I’m very lucky to make money from photography and video but from a hobbyists perspective the barriers to entry into photography are extremely high. The cost of cameras, lenses, memory cards, tripods, filters, bags and flashguns is getting higher and higher and the Canon R/RF system is living proof as £4K for a camera body in totally crazy. When I compare now to when I started photography as a hobby in the early 80’s and getting set up as a young boy was relatively affordable. An R6 is not the sort of thing most 10 year olds parents would dream of getting their son/daughter for Christmas.The R/RF gear seems fantastic in many ways, by from my point of view as a hobbyist, Canon is pricing itself out of the game. For example, R6 is about A$4400, RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS is about A$3650 and RF 70-200 f/2.8L IS is about A$4000, so that would be a A$12,050 setup. For comparison, Sony A7 III is about A$2950, Sigma 24-70 f.2.8 Art (for Sony) and Tamron 70-180 f/2.8 are about A$2150 each, so that would be a A$7250 setup. I would rather have the Canon gear (and yes, I realise the Canon lenses have IS which the lenses for the Sony don't, and that it is looking like Canon's IBIS is better than Sony's IBIS - and yes, I know you can adapt EF glass to the R system cameras), and in particular I would much rather have the ergonomics of the Canon R system bodies, but that price difference is too big for me to simply ignore. If I was keen to go mirrorless at this point, I think I would have to look hard at the Sony, as much as I wouldn't really want to. I am not in a rush to go mirrorless anyway, so it's a moot point for me at the moment, but still, Canon's pricing is certainly reducing my enthusiasm.
That's just me, of course. I'm sure Canon has done its market research and has good reason to believe the market will bear the prices its charging, so good luck to them. I suspect Canon will do well, as the gear does seem to be excellent.
PS - those prices are just from a quick online search. It may be possible to do better if you shop around. And I have ignored grey market import prices for now.
Technology, miniaturisation and R&D costs a lots of money and today’s cameras are a far cry from my simple Olympus OM10 with its button cell battery and manual film wind but it’s no wonder the camera market is shrinking at such a rapid rate when you consider we get a great stills (and video) camera for FREE with our mobile phones.
Upvote
0