easier to use and more accurate interface in my opinion so to recap the a 6100 has more autofocus points which cover a larger portion of the sensor Annamalai autofocus and a faster optimal autofocus time on the other hand the m50 has simpler to use autofocus modes and a better interface alright moving on I want to talk about lens options and I think a lot of people forget to look at this part shop for camera when you buy a camera you're actually buying into a lens system and there are two major considerations there in my opinion first what lenses are available and at what cost and second what happens when you want to upgrade the body or when you have multiple bodies so let's start with the first the a 6100 uses Sony's amount and the M 50 uses canons EF M mount as far as native lenses there are a lot more lenses for Sony's amount than there are for canons EF M mount and at a higher quality there are some good EF m lenses from Canon like the thirty two millimeter F one point for the 22 millimeter f/2 but there are so many more options for Sony and if we're adding third-party options then Sigma just released three fast EF m Prime's the sixteen thirty and fifty six millimeter F one point four which really helps Canon but of course those lenses are also available for Sony a little bit of a sidebar here I love these lenses from Sigma and I created a dedicated video for them I highly recommend that you check them out regardless of which of these cameras you end up getting now in the m50 you can get an adapter and then use any of canons EF and EFS mount lenses which now opens up a ton of additional options but you need another piece of gear with you now I want to talk about the second consideration which is upgrading or using multiple bodies in the case of Sony if you end up upgrading to one of their full frame bodies like the a7 3 then you'll be able to take the same lenses because both their aps-c and full frame bodies use the e mount if you buy aps-c lenses you'll have to switch your full-frame camera to super 35 or aps-c mode and if you buy full-frame lenses that of course you can use them on both cameras natively the last thing to consider here is that you can use any of canons new RF mount lenses on the m50 so if you own an EOS R or RP in addition to your M 50 and you want to use full-frame lenses so you can use them on both cameras you have to buy e F lenses and then use adapters with both cameras now I really hope this section was helpful because I do think it's important to sometimes look beyond your immediate needs it doesn't mean that this will apply to every person but I like to share my real-life considerations with you let's move on and talk a little bit about this screen the a 6100 a three-inch 920 mm LCD tilting flip screen so that we can flip it to face to front and see ourselves when infront the camera without having to use an external monitor it's not the most elegant implementation with like a multi joint mechanism and if you want to know more about it check out my detailed review but it definitely does work and the m50 has a fully articulating screen that can be tilted up down to both sides plus turn 180 degrees to face the front it's also super helpful when you're shooting in portrait or in vertical orientation and the cameras above or below eye level because you can still get a perfect view of the screen now if you take into account two different types of photography using a cam on a slider or a gimbal in my opinion there is no question that the advantage here goes to the m50 in terms of screen positioning but I do want to mention that based on how they use the camera some users do prefer the more compact design like the one on the a 6100 now both companies refer to their screens as touchscreen but the m50 has a full touch screen while the a 6100 only has a partial one so on the m50 you can navigate the menus select options and features from the screen and touch or drag to focus on the a 6100 you can only use the touch functionality for focus so again I'm gonna get the edge to the m50 the next set of features that I want to bring up have to do with audio so both the a 6100 and the m50 have an external mic input so you can use an external microphone to get excellent audio right into the camera one issue with the design of the a 6100 is that you can't mount a microphone on the hot shoe if you plan on flipping the screen to face the front and you'll need to use an L bracket or a cage and by the way this isn't a big deal for me because I end up using them on both cameras regardless a big advantage of the a 6100 is that the audio levels display is always available on the LCD when you're in movie mode so as you're preparing to record and even while you're recording you can see the levels and you can also adjust them while recording on the m50 you have to go into the menu to see and adjust levels before recording you can't see them while you're recording and you can make adjustments without stopping the recording so again if you're shooting video the a 6100 wins here when it comes to audio options if you want to hear audio samples from the cameras using a built in microphone as well as an external microphone I'll link to the detailed review I did for each alright moving on I also want to talk about other features that these cameras have that may help you make a buying decision and first I want to talk about image stabilization the a 6100 does not have image stabilization so you have to rely on lens based OSs the m50 doesn't have sensor shifting body image stabilization but it does offer embodied digital image stabilization which can work together with lens based is I don't normally rely on and I would rather use warp stabilizer in Premiere Pro but it is there for you if you want it and it does make a difference the next thing I want to talk about is the apps so the a 6100 uses the imaging edge app which is okay but it has one big problem you can control shooting mode shutter speed aperture ISO white balance all that stuff for both photography and video for stills you can also control the self-timer continuous shooting settings and there are some flash options for video you can adjust your frame rate movie format and you can start and stop recording the biggest problem is that you can't see which autofocus mode is selected and you can't change modes you also can't see where the focus point is or select a different focus point so this makes the app almost useless from you when it comes to video unless I'm only using it for framing and to start and stop the video now the Canon camera connect app gives you full functionality for both photography and video which includes seeing and selecting focus modes and points so I can see that my face is being tracked and I can select subjects for tracking both apps let you preview and transfer images and video to your mobile device which is great but I'm gonna give the edge to the m50 here because the focus feature on the app is critical for how I shoot okay so as we get to the end of this battle of the budget cameras which one is a better value and which one should you get in order to make a decision we need to discuss the cost and like I said at the time of making this video the a 6100 costs five hundred ninety eight and the m50 costs 479 dollars so that's about a hundred and twenty dollar difference now when I take into account multiple lenses memory cards camera support a bag and other accessories that's not a huge difference so I recommend that you pick the body that works best for you the a 6100 has advantages in many areas with veterus Ellucian and frame rate options better 4k video quality better iso performance faster burst shooting more dials and custom buttons better battery life no recording limit clean hdmi output for live-streaming and better audio options the m50 has better JPEG color rendering in my opinion can do in body time-lapse has a fully articulating real touchscreen it's easier to use for beginners offers digital image stabilization users a better app and is less expensive I always say that you can't have everything in any camera so it comes down to what's important to you I do my best to answer every question in comments if you have any questions just drop them for me in the comment section I'll put links in the description to where you can get both the a 6100 and the m50 as well as some popular kits and accessories and they're always holiday specials and discounts and those links will automatically be updated with the lowest pricing if you end up ordering anything using those links you help support my channel for free and help me create more content for you so thank you in advance I also have links in the description to a more detailed video about each of these cameras if you want a more in-depth review I really hope this video gave you a good comparison between the sony a6000 and the canon m50 i'd love to hear in the comments section which option is best for you if this video was helpful please let me know by giving it a thumbs up tweet it share it with other people and if you haven't yet join the community by hitting the subscribe and notification buttons you can also find me on instagram twitter and facebook at tech gear talk you know what I always say buy it nice or buy twice good luck and see you soon [Music] [Music]

Channel: Tech Gear Talk

Views: 627,066

Keywords: Canon EOS M50, Sony A6100, Canon M50 Review, Sony A6100 Review, Canon M50 footage, Sony A6100 footage, Canon M50 Timelapse, Sony A6100 Timelapse, Canon M50 Autofocus, Sony A6100 Autofocus, Canon M50 Low Light, Sony A6100 Low Light, Canon M50 Slow Motion, Sony A6100 Slow Motion, Canon M50 120 FPS, Sony A6100 120 FPS, Sony 4K Camera, Canon 4k Camera, Best Sony Camera 2020, Best Canon Camera 2020, M50 vs a6100, Sony a6100 vs Canon M50

Id: wZVOATkGvB8

Length: 28min 44sec (1724 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020