At a glance: Of all the major camera manufacturers, Canon has been by far the most reluctant player when it comes to compact system cameras. Not only was Canon one of the last to make a mirrorless camera at all, with the EOS M in mid-2012, but it has also shown little commitment to the system,...

Compact; portable design; Excellent controls and user interface; Impressive image quality

Relatively slow continuous shooting and focusing; No built-in viewfinder; Limited native lens range

Not perfect, but superb controls and outstanding image quality make the Canon EOS M3 a serious contender

The EOS M3 is Canon's third mirrorless camera, following the M2 and the original M. Announced in February 2015 (13 months after the M2 and two and a half years after the original M) it joins the 750D / T6i and 760D / T6s DSLRs to become the first Canon cameras to employ a 24 Megapixel APSC sensor.

Good quality images and low noise; Tilting touchscreen; Wifi with NFC for sharing and remote control; Mic input and confident focusing for movies

No built-in viewfinder, Servo AF slows burst shooting down, Poor battery life; Little warning before expiry, Very limited selection of native EF-M lenses, No panorama or timelapse facility built-in

It's not often one thinks of Canon when considering mirrorless cameras, but the company's EOS M3 is a worthy contender against the likes of Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, which are perhaps the ‘go to' brands for this category.

Picture clarity and colours; Useful live view and great screen; Intuitive controls and fun to use

Handgrip is shallow; Dials hard to move

Canon EOS M3 Review - The EOS M3 represents Canon's first real step in to the enthusiast CSC market, and looks set to shake it up. See how it gets on in our full Canon EOS M3 Review.

Excellent design and user interface; Pleasing image quality; Huge improvement on predecessor

Focusing speed and continuous shooting still behind competition; Lacking built-in viewfinder; Poor kits lens

Canon's new EOS M3 is the third model in the company's CSC (compact system camera) line but only the second to be released in Australia. Following the lead of its predecessor, the new model uses the latest 24-megapixel sensor and DIGIC 6 processor, which are common to Canon's mid-range EOS DSLR...

The Canon EOS M3 is Canon's latest mirrorless compact system camera and features a new 24 megapixel APS-C sensor with Hybrid AF system. The camera features a tilting touch screen, plus built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity. The Canon EOS M3 is available for ￡599 with 18-55mm IS kit lens.

Much improved focus speeds; Good image quality; Excellent colour saturation; Built in Wi-Fi and NFC; Good noise performance; Microphone socket; Good handgrip; Built in HDR; Dual-axis electronic level

Limited EOS-M lenses with 4 native lenses - an adapter for EF lenses is available; 4.2fps continous shooting isn't particularly quick compared to the competition; Short battery life; Panoramic mode not available; Small raw buffer

small with plenty of features

no view finder but is sold seperately

The Canon EOS M3 brings significant and welcomed improvements over the original EOS M model. There's a better sensor, better AF performance and better ergonomics to suit the more advanced photographer.

DSLR image quality & resolution in a mirrorless body; Higher-res 24MP APS-C sensor; Much improved AF performance; Better ergonomics with full PASM dial; Built-in Wi-Fi & NFC; Tilting LCD

No built-in EVF; Limited native lens selection; Slow burst mode; Shallow buffer depth with RAW files; No 60p video frame rate or 4K video option

I bought this EOS M3 and the 11-22mm lens for my recent trip to Tibet and China. Took over 2500 pictures. I did not want to take my older Canon DSLR as it would be too heavy so this size was almost perfect for the trip. With the 11-22 mm lens, it was great for those landscape views.

Small size; light weight with the familiar controls of a Canon DSLR

Battery is too small to last for a whole day of shooting; Definitely needs an extra battery; The controls can be slightly bigger or raised higher for better tactile feedback; Taking a still while shooting movie interrupts the movie sequence