For the past five years, I've been shooting with Sony and Canon exclusively.
My main cameras are the 1DxmkII, and the A7iii/A7riv. Today, I find myself at a crossroad. I want to get rid of one system to be able to commit long term to the other one.
I shoot 50% video and 50% photos.
For photos, its either street style and family stuff, or high resolution travel composites.
For videos, on a daily basis I shoot little short films of my family, short travel videos, and about once year, I shoot a narrative short film (small crew).
I only use prime lenses. 24mm 1.4 , 35mm 1.8 (90% of the time on my camera for both photo and video) , 85mm 1.4/1.2 , and for macro stuff I use the 100mm 2.8 on canon, and the 90mm 2.8 on Sony. This lens choice will never change for me. They are the four lenses I plan to use for the rest of my life. To be honest, they are great on Sony, and great on Canon, so my doubts concern more the bodies than the lenses at this point.
When I first heard the specs of the R5, I thought it was going to be the body that does it all for me. As of today, it doesn't seem like it anymore.
I will work for all my photo work, it will work for the family videos perfectly, it will work for the travel videos even better, but it might fall short to shoot my yearly short film.
The ASiii on the other hand will be perfect for all of my video work, but it will not be ok for most of my photo needs, except the family portraits.
When I ask myself what are my needs, and if I try to be objective and reasonable, here is what I come up with:
- At least 24MP for photos + Great autofocus
- 4K 10 bit 422 for the family and travel videos
- Unlimited 4K 10 bit 422 AND/OR RAW recording for the short films.
One thing I know for sure is that I want a compact system, that I own and master. So the idea of getting an R5 and rent out a cine cam for the short film doesn't suit my style/needs.
Another thing I know is that I have a little more affection and trust for Canon than Sony as a brand, but I could get past that if needed.
So here are the two solutions I can imagine for the future, to make myself happy and satisfied:
1. Say goodbye to Sony forever. Invest in RF glass. Use the Canon R5 for my daily use and it will be more than perfect. When the time comes to shoot my yearly short film, either hope that Canon fixed some of the limitations via firmware update, or buy a second body to double my shooting time on set and give more time for the camera to cool off when needed.
2. Say goodbye to Canon forever. Invest in FE glass. Own the A7Siii for my short film and a Ninja V for RAW recording, and patiently wait for the A7iv which should at least offer me a 24MP sensor, great autofocus, and 4K 10 bit 422.
Well, sorry I just told you about my life, I know it didn't bring anything constructive to this debate, but I needed to write things down to figure out myself what I really wanted. I guessed I used you guys as my shrink, to let it all out.
If you're curious about my work though, you can always check me out on Insta. My username is stev
All you see there has been shot either on the 1DXmkii or on the a7iii/A7riv...
Except for the last two posts which I shot on my latest purchase. The Leica M10P.... which is actually becoming my favourite camera of all times, but I'll keep that story for another day or you might think I'm bipolar....
Cheers
Stev