As I said in another comment. There’s a lot of people who buy what they want. Not what they need. And Sony probably understood that better than Canon.
You can see a lot of influencers being excited about the A1. It’s still a small camera but great on paper. They wouldn’t use anything like R3 or 1Dx. And other people tend to buy in brands that their favorite YouTuber uses. That’s why you can hear most young people talking about Sony rather than Canon. Maybe we don’t care about it but if canon doesn’t have enough money for R&D in ten years this may be part of it. But I can see that Canon is getting better with marketing.
Yes, I think there is no question that Sony has done a great job of marketing, especially with younger folks who are far more likely (I would think) to be influenced by reviewers (and reviews) on the internet and social media. They understood early that the internet was the most powerful outlet for propaganda that marketing has ever seen. How much was actually organized by Sony and how much was organized by Sony fans is hard to say, but they were (and still are) all over the forums such as this one and many others. The number of pro-Sony YouTube reviewers seemed to far outnumber the other brands - often repeating the same info word for word. Up until the release of the R5 and R6, the moment a new Canon camera was released, a dozen or more anti-Canon reviews were on the internet. Personally, I consider the propaganda techniques of the Sony fandom (whether endorsed or organized by Sony itself) to be such a turn-off that I would never buy a Sony camera again. The other reason I wouldn't buy another Sony is that I did buy the first two versions of the A7 and found that the "great specs' did not translate to being a great camera. I think time has shown that Sony makes great sensors and basically cuts corners on most other aspects of the camera. I'm sure they have improved things, but things I have experienced and read about from photographers over the years make me think that they still are cutting corners when it comes to ergonomics, dust removal, weather sealing, color science, even IBIS. I saw a really high level photographer doing a video on the essentials of post processing. One item was making sure you remove all the dust spots from your photo. I found this most surprising, until I saw that his camera was a Sony! He had more dust spots on one photo than I have in a many month's worth of photos! And now we have a class action law suit against Sony regarding their camera's shutters failing long before their supposed number of actuations. Why am I not surprised?
As for Canon either changing the name or somehow changing their plans regarding the R3 and R1 due to trying to keep folks from buying a Sony? Please, how silly! This camera, and the upcoming R1 will have been under development for 2 or 3 years already. So, no last minute changes will have been made. Plus, anyone in the market for this type of camera will have many thousands of dollars invested in lenses - and will know that it is the lenses that make the system. If they are invested in Canon , they are not jumping to the Sony A1 or A9 because of a few glitzy specs. That's my opinion.
www.usa.canon.com
