What happened to my 1D X this year made me cautious about buying another €6,000 camera. Although I thought that the shutter would be the first thing to break after a high number of shots, it was the main board that suddenly stopped working. I have read that many 1D X owners had the same problem. One guy even reported that it happened again with his replaced main board. I had to pay more than €600 to get a new main board. That still sounds okay, but I can never be sure when this will happen again. The main reason I bought the 1D X was that I thought it would be reliable and therefore justify the price. If the shutter is rated 400,000 shots and the rest of the camera should last even longer, such a camera should basically work forever, as I take less than 10,000 shots per year. The truth is though that it broke after about 60,000 shots just because of electronics.
My concern is that mirrorless cameras rely on electronics even more. Will Canon really put super reliable electronic components into its new cameras or do they expect professionals to use a camera no longer than five years or so anyway? We see that problem at Apple. Apple does not expect customers to use any of their products for more than five years and their smartphones even much shorter. While I have a lot of trust in Leica for example who would always use the best componenst available in the market, I am not so sure if Canon shares that philosophy. If there is a transistor available for 30 cents that lasts five years and another for 50 cents that lasts twenty years, my fear is that Canon would opt for the cheaper one as five years are "long enough".
Some Canon cameras recently had large problems with heat. Even if the R3 will not have to shut down because of overheating, heat can still lower the life of the electronics significantly. If I was really going to spend over €6,000 on another camera, I want to have trust that it works MUCH longer than the warranty lasts if I handle it very well. What the R3 is capable of would easily satisfy my needs for another ten years of so and after that time I would still love to have it as a backup camera. Can I really have that trust in a camera that even needs electronicy just to use the viewfinder? What if the R3 has some flaws and most bodies will stop working after a few years? How long will the IBIS work and how much will it cost to repair it? After what happened to my 1D X and learning that it happens quite often, I need some time to get back some trust in Canon.