2017 is a year of complete disappointment for me from Canon. On the lens section the 85 1.4L IS is an awesome lens but I picked up the A9 and Zeiss Batis 85mm and in the future A7r III will replace the A9 for portraits. I am sure the new tilt shift lenses are amazing but I have no need for any of them. If I look back last few years Canon is always a disappointment in the body section. Initially with poor DR but at least they were very innovative on the video side with 5D2. Arguably canon created the DSLR video market and they led that market. Fast forward 5 years and canon has only one innovation dual pixel autofocus. I would argue Sony has already caught up with DPAF on a9 and a7r III. If Sony can get their act together with touch screens Canon's advantage with DPAF is gone. I know lot of Canon fans would disagree with me that's OK everybody is entitled to their opinions. In comparison to what other camera and smart phone companies have done in last 10 years I feel that canon has not done enough. I agree there are lot of patents. Patents does not mean anything to me as a consumer unless the patents were put to work in products that I can use.
So why am I here still with my canon gear and ranting here in CR and not pick up the tool I like?
1) QC and Standing behind their products
When I was looking to buy my first DSLR I liked Nikon's JPEGs (RAW processing was foreign for me at that time) but during my research I came across Nikon' infamous D600 oil spill fiasco and figured Nikon did not even want to acknowledge the problem initially. I made my decision. I am not buying products from a company that doesn't give a damm shit about its customers and not getting their act together to fix their own engineering disaster. As an engineer I know mistakes do happen. While designing, it is possible people overlook things. When such mistakes happen, I would expect the company to stand behind their product, not closing their ears, eyes and say there is no problem. This is my #1 reason for loving Canon. So far unless I am missing something every single time Canon had issued a recall or a fix even before anyone else complained about it. That shows how extensive their QC process is.
2) Lenses: I don't have to say this but I will anyways
Canon' lenses are simply awesome in quality and variety and I own a lot of them including the 600 f/4 IS USM and 200 f/1.8
3) Wildlife and action: I am into wildlife photography, IMO there is simply no option on the Sony side (lens+ body + support). Even if Sony comes up with a 600 f/4 I guess it is going to be $15k to 16k which is beyond my reach. Despite whatever Sony fanboys on YouTube saying how awesome Sony is (I remember one claiming a6300 targeted for wildlife), Sony is not an option for wildlife photography or professional sports photography. Yes, they have 100-400 but that is the most expensive 100-400 with Sony' mediocre QC process... more on that below.
4) Customer Support: Every single time I have spoken to a customer support person in Canon I always felt like I am speaking someone who is a subject matter expert (SME) Vs Sony always clueless people. I feel like I know about their products better than their customer support people.
5) Service: Over the last 8 years one of my Canon' lens required service. Yes, I have a distinct advantage with Canon' service center being 45 mins drive from my place of work and I dropped it and picked it up 3 days later. There is nothing to complain about on the service or the treatment I received at the service facility.
So am I happy with Sony, Does Sony serves my purpose? I wish the answer was yes and I would have simply dumped canon and moved on and not sitting here and ranting. My problems with Sony are
1) QC: I would argue Sony uses their customers to do the QC for them. I bought a a6000 and could not stand its AF. when compared to a Rebel t5i I had at that time if I get about 2/3 keepers out of T5i I would get 1/3 keepers out of a6000. Either bad focus or shot missed due to shutter lag. I simply returned it. After looking at the rave reviews from so many for a6000 I can only assume I had a bad copy. I bought a a6300 and loved it. When a6500 came out I sold my a6300 and bought a6500. I felt that was a terrible mistake. Unfortunately, the image quality of the a6500 was not as good as my old a6300. All my image quality comparisons are with the same Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens so, I know it is not the lens. Unfortunately, I picked up the a6500 used and got stuck with it. Eventually I sold it. Don't get me wrong the copy of a6500 was not bad but the a6300 blow me away in the image quality department. That wow factor was missing on the a6500.
2) Build quality: Despite the Sony fan boy' claim on YouTube I have heard complaints about Sony' lenses breaking from the mount, etc. and the copy to copy variation from lensrentals. I can safely conclude their build quality is awful. I know lately there were reports including lensrentals claiming build quality improvements from Sony but IMHO only time will tell how good are these improvements.
3) Customer service: I already addressed this
4) Specs: Mostly Sony are good on paper. For e.g. you will see almost all reviewers on YouTube praising the eye auto focus and electronic shutter on a9. Yes, eye auto focus works very well when the subject is still or moving at a slow pace. Kids running around or jumping forget it. No, I am not talking about adapted lenses. On the electronic shutter, freaking Sony could not get the flash to work at any shutter speed. I remember one famous photographer and reviewer on YouTube saying "imagine in a quiet church using that electronic shutter" what does that get you especially indoors and dimly lit situations when it does not fire a flash at all? BTW my a9 makes a simulated shutter release sound I am yet to figure out if there is a way to stop it. I want it completely quiet. This is what I learnt, do not believe all reviewers, try to read between lines. One technique I feel most reviewers using is they purposely avoid the negatives of any camera other than Canon
. So if they aren't talking about something most likely there is an issue with that.
I got the a9 and Zeiss batis 85mm like 3 weeks ago and used it alongside my 5D4 to shoot a friend's daughter's birthday party, I must admit it is a pleasure to use the a9. Every single time I take the a9 out I think "I wish this was a canon". At this point I would say for Video and still except wildlife and action Sony is the best pick, for all kinds of stills Nikon is the best pick (obviously they do not stand behind their products like Canon) and Canon is for canon fans and those like me who are stuck with Canon for its lenses including our own investments in to them and other goodies. After improving DR on the 5D4 who the hell in his/her right mind will decide to implement a sensor with terrible DR worse than 6D on the 6D2? I know fan boys always have justification and I also know DR isn't everything but after using 7D, 6D, 5DSr, 5D4 and few Sonys DR does matter. Canon has the best video focus in the industry. Had they let 4k30 RAW video out of 5D4 that would have made so many hybrid shooters happy. The technology was there Canon simply decided to nerf it to save their Cine line. I know Canon is still the leader in terms of market share including mirror less cameras. IMO it is not going to last for long if they continue to trail in implementing features their competitors have. Remember Nikon was the leader in photography for years before Canon took over. I am not claiming Cannon is doomed but to continue the market leader position Canon has to do more.
At a bare minimum in 2018 I am hoping to see a 5DSr2 with DR like or better than 5D4, decent FPS, automatic focus stacking like D850 and fully articulating touch screen (basically a viable competitor for D850 for stills). I do not want more than 50 MP. I don't even care if it mirrored or mirror less. I would also like a 135 f/2 with IS but body is more important to me. The D850 is a killer stills camera. Hope Canon will step up their game and come with something competitive. I am not the one asking for all these at the price of rebel. I will gladly pay even little more than the competition but give me the features that your competition has. I wish Canon did not get in to the business of Cinema line of camera's. I strongly believe Canon would lead the pack even now if there were no Cinema line of cameras. Hope I do not have to say good bye to Canon one day. No, I am not the one that claims being loyal to a brand or anything like that. I like Canon products, service, customer support, etc. I also enjoyed the technical edge Canon had over their competitors. Over the years Canon has simply lost the technical edge and it is not because they are technically incompetent. They simply choose not to be competitive to save their Cine line and their flagship products. I am hoping this trend will change in 2018.
