I bought the camera two weeks ago to use as a carry around camera with great image quality. Not satisfied with a point and shoot sensor, I was impressed with the image quality from this APS-C sensor, especially in low light. I am getting usable images at ISO 5000 with great color reproduction and no need for noise reduction! It is much better in low light than my Canon EOS 7D. This a great inconspicuous camera that doesn't really need a flash. I have used the Canon 580 EXII flash on the EOS-M and although it is twice as big as the camera, it produces well balanced flash exposures with full flash control available on the camera's touch screen. The touch screen interface takes some getting used to if you are coming from the 35mm SLR world. This camera is not designed to be all things to all people or the only camera one should have; but the ability to use full sized Canon lenses with the adapter is a compelling factor.
For those complaining about the slow focusing, turn off the continuous autofocus feature in the main menu and it focuses much faster. Focus modes are AF/MF/AF+MF, continuous/off, one shot/servo, face+tracking/flexizone area/flexizone spot. Finding the right combination of focus modes is critical to your shooting style. The 22mm f/2 lens is slower to focus with it's very narrow depth of field but it is a sharp lens. Focusing is much faster with the 18-55 3.5-5.6 IS STM lens. With my vision I find focusing easier with the touch screen than with viewfinders.
I have not fully tested the video capability with the EOS-M but it does feature HD video with continual autofocus and focus tracking during video. It has a 3.5 jack for external microphones.
There are several auto scene modes basically available for jpeg only shooting like HDR backlight control that will take a 3 shot bracketed series and blend them in camera into one image. You can use auto bracketing in RAW mode and process the images yourself. There is also a multi-shot noise reduction mode available for jpeg shooting along with handheld night scene mode (multi-shot). I have tested these modes and they work as advertised. I prefer RAW shooting and process my own bracketed images.
The naysayers are wrong concerning this camera. They either haven't taken the time to learn the camera or haven't tried it at all. It is a great portable camera with excellent image quality. If I had to criticize one feature it would be the battery life. A touch screen camera uses a lot of power and to keep this camera small, a small battery was needed. You will want to buy a second battery for a full day of shooting.