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Canon EF-M is discontinued: what to do with your lenses

Canon ended EOS M in 2023, and EF-M lenses cannot be adapted to Canon RF. The realistic options: keep shooting, sell, or build around EF lenses that move to RF.

Canon discontinued the EOS M system in October 2023, when Canon Japan listed every EOS M camera as a discontinued product. There was no press release. There will be no new EF-M bodies or lenses. The lenses cannot move to Canon’s RF mount either: EF-M’s flange focal distance is 18.00 mm and RF’s is 20.00 mm, so an EF-M lens would have to sit 2 mm inside an RF camera, which no adapter can arrange. That leaves four honest options: keep shooting, sell, switch to RF and replace the lenses, or build around EF lenses, which do carry over.

None of that stops an EOS M camera working. It stops the system growing.

What Canon actually did

EOS M was Canon’s first mirrorless system, launched in 2012 with the original EOS M and the EF-M mount. Canon then launched the full-frame RF mount in 2018 and began putting APS-C sensors in RF bodies as well.

The end came quietly. The last new EOS M camera was the EOS M50 Mark II, announced in October 2020. The last Canon EF-M lens was the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM, in 2018. In May 2023 Canon launched the EOS R100, describing it as designed for people who “previously enjoyed EOS Rebel or EOS M cameras”. In October 2023 Canon Japan moved the remaining EOS M cameras to its discontinued list.

Canon did not publish a fixed repair cut-off. It told PetaPixel it would provide services for the M series “for a certain period of time after the completion of the main unit sales”. Canon USA said sales of remaining stock would vary by region.

The whole EF-M lens range

Canon made eight EF-M lenses:

LensAnnounced
EF-M 22mm f/2 STM2012
EF-M 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 IS STM2012
EF-M 11–22mm f/4–5.6 IS STM2013
EF-M 55–200mm f/4.5–6.3 IS STM2014
EF-M 15–45mm f/3.5–6.3 IS STM2015
EF-M 18–150mm f/3.5–6.3 IS STM2016
EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM2016
EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM2018

Third-party makers added a few autofocus lenses: Tamron’s 18–200mm (2014), Sigma’s 16mm, 30mm and 56mm f/1.4 DC DN primes (2019), and Viltrox’s 23mm, 33mm and 56mm f/1.4 (2020).

That short list was always the system’s weak point. From the first EOS M, Canon’s answer was the Mount Adapter EF-EOS M, which lets the camera use EF and EF-S SLR lenses with autofocus.

Can EF-M lenses go on a Canon RF camera?

No, and the reason is geometry, not policy.

A lens is designed to sit a fixed distance from the sensor. An adapter is a spacer that adds distance, so it only works when the lens was designed to sit further from the sensor than the new body’s mount. EF-M lenses were designed for 18.00 mm. RF bodies put their mount 20.00 mm from the sensor. To reach infinity focus, an EF-M lens would have to sit 2 mm inside an RF body. The flange focal distance explainer sets out the general rule.

The names cause the confusion. EF and EF-S lenses were designed for 44.00 mm, so they fit RF bodies with 24.00 mm to spare, and Canon’s EF-EOS R adapter carries them over without any loss. EF-M shares the prefix but not the geometry.

EF-M lenses have almost nowhere else to go either. Sony E uses the same 18.00 mm, which leaves no room. Fujifilm X (17.70 mm) is shorter by only 0.30 mm. Nikon Z (16.00 mm) is shorter by exactly 2.00 mm, and this site has no adapter on record for that pairing. The lenses are electronic, with no aperture ring, so even a spacer that fitted would give you no aperture control.

Option 1: keep shooting

For many owners this is the right answer. An EOS M6 Mark II or M50 Mark II with the 22mm f/2 or 32mm f/1.4 still takes the same photographs it did in 2022. Discontinuation affects your future purchases, not your existing camera.

The risks are practical ones: fewer shops stocking spares, a repair service Canon has not committed to indefinitely, and a body you cannot replace with a new one of the same system if it breaks. Keep that in mind before spending more on EF-M.

Option 2: move to Canon RF and replace the lenses

Canon’s APS-C RF bodies, including the EOS R100, R50, R10 and R7, are the natural successors. Moving means buying new lenses, because none of the eight EF-M lenses can come with you.

The replacement range is better than it was. Canon licensed Sigma and Tamron to make APS-C (RF-S) autofocus lenses in 2024. Sigma now sells its 16mm, 23mm, 30mm and 56mm f/1.4 DC DN primes in RF mount, along with its 10–18mm and 18–50mm f/2.8 zooms. If you own Sigma’s EF-M primes, the same lens models exist for RF. The EF-M copies still will not transfer.

Option 3: sell

Selling the whole kit and starting again is often simplest. Used prices for EF-M gear have not been checked for this article, so compare recent sold listings rather than asking prices before deciding.

Sell the lenses with a body where you can. A working body plus lenses is a complete camera to a buyer, while loose EF-M lenses only sell to people who already own a body.

Option 4: build around EF lenses while you own the body

This is the one route that carries money forward. EF and EF-S lenses work on an EOS M body through the Mount Adapter EF-EOS M, then work on any RF body through Canon’s EF-EOS R adapter, with autofocus, stabilisation and aperture control on both.

You will need a second adapter when you move, because the EF-EOS M adapter has an EF-M rear mount and will not fit an RF body. Canon’s EF-EOS R adapter is the one to get when that time comes. Search Amazon UK.

Two caveats. EF lenses are SLR lenses, so they are much bigger than the EF-M lenses they replace, and the small size was the point of EOS M. On an APS-C body an EF lens also has the usual 1.6× Canon crop. And EF-S lenses on RF switch a full-frame body into crop mode, so they belong with an APS-C RF body.

Manual lenses: the cheap alternative

EF-M’s short 18.00 mm flange distance means almost any manual SLR or rangefinder lens fits with a plain ring. Leica M has 9.80 mm to spare, M42 27.46 mm, Canon FD 24.00 mm and Nikon F 28.50 mm. You focus by hand and set the aperture on the lens.

This keeps an EOS M body useful and cheap to run. Better still, those lenses also fit Canon RF with a different plain ring, so they carry over as well.

Should anyone buy into EF-M now?

As a cheap, small used camera for what it does today, it can be reasonable. As the first step in a system, no. The lens range is finished and it does not move to RF.

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