Recipe for success: celebrity baker Matt Adlard puts the Canon EOS M50 Mark II to the test

Matt is a busy man. He shoots, edits and creates everything himself, so he needs a camera that's easy to use and won't slow him down. "I'm probably shooting 10 to 15 videos a month at the moment, including three 10-minute videos for my online baking school and two videos a week across my Instagram and TikTok. And then there are Instagram Stories that I'm shooting every day.”

We challenged self-taught baker and social media star Matt Adlard to put the EOS M50 Mark II through its paces in a lively video shoot. Like many content creators, Matt started out filming on a smartphone, before upgrading to a point-and-shoot camera, and then moving on to the Canon EOS 70D (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 90D). The EOS M50 Mark II has given him a taste for the quality and convenience offered by a mirrorless EOS M camera.

The Canon EOS M50 Mark II includes a host of features that make vlogging simpler, including Eye detection AF for sharp selfies, which works in movies and servo mode, and a longer battery life compared to the Canon EOS M50. "It's also very nimble and lightweight" says Matt. "That's important for me, because I'm always moving the camera, taking it off a rig, switching positions, rotating it and so on.”

"Even the Vari-Angle screen of the EOS M50 Mark II is a step up technologically for me," he continues. "When I'm doing top-down content on my phone for example, I can't see the screen. So I don't actually know if I'm getting the shot that I need. But with the EOS M50 Mark II, I can flip the screen over, I can look down at the food below me and actually check that what I'm shooting is correct."

Recently, Matt has been using a Canon EOS 70D with a kit lens and a smartphone to record his videos. "I use my phone on a stand above the food so that I can get those top-down views, and the EOS 70D at the side. I end up fiddling with the footage in Adobe® Premiere® Pro because the clips come in different orientations: landscape from my Canon camera and portrait from the phone. So I have to rotate and adjust the sizes of the video, which can sometimes cause them to pixelate.

"The EOS M50 Mark II automatically detects when you're recording video vertically, though. So, when you transfer the files over, they are automatically in portrait rather than landscape, which is perfect for Instagram Stories, IGTV and TikTok. I'd say that around 60% of my content is vertical video these days, so this option is a real time-saver."

Another of the EOS M50 Mark II's time-saving features that Matt welcomes is the ability to transfer photos and videos to image.canon or to the Canon Camera Connect app. "This is brilliant for when I'm out and about shooting or travelling, as it means I don't have to bring my laptop with me. I can just connect to the Camera Connect app on my phone and upload to social media directly."

Matt initially found success on YouTube, the growth of Instagram and TikTok – and the launch of his own Bake it Better online classes – has meant he has taken some time off from the video-sharing platform, but the EOS M50 Mark II has brought his attention back to the platform. "I think I got into the mindset of creating content for the sake of getting views, as opposed to creating content that I enjoyed making," he admits. "It's something that I'll definitely look at again, though, now that I've had a break from it."

One feature of the EOS M50 Mark II that helps with this is the camera's ability to livestream direct to YouTube* on any internet connected network. "We tested it out by hooking it up to OBS (Open Broadcaster Software®), which is the software we use, and it was really fun," says Matt. "Now I've had that experience, it's something I would love to do more of – especially with my baking school where we could do live bake-alongs. Seeing how easy and quick it was to set the camera up for live streaming, it really gives me the encouragement to go and do it."

"The microphone input is going to help improve the sound quality for live streaming or vlogging too," he says. "Adding voice-overs to my content is a big thing for me now, so being able to plug a mic in and record a sound that isn't echoey and choppy is really important."

Matt describes himself as a "real novice when it comes to cameras but says the EOS M50 Mark II is very intuitive to use. "For someone like me who doesn't necessarily go through the handbook, you can get around the camera easily because of the way that the menus are laid out with images, and the touchscreen controls. The movie self-timer option was useful too, as I could really ready myself before going straight into recording the video.

Matt admits, "I don't really understand settings such as aperture or ISO but the EOS M50 Mark II has a food scene mode that automatically detects that the subject is food, and then adjusts the colours and all the settings," he continues. "This means that I can get straight into my recording and I know that my content is going to come out looking great."

"There are so many people creating content now, so I think that you can differentiate yourself by really stepping up the image quality. The ability to shoot in 4K and add a macro lens to the camera in order to get close-ups of detail and texture [is fantastic]. I think it's going to help me stand out a little bit more from everyone else."


Written by Marcus Hawkins


*Requires an internet-connected wireless network with a speed of at least 6Mbs plus a YouTube account of at least 1000 subscribers and an image.canon account.