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Archive 2021 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon

  
 
johnld
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p.2 #1 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


I switched from Sony to Nikon to Canon. I did so because of the f/1.2 lenses. I shoot professionally and recently used the Canon RP. I'm considering the switch to either an R5 or EOS R as the prices are pretty decent for the EOS R. The Canon color science is more than a myth, as I am amazed at OOC jpg's that were sublime compared to the other cameras. Also, Canon's menus are really intuitive too. I adapted EF lenses in favor of the RF line because there's incredible bargains and I didn't notice too much difference when I owned the RF 50mm 1.2. LensRentals has all the gear mentioned, so perhaps try them first.




Apr 16, 2021 at 11:30 AM
Imagemaster
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p.2 #2 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


AlaskanNiz wrote:
I have been shooting on an a7iii ..........


First, if you are talking about the A7III, and not the A7RIII, I will say I was not overly-impressed with the A7III.

For your type of shooting and weather, what do you think a mirrorless camera will do better than what a DSLR will?

If you prefer a larger and more robust camera, why not get a Canon 1DXII?






Apr 16, 2021 at 11:48 AM
Jman13
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p.2 #3 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


I switched from Sony to Canon a few months back. I had shot Sony since 2015, owning the A7 II, A7 III and then the A7R IV.

Ultimately, both systems are pretty great right now. For me, I felt the following things were better for me on the Canon side, and made things a bit nicer to shoot with:

- Ergonomics and comfort: grip is better formed, deeper, with better space to the lens mount (no cramped fingers), and tall enough to fit my whole hand.

- IBIS is significantly better on the R5 and R6, with 2-3 stops better shake reduction. Being able to handhold my 135mm f/1.8 at 1/5s and get pretty consistently tack sharp results is fantastic.

- AF is better on the R5 and R6 over what I was using. It's very close to the A9/A1 level of AF. Those cameras are probably a little better, but I think in most situations the difference is negligible. For what I shoot, it's just impeccably good, with Eye AF consistently nailing the iris of the correct eye more often than what I got on Sony.

- WiFi/ Connectivity. I always found the Sony app to be flaky, where it would often take several times to connect, or drop connection, etc. Connecting to the camera while it's off was also often an exercise in frustration or long waits, while the Canons just seem to connect to my phone seamlessly and quickly, and I never lose connection once established.

-Better touch interface with the rear screen, and full articulation is really nice for low to the ground shooting.

Those are the biggies. It's also nice to be able to seamlessly use EF mount glass...it works far better on the Canons then on Sony, though the Sony lens lineup is considerably larger at the moment, so you don't really need to adapt anything.

That's not to say that the Sony cameras weren't also great. I really liked my A7R IV, and I do wish there were third party RF mirrorless designed lenses at the moment, because those are wonderful options. I'd love to see the Voigtlander mirrorless lenses ported over, and of course the Sigma and Tamron glass. I suspect we'll see the latter, but I may have to make due with M-mount adapted Voigtlanders for that fix.



Apr 16, 2021 at 03:17 PM
Scott Stoness
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p.2 #4 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Jman13 wrote:
I switched from Sony to Canon a few months back. I had shot Sony since 2015, owning the A7 II, A7 III and then the A7R IV.

Ultimately, both systems are pretty great right now. For me, I felt the following things were better for me on the Canon side, and made things a bit nicer to shoot with:

- Ergonomics and comfort: grip is better formed, deeper, with better space to the lens mount (no cramped fingers), and tall enough to fit my whole hand.

- IBIS is significantly better on the R5 and R6, with 2-3 stops better shake reduction.
...Show more

Adding:


Against Sony:

Dust control on Sony was/is bad for landscape, if you push shadows at f16, it looks like the picture has measles.

The LCD screen on back of Sony (A7R2) less bright and harder to use

On more than a handful of occasions, the A7r2/A7r1 bricked in the cold. So far r5 is good.

Ancillary stuff like wired release, flash always feels cheesy - eg 3 parts and hard to find

I find the menu of Sony difficult to navigate from memory as compared to canon. This is a big deal to me.

The r5 is way more versatile (birds, action, landscape) than A7rx and way cheaper than A1. So better value for money.

Sony has no shift lens and adapted they work better on Canon than Sony.

Sony has more colour/smear issues than r5 for adapted old lens but Nikon is even better.


Against R5:

Sony is way better list of small light lens. 12-24, 28-70, .... really light small lens. There is no equivalent in Canon. The 24-105 cheapie is way longer and significantly heavier. This is a big deal to me. Canon needs to up their game on small and light. Canon has very high end / high IQ (expensive) lens but Sony has this and light small and even high iq/light. Its better for hiking and backpacking.

Sony has no AA. I dislike AA.




Apr 16, 2021 at 03:41 PM
johnvanr
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p.2 #5 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


I used to shoot Sony and like you experienced having a lens almost fall off because of the position of the lens release button. With the new grip on the A9II, A7R IV etc., that's no longer a danger with my size hands, though.

I did switch (back) to Canon, though, because I do like the overall ergonomics better.

I was at B&H a few days ago, taking the opportunity to hold different cameras I wasn't yet familiar with just to see how I liked them for my purposes.

I felt the Sony A1 is not as nice to hold for me, compared to the Nikon Z7 II or the Canon R5, but the AF-ON button is better positioned than on the Nikon and Canon (and larger). That said, I found the AF joystick fall better to my thumb on the Canon (followed by the Nikon and then the Sony). To what extent the position and sizes of these are important to you, depends on what and how you shoot, of course.

Lenses differ as well. The Nikon lenses seem thin but long for what they are; while the better Canon and Sony zooms are bulky, but then Canon makes amazingly compact 70-200mm RF lenses. I assume soon enough we have tons of lens choices for both Canon and Sony from third party lens makers. Sony has the advantage of its cooperation with Zeiss for both its own lenses and the Loxia & Batis range, but the Canon RF lenses are generally great and in some cases absolutely awesome.

I feel the Canon is sturdier than a Sony in the same price range, but I trust my Olympus cameras even more in inclement weather.

Never had experience with Sony service, but Canon (and Olympus) have been excellent to me.

In the end, to me, it would come down to what I prefer to shoot with and that would be Canon.



Apr 16, 2021 at 04:15 PM
bobbytan
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p.2 #6 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Understandable - Sony FF MILC have been around since 2013 I believe. Canon has only taken the MILC seriously about a year ago so they have a lot of catching up to do and you can't even get 3rd party RF lenses at this point in time. I don't know much about AA vs non-AA filter but my R5 images are all incredibly sharp even with my 2 zoom lenses, 24-105L and 100-500L.

Scott Stoness wrote:
Against R5:

Sony is way better list of small light lens. 12-24, 28-70, .... really light small lens. There is no equivalent in Canon. The 24-105 cheapie is way longer and significantly heavier. This is a big deal to me. Canon needs to up their game on small and light. Canon has very high end / high IQ (expensive) lens but Sony has this and light small and even high iq/light. Its better for hiking and backpacking.

Sony has no AA. I dislike AA.





Apr 16, 2021 at 04:54 PM
TarHoya
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p.2 #7 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


bobbytan wrote:
Understandable - Sony FF MILC have been around since 2013 I believe. Canon has only taken the MILC seriously about a year ago so they have a lot of catching up to do and you can't even get 3rd party RF lenses at this point in time. I don't know much about AA vs non-AA filter but my R5 images are all incredibly sharp even with my 2 zoom lenses, 24-105L and 100-500L.



The two factors working against Canon with third-party RF lenses right now is that they are closed mount systems, so the lens mounts need to be reverse engineered, and they also still have robust DSLR user-bases that are buying EF-mount lenses, so there is a calculus that has to be made for when it makes sense financially to both invest in developing the mount and reduce manufacturing capacity of EF-mount lenses to start manufacturing RF-mount lenses. The same obviously also applies to Nikon and the F-mount to Z-mount transition.

The silver lining is that since Sigma and Tamron now have lines of lenses being developed specifically for mirrorless cameras, it should hopefully be relatively easy to release RF-mount versions once they do reverse engineer the mount and make the decision to commit manufacturing capacity to the lenses.



Apr 16, 2021 at 05:53 PM
dakphotoman
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p.2 #8 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


AlaskanNiz wrote:
Hey guys! I'm a bit of a lurker here who's been debating a decision for a while. I have been shooting on an a7iii for about a year and am somewhat invested, I have three lenses, zoom trinity and all were purchased used so I'm not terribly invested. I'm debating moving to the r5 or r6. I do really like mirrorless or else I would be thinking about a 5dm3.

My reasons for switching include ergonomics, robustness, customer support, and colors. I have large hands and I've been shooting in Alaska sometimes at 40 below and when my hands go wooden
...Show more

I would agree with all your points as to where Canon, in my opinion, is better than Sony. I think there have been enough reviews and personal anecdotes to conclude that Canon does a better job with weather sealing and the general robustness of their cameras. While ergonomics are a personal judgement, in my opinion Canon has both better ergonomics and are easier to use including the touch screen ability and the fully articulating screen. The Canon does have a greater distance between grip and lens mount/lens. And, again, while colors are subjective, most reviewers that I have read give Canon the edge. Personally, having used Canon, Olympus and Sony in the past (and just bought a Nikon, but can't really judge them yet) Sony would place 3rd in terms of color. Don't know what your experience with dust on the sensor is with your Sony, but I know numerous photographers comment on this being somewhat of an issue. Aside from the RP, the new Canon mirrorless camera all have the "curtain" that covers the sensor when you change lenses. The Sonys I owned go back a few years, so I'm not sure if the newer Sonys have this type of curtain or not. If not, then the Canon is ahead in that department as well if that is important to you, especially if you are changing lenses in various outdoor environments.



Apr 16, 2021 at 06:50 PM
Elusivesouls
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p.2 #9 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


dakphotoman wrote:
I would agree with all your points as to where Canon, in my opinion, is better than Sony. I think there have been enough reviews and personal anecdotes to conclude that Canon does a better job with weather sealing and the general robustness of their cameras. While ergonomics are a personal judgement, in my opinion Canon has both better ergonomics and are easier to use including the touch screen ability and the fully articulating screen. The Canon does have a greater distance between grip and lens mount/lens. And, again, while colors are subjective, most reviewers that I have read give
...Show more


The curtain is the shutter that has always been there but is now being used as a barrier against dust. The shutter itself is actually more delicate than the sensor, but it does act as a good shield against dust - just isn't something I'd touch as it can be damaged relatively easily.

I do like having the option of having it closed and it is one of the features that appealed to me when I purchased the R5 as I had grown tired of dust collecting on my Sony sensors over the years and constantly having to clean them after changing lenses. I have yet to have any visible dust show up on my R5 sensor and I've changed the lens multiple times since I originally purchased it.




Apr 16, 2021 at 09:15 PM
raminolta
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p.2 #10 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Scott Stoness wrote:
Sony has no shift lens and adapted they work better on Canon than Sony.



Actually there are native third party tilt/shift lenses in the E-mount from Laowa and Samyang/Rokinon. Since T/S lenses are all manual, Canon and Nikon T/S lenses can also be used on Sony cameras and there is no penalty. The optical performance decline like smearing corners only show up when adapting rangefinder lenses that were made in the Leica M mount on Sony bodies. There are also numerous bellows solutions available from third party manufacturers or by adapting legacy t/s bellows. I had both Minolta and Zeiss t/s bellows for a while adapted to the E-mount which worked like a charm. I have the plan to buy the Laowa 15mm shift lens in the future.



Apr 16, 2021 at 09:21 PM
TeamSpeed
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p.2 #11 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


There are aftermarket RF lenses to the point someone made about no third party RF gear. I believe there are maybe 6-8 third party lenses.


Apr 16, 2021 at 09:36 PM
dallvr
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p.2 #12 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


arbitrage wrote:
So far SPS has impressed me 100x more than CPS ever did. Every time I email SPS I get contacted within 1-2hrs. They follow up with more questions about my issues. CPS was good when I needed to send something in (something I haven't had to do with SPS yet) but CPS was terrible to try and report issues to or even to renew my membership (which took 4 weeks of back and forth emails and phone calls).



I'd second that opinion of SPS vs CPS. SPS has been good about communicating directly with me about my questions and service. With CPS, I would only get a 2 page cursory summary of the work it did on my gear. Worse yet, once when I sent several lenses in to CPS for clean and check, CPS cracked the surface glass on my 11-24, and sent my 100mm macro to some other CPS member in LA (I live in NorCA). They fixed my 11-24 and retrieved and examined my macro, but this was not the kind of service I would recommend to anyone.



Apr 16, 2021 at 10:29 PM
TarHoya
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p.2 #13 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Elusivesouls wrote:
The curtain is the shutter that has always been there but is now being used as a barrier against dust. The shutter itself is actually more delicate than the sensor, but it does act as a good shield against dust - just isn't something I'd touch as it can be damaged relatively easily.

I do like having the option of having it closed and it is one of the features that appealed to me when I purchased the R5 as I had grown tired of dust collecting on my Sony sensors over the years and constantly having to clean them
...Show more

Sony did finally add the option for you to have the shutter close when you turn off the camera with the A1, and also added the feature to the A9 II via firmware. It's unclear whether they will expand the option to other bodies via firmware updates as well.



Apr 16, 2021 at 10:39 PM
Elusivesouls
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p.2 #14 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


TarHoya wrote:
Sony did finally add the option for you to have the shutter close when you turn off the camera with the A1, and also added the feature to the A9 II via firmware. It's unclear whether they will expand the option to other bodies via firmware updates as well.


In my experience with Sony, you can consider that as good as done when it comes to future bodies. I think the fact that they added it stock to the A1 and then to the A9II via firmware is a good sign they quickly realized it was something that customers wanted. I'd say it's going to be a standard feature for any mid to top tier full frame MILC going forward.



Apr 16, 2021 at 10:55 PM
TarHoya
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p.2 #15 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Elusivesouls wrote:
In my experience with Sony, you can consider that as good as done when it comes to future bodies. I think the fact that they added it stock to the A1 and then to the A9II via firmware is a good sign they quickly realized it was something that customers wanted. I'd say it's going to be a standard feature for any mid to top tier full frame MILC going forward.


Agreed, I would 100% expect it to be a standard feature in future bodies--The uncertainty I was talking about was whether it will also come to other current bodies, such as the A7R IV or A7S III, via future firmware updates like they did with the A9 II.



Apr 16, 2021 at 11:07 PM
sirimiri
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p.2 #16 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


dhphoto wrote:
My only similar experience was with my Eos M5, which I really do not like at all.

I grok the M6II "so hard", you might try giving it a spin. It's got the perfect number and placement of dials for quick controllability.



Apr 16, 2021 at 11:40 PM
AlaskanNiz
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p.2 #17 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


lighthound wrote:
You weren't out climbing somewhere around Beluga point along Turnagain Arm last Aug 17th were you? If so, I might have a shot of you and a young lady climbing that I could send you.

Considering your concern/need for robustness, it sounds like you've already witnessed the beating Canon bodies can take. The Sony A7III on the other hand would have me very concerned based on recent lawsuits regarding mechanical robustness.

Sony sued over shutter failure

If you decide to stay with Sony, I'd at least ditch the A7III you're using and move to a different model then hope
...Show more

Hey I was not climbing out there at that time! I was up north in Fairbanks climbing a bunch off the Tanana River!

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful and insightful responses! Another thing I was thinking about at work today was the lack of focus bracketing on Sony that the r5/6 have... Also, as others have mentioned, that confounded sensor dust... I am religiously careful with my sensor when changing lenses, I even caught myself holding my breath while changing lenses and yet somehow it is always coming out spotted... Which drives me nuts. It seems physically impossible.

In any case I do believe the answer is to rent before making any committing decisions... I found out I can rent the r5 or 6 in Anchorage, so I'll do that and also probably wait to make a decision until the fall and then hopefully the a7iv will have come out at least to weigh options.

Thanks again everyone for all the civil and illuminating information pertaining to my situation, I really appreciate it and know that in the end it will all turn out.

Cheers everyone!



Apr 17, 2021 at 01:29 AM
arbitrage
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p.2 #18 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Elusivesouls wrote:
Thanks for sharing, Arbitrage. Out of curiosity, what are your top 3 cameras? I am assuming D850, A9/A9II (grouping), and R5?

I currently have the R5 and have used all the cameras mentioned thus far except for the D850. The R5 is an amazing camera, one of the best I have used as well; the main issue I am encountering right now that is proving to be extremely frustrating is the inability to get lenses for the camera. It's a non-factor if you're existing Canon user, but it's a major roadblock right now to new Canon users who are switching from
...Show more

I was thinking A9/A9II, R5 and A1. But yes, D850 and D500 are right up there as far as DSLRs go and the top DSLRs. I put them just below the other 3(4) and above the 1DXII and A7RIV.



Apr 17, 2021 at 06:29 AM
dakphotoman
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p.2 #19 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Elusivesouls wrote:
The curtain is the shutter that has always been there but is now being used as a barrier against dust. The shutter itself is actually more delicate than the sensor, but it does act as a good shield against dust - just isn't something I'd touch as it can be damaged relatively easily.

I do like having the option of having it closed and it is one of the features that appealed to me when I purchased the R5 as I had grown tired of dust collecting on my Sony sensors over the years and constantly having to clean them
...Show more

I am surprised that other brands have not done something similar. I just watched a really good photographer doing a "post-processing" video on YouTube. One his most important steps was to make sure you remove the dust spots in your shot. The shot must have had 4 or 5 spots and I was quite surprised until I realized he shoots Sony. In 2 years with my Canon R, I can't remember having any dust spots, although I probably had a few that I didn't notice and were shaken off the next time I turned off the camera.



Apr 17, 2021 at 07:38 AM
dakphotoman
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p.2 #20 · Debating switching from Sony to Canon


Elusivesouls wrote:
Thanks for sharing, Arbitrage. Out of curiosity, what are your top 3 cameras? I am assuming D850, A9/A9II (grouping), and R5?

I currently have the R5 and have used all the cameras mentioned thus far except for the D850. The R5 is an amazing camera, one of the best I have used as well; the main issue I am encountering right now that is proving to be extremely frustrating is the inability to get lenses for the camera. It's a non-factor if you're existing Canon user, but it's a major roadblock right now to new Canon users who are switching from
...Show more

I agree with your assessment of the Canon RF lens lineup so far - but if you don't mind buying used lenses and using the adapter, the EF lenses that you can get for your R5 are often top of the line "L" lenses and very affordable. When I bought my Canon R, I had only one RF lens and my other lenses were all used EF "L" lenses purchased from the various used outlets. It's worth considering, in my opinion.



Apr 17, 2021 at 07:46 AM
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