@ neuroanatomists: You are right, there is lots of things that make a camera, but DXOmark only reviews sensors and this is what I am talking about here. In film days people would choose to use Kodachrome, velvia or whichever film they would like. Todays film are sensors, and Sony sensors (nikon, pentax even olympus now) are the best
I never saw anyone at Dxomark saying canon cameras are bad, they only talk about sensors and what they say is that canon sensor technology has a problem at base ISO. At high ISO all this cameras are about the same (I mean the full frame cameras, 5D mkII, 5D mkIII and D800) but at base ISO the difference in my opinion is huge
In my opinion Canon makes very good cameras and lenses, but very bad sensors
@jocau: One of the only advantages film still has over Digital sensors is Latitude (aka DR), today Sony sensors offer a very high latitude (still a bit far from best film results). I remember seeing an example of almost 20EV film shot (Backlight shot with shadow recovery). One advantage of film also is that DR is high even at high ISO, with digital at high ISOs DR tends to be low
Resolution wise and for High ISO film has been surpased by digital long ago.
Some scenes may need 7EV DR and some others may need 14+ EV, so high DR capabities are always very wellcome. As an example I can asure you that the blacks I get from my 5D mkII have no texture information at all, nothing I can extract from them
I am a macro photographer (working from 1:1 to 100:1); I work with focus stacking technique on tripod. Until now the only cameras I could use were Canon as they were the only cameras offering EFSC (Electronic first shutter curtain), a very important feature in macro photography. Now also the Sony NEX cameras offer this feature, also the nikon 1 system and panasonic G5 so I am not stuck with Canon anymore
Af all the systems you can get today with EFSC sony nex offers the best base ISO with good DR, low noise and good colours I would qualify NEX 5N output image quality between EOS 5D and EOS 5d mkII with better DR than both but slightly lower resolution than EOS 5D mkII
Every photographer has different priorities and my priorities are as folows:
1- EFSC Very important for working with continious light in macro
2- Good base ISO Working on tripod I normally use ISO 100
3- EF compatibility You can use EF lenses on NEX cameras via adapter, like the MP-E
AF, video, continious shotting, viewfinder, etc are all secondary to my needs but I understand a sports, landscape, wedding, fashion, etc.. photographer will have completely different needs than I do.