Two years ago I bought a secondhand Canon EOS M200 off Facebook Marketplace and have been very happy with it. I’m no camera expert – my previous setup was an ancient EOS 350D with 8MP and a CF card that’s basically archaeological at this point. So the M200 felt like a huge upgrade.
What I didn’t know when I bought it was that it could also work as a webcam, thanks to some COVID-era software Canon threw together 1. Perfect timing, because I was planning to use it with my new Prompter for filming courses this week.
I’ve had nothing but bad luck with this software. Half the time it doesn’t install correctly, the other half it’s incapable of navigating Apple’s app permissions – which, fair enough, Apple’s gotten pretty nanny-state about that stuff, but still.
But here’s the real kicker: the software won’t unlock full resolution and framerate (1080p/60fps) without signing up for a seemingly petty and unnecessary software subscription at 6 EUR a month.
So I signed up for it with a 30-day free trial. Because I needed to get this done.
After getting everything set up – Prompter in place, phantom power running to the camera, the whole nine yards – I was finally ready to film when I discovered that the EOS software (which has to be running in the background at all times) was freezing and not capturing video. Turns out this is a software bug that’s been reported for over a year and still hasn’t been fixed. 🤬
Fine, I thought. I’ll just record straight to the camera. Extra steps, but doable. Time’s running out because I’m trying to get all my recording done while the kids are at summer camp – August is going to be impossible.
But then the camera overheated and wouldn’t record at all.
The Prompter comes with all sorts of attachments, so I ended up jerry-rigging my 1080p Logitech webcam into it. Works fine, though it’s a wider shot than I wanted. I was looking forward to using the M200 because I could control the framing better and not worry about what’s behind me in the shot.
Ah well. I’m still happy with the camera itself, but Canon’s software is absolute garbage. A subscription service that doesn’t even work properly? Not worth a red cent.