I can't help but chuckle at the number of comments asserting that finally a DPR review is fair to Canon. They're amazed that Chris and Jordan have finally shed DPR's anti-Canon bias and given a Canon product a fair trial. Some of these same comments assert that it won't last and the R5 will get the same old biased treatment.
Most seemed oblivious to the possibility that DPR hasn't changed, rather it is Canon that changed. I was an avid Canon users for years. I anxiously waited for the release of the 6D II with tremendous anticipation but was sorely disappointed when it was actually inferior to its predecessor in several respects. I considered the 5D IV, but it was more money than I wanted to spend on a camera especially one that, to me, didn't seem significantly better than the M III that it replaced. I bought a 80D hoping to keep a foot in the Canon water, but there was nothing exciting about that camera. And I don't even want to talk about the Rebel releases. How many variations on a single theme can a company trot through without making any discernible progress forward?
Thus, to me, Canon has been in a huge rut for years. Rather than biased against Canon, I saw the DPR treatment almost as a form of "tough love". We love you Canon, we know you can do so much better than you're doing, so why aren't you living up to your potential?
Now, Canon seems to have gotten the message, Maybe they were planning this tour-de-force for years--and just weren't ready when they introduced the R but knew they had to release something. It kind of reminds me of the original GodFather movie, where the Corleone family looks like they’re fatally weakened and are just waiting to be wiped out by competing families. Instead, in the penultimate scene, Canon, I mean the Corleones, turn the table and whack all the rivals in a single carefully choreographed, coordinated attack.
This is what the R5/6 offerings represent. Sure, video gets the headlines, but it’s the camera features and capabilities that will dominate the market. Incredible resolution (the A7R IV’s 61MP is of no consequence; I have to check the file size or EXIF data to distinguish R III and R IV images), competitive DR, AF and continuous rate that challenges the best sports cameras, state-of-the-art FF IBIS, and amazing ergonomics in a small package. And no doubt I left out several features including truly excellent video.
Hence, the question isn’t why has DPR suddenly given a fair review of a Canon product. No, the reviews have always fair. Rather, given the different between the R5/6 offerings and recent Canon offerings, the real question is why weren’t they even more critical of Canon’s half-hearted efforts?
Interesting take, maybe there is something to it with some reviewers wanting to encourage Canon.
I view Canon a lot like Toyota. Some of the most, if not the most reliable and tested platforms, but not always the flashiest. Yet they do innovate and then wait for several years selling that set of technology while still commanding the price premium. Each time they innovate it is often class leading or nearly, then they lag behind as the old stalwart but uninteresting.
Where I almost strayed from Canon was when I took up astro. The 6D, as ahead of its time as its sensor was for that market segment, could not keep up and had excessive shadow noise compared to competitors that nothing but excruciating post processing and exposure blending could work around, and even then 3 stops of noise was not going away. I wanted low shadow noise in my night landscapes but it was very hard to get while other brands were offering something that could. Instead of jumping, I looked at the system and what Canon was doing about the issue. They bought their own sensor foundry, they were not following the feature war, they kept producing well tested bodies that didn't have silly problems in the field like some of the most innovative brands. I went about 1.5 years of waiting and the 5D4 came out. I saved all that money changing systems and they answered with a camera near enough to any competitor in real world application as to be irrelevant. The shadow noise was gone, and I now had a much nicer body. Even bought mine refurbished about a year after its release to save more money, but I only upgraded because of a real world limitation I was encountering, not spec sheets. Canon seems to get bashed too often on perception and not real world issues by some reviewers.
I think Canon is a long strategy company and I would wager owning their own sensor foundry is going to preserve them when Sony cuts off Nikon and others from buying their best. Their refusal to race spec sheets doesn't mean they won't game the market like they did with the 8K feature here on R5, but I still see them consistently offering the best system of bodies and lenses, at least for my varied needs.
The one place I agree with others that was plainly not fair to Canon, is the entire review industry did not just point out the real world failings of a few Canon cameras, they continued whipping the dead horse and creating false perceptions about overall capability. There are, right this second, brand loyalists out there all over the interwebs claiming Canon sensors suck, blathering still about the cripple hammer, and other inane and baseless stuff, when Canon have been very competitive with sensors since the 80D, and always competitive in most other features. They have lead in rugged design and reliability along with Nikon for decades.
The dynamic range issue is the one I still hear the most, and it was ridiculous and mostly applies to low ISO anyway. It was a simple buzzword most people could grasp. The real problem was the ADC readout chain on Canon sensors was adding read noise. Canon then reduced read noise like everyone else with on chip ADC and it was clear that their read noise + random noise was as good or better than other brands. At high ISO, several Canon bodies have better DR than competitors as a result of sensor tech improvement.
Anyway, love or hate reviews, they do help us all out like brand competition by motivating innovation. Nice to see Canon get some good reviews for a change if for no other reason than hard work and quality result deserve to be recognized.
