Spent a good part of weekend observing commentary and analysis of this forum. It is fantastic. No better forum for bouncing observations, and on the whole it has been kept very fact focused.
Different people have different needs, of course. For some, lack of focus peaking (if even true) is a deal breaker. For others, it is a card slot. I respect that. That said, I draw a line when judging this release between factors that are legitimately disappointing and factors that just would have been nice. That line is this: whether or not the feature is actually a step back from current DSLR feature set versus something we’d like that Canon has never previously provided.
FACTORS THAT LEGITIMATELY STINK
- this is a 3 FPS camera for people using AF in tracking mode (single reason I will wait). Canon hasn’t released a camera that slow since 2008 (rebel xs), so this is rather remarkable. For people coming from an early M series camera, it might not be as huge a difference, but for most DSLR switchers, it’ll be tough to swallow. The big legit complaint at the 5d4 launch was the nerfed FPS at 7. To go to 3 from that would require still subjects for the most part. Due to unclear terminology in spec list, sure if this applies to all servo mode or just face tracking; but in either case it isn’t the camera for a would-be 5d4 switcher imo. My “pew, pew, pew” SL1 is 33 percent faster, and maddenly slow.
FACTORS THAT WOULDA BEEN NICE
- 2nd card slot. Even for paid work, I don’t use the SD card in 5d4 because it slows FPS. Never had card failure that wasn’t because I sent it through washer and dryer by mistake. I swap cards out as I go along, reducing liability of loss (which never happens anyway). Much more concerned camera will get stolen (2x cards no help there). Shocked by shrill reaction to Nikon release’s lack of second card, and think it’s significant over-reaction. Reaction to Canon’s lack of 2nd card not quite as shrill, perhaps because opinions more considered now.
- IBIS... I just can’t get worked up about a lack of a feature that a company has never before demonstrated the capability of delivering. Would be very nice, of course, but certainly not a surprise.
- not EF mount... anyone who has used M mount before in the Canon world, knows that the adapter to EF is a non-issue. It just works. It’s not a deal. It is not at all like adapters that you see for Sony.
FACTORS THAT ARE LEGIT INNOVATIONS OR OTHER POSITIVES
- Despite me having a real dealbreaker preventing me from buying the new camera, I am still sorely tempted simply because of the glass that is being released. The 50 mm lens in the F/2 zoom are really compelling.
- Form factor looks pretty optimal, but will need to handle to know. This will be very personal and will vary by person. My sense: current pro models are unnecessarily large and heavy. Mirrorless are impractically small. This might be the Goldilocks form factor.
- Screen as trackpad for AF is a huge improvement over any current pro model. Anyone who has used the M5 with this feature knows. Joystick half as useful.
- Filters in adapters is brilliant.
- This appears to be the 5D4 sensor, which is great for the (speculated) price. Some have mentioned that this sensor would require a much higher price because of the price of the five series camera, but this is not so. That camera was released years ago, so offering that sensor at a much lower price is completely reasonable. People also point to the new six series camera, with a decidedly not very improved sensor, as showing that the price point of a five series sensor would be much higher. I think we can consider the recent six series release as an anomalously unimproved release and not use it to benchmark the market’s price to feature expectations. Of course, Canon is going to crow about this being a “completely redesigned sensor.” They have never not done this. 3/4 of people appear to believe that it will actually be a completely new sensor. There may indeed be some sort of adaptation that was required to do with the older sensor, but by and large when we see very similar sensors between cameras, they are pretty much the same sensor. I marvel at our gullibility sometimes.
UPSHOT:
- I am not going to buy this camera. When we first started discussing it I was already taking pictures of one of my 5D4 cameras so that I could list it on eBay. I am no longer going to sell that camera. I will have Canon CPS send me one of the R models when it becomes available for borrowing (already officially requested). But it will also likely buy one of the Sony A7R3s used, just to compare the two and later resell the Sony. This will be for experimentation. Because Canon created such a low frames per second body, I will look at the Sony system, but had Canon *fixed* the FPS issue, which really did require fixing from the already sluggish 5d4, I wouldn’t have bothered even looking. I do not plan to switch, but with a new mount in the offing, I need to do due diligence.
I look forward to the pro model coming out. Hopefully the super slow FPS is not a long-term limitation. When this is actually officially announced, we may see Canon making a development announcement about a different camera, for which we do not have the specs. So our speculation at this stage might be a little premature in terms of assuming we know a lot about their positioning in the market.
The thing that might be most exciting to me about the upcoming announcements is the release of the new 600 mm. Lots of good stuff, across vendors, coming out. It is exciting.