Please Help Replace a Camera - So Many Options!

wittyusername on 18/11/2021 - 10:21

Hello, hoping all the camera gear heads on here can help me make a decision on what to replace my A7riii with.

I was recently burgled and insurance has finally paid out - time to go shopping!

I'm starting from scratch as everything was stolen, so not tied to a particular system. I originally shot on Olympus, then moved to Sony, now I'm wondering if I stick with Sony or give Canon a shot.

I like to shoot a bit of everything, not really tied to one particular niche. Wildlife, landscape, astro, underwater, ski/snowboard, sometimes portraits - (instagram handle is @axmsnaps if you want to see). I do like to make photo-frames and print photos, but usually only when someone has a nice sale on printing.

Very rarely shoot video, no idea what to do with a clip after I've shot it.

I've narrowed it down to the following:

Sony a7iv - great autofocus, nice 33mp for cropability and printing. Only shoots 5/6 FPS uncompressed raw and we haven't seen uncompressed vs compressed files to look at the quality difference.

Sony a7Riv - good autofocus, 61mp is too big? Also only 6fps. If stacked with cashbacks etc, the a7Riv can be had cheaper than the a7iv

Canon EOS r6 - great autofocus, high 12fps shooting, but only 20mp. Not sure if I need more, but the cropability and printability worry me slightly.

Canon EOS r5 - great autofocus, high fps, 45mp is very nice, expensive.

Additionally, the rf lenses seem to be a lot more expensive even than the GM lenses, at least in the 15-35rf vs the 16-35GM, and 100-500rf vs 100-400GM. As I am often carrying the lenses while hiking or camping, I'd prefer a zoom over a prime.

I think that no matter which camera I go for, I'll end up with a great camera and it's really just splitting hairs, but definitely happy to get some input from anyone.

Electrical & Electronics Camera

Comments

  • Zachary on 18/11/2021 - 10:35
    -2

    I was recently burgled and insurance has finally paid out - time to go shopping!

    Get better security and then you wont have to worry about losing another camera…

    • pharkurnell on 18/11/2021 - 11:20
      -3

      Dunno why your negged… the thieves will wait till you replace it all then come back for more…. its quite common

      • Zachary on 01/12/2021 - 20:09

        Maybe its easier said than done?

  • StickMan on 18/11/2021 - 11:04
    +1

    Why not pick based on lenses? Choose your ideal lens lineup and see which camera mount supports that the best.

    Sony has advantage as 3rd party can make native lenses for it, see Sigma and Tamron. Absolute beast lenses to be found.

    Tamrom 70-180 f/2.8 for half price and lighter weight of the Sony GM 70-200 f/2.8, as example

    • wittyusername on 18/11/2021 - 13:00

      Definitely a good point, I'm sure they'll outlast the body!

  • Banj0 on 18/11/2021 - 11:09

    Every time I conduct this thought experiment, I keep coming back to Sony - if only because lens support for their system beats any other. They also have the excellent 200-600mm, which is an excellent bang-for-buck super-tele by all accounts, and their AF and tracking is on the top of the pile.

    I do not own any Sony cameras, but I concede that their system is compelling. In ICL cameras I have micro four thirds, and Pentax. Across both systems I have collected a good selection of high quality lenses. I tend to use Pentax at the wide end, and MFT at the long end.

    My Pentax shoots beautiful high quality images, but has poor AF tracking, and little lens support. Even so, I really enjoy the process when using my K-1. It just feels so nice. IMHO, it is one of the best landscape-astro cameras out there. Even though the sensor is getting old, in reality the images are still fantastic.

    My MFT stuff is very usable, has reasonably good AF and tracking, and does a good job for certain subjects - the raw image quality simply isn't on par with my Pentax though. However, a long lens on MFT gets you an awful lot of reach, even if it's a little slow (but de-noise algorithms are quite amazing these days, so feel free to pump up the ISO). My E-M1 II also manages a much higher FPS burst rate than is practical for me to use. Post-processing is much more important here though.

    If my gear was stolen and I had an insurance cheque to buy again, the pragmatic choice for me would be Sony. I have considered selling out of both K and MFT systems, but it would be a big decision - and selling everything would be a pain in the butt (probably for a marginal gain in the images I take). In your situation though…well…blank canvas!

    Only thing is, I would find 6fps a little slow for wildlife (I regularly go out looking to take shots of birds). I think Sony's A9 series is really the intended tool for that particular task though.

    Don't forget glass rules supreme. Maybe consider your glass requirements first. My understanding is that the likes of Sigma and Tamron have a bigger selection of E-mount glass available for Sony than the other systems (have they even started supporting Nikon and Canon mirrorless mounts yet?). Sony has an excellent range of glass themselves, as you'd already know.

    • wittyusername on 18/11/2021 - 13:11

      Cheers, I did love the MFT system but just felt I wasn't getting enough out of it in low light, even using something like Topaz. I definitely understand that selling is a hassle, I still have a 12-100mm Olympus Pro I'm struggling to sell!

      Yeah, I do stress a little bit about the 6FPS, and the A9 is still retailing at $6k or so, a bit more than I'd like to spend.

      I think glass wise they are pretty similar, I do like the looks of the RF100-500, but I'm not sure it's worth the 1k over the GM100-400.

      Pretty much just talking myself round in circles!

  • brendanm on 18/11/2021 - 11:22
    +1

    One advantage I can see for canon would be that you can adapt ef lenses to the mirrorless body with an adaptor, so you get massive access to a tonne of lenses, as well as a big used selection.

    • wittyusername on 18/11/2021 - 13:26
      +2

      Yeah, but on the other hand the Sony shares their mount details with 3rd parties such as Sigma and Tamron, so they can also offer up a tonne of lenses!

      • Mugsy on 18/11/2021 - 14:29

        In terms of lens choices, it's pretty much blow for blow… Canon's got their huge back catalog but Sony has the third part support.

        If I was the one choosing, it would boil down to specific lenses I'd want to use that may be available on one system but not the other. Or which ever has got the body features you want at the right price.

        It's why I eventually bought into MFT despite having a range of Nikon 1 gear… N1 didn't have in body stabilisation nor the range of primes MFT has got. MFT also has the bigger sensor of the two. All these features added up to a great portable low light setup. I wish my 10-100m was still working though. N1 has got an amazing AF system in the Nikon V1… I literally took just the V1 and the 10-100m when I went traveling. My Olympus E-M10ii with 14-150mm is a price efficient replacement but it doesn't AF as good.

      • brendanm on 18/11/2021 - 14:30

        They will make lenses for mirrorless canon at some point, can't see how they wouldn't, they do normal canon compatible lenses.

  • Mugsy on 18/11/2021 - 11:29
    +1

    Any of those two systems would do the job for your needs.

    Do have a think about your future needs… the main one seems to be when people are past their physical peak and need lighter gear.

    For me, due to my scoliosis, this came earlier in life. I started on cropped Canon DSLR gear and wanted to originally move to full frame but made the choice to go smaller sensor ILC with the Nikon 1 at first and now MFT. This may not apply to you… but thought I'd mention it.

    • Banj0 on 18/11/2021 - 12:29

      This is true. I have a K-1 and an E-M1ii per my previous post. Quite a bit of different between those for carry around, and guess which goes on more outings!

      That said, the K-1 is a full frame DSLR with lunar landing gear on it, and the E-M1 at the other end. An A7Riv weighs only 91g more than my E-M1ii, and is quite a lot lighter than a full-frame DSLR.

      Still…the glass is going to be much bigger on FF regardless, unless you are able to find very slow lenses.

    • wittyusername on 18/11/2021 - 13:27

      Oof, that's definitely something to think about!

  • chartparker on 18/11/2021 - 12:08

    With your use case are you sure a FF is the best choice? I used to have a Canon 6D and hated carrying the bulk of it around so I switched to MFT and Olympus until Olympus decided to offload their camera division. I've since moved to Fujifilm/X-T4 and APS-C seems to be the best compromise of size, weight, cost, image quality, features and lens selection.

    I've got:

    XF10-24R WR for landscapes
    Samyang 12mm f2 for astro
    XF27mmR WR + XF 35mm f2R WR for everyday and walkaround
    XF 50mm f2 for portrait
    XF 16-80mm for general purpose/landscape/short tele

    and hoping to add the XF 70-300mm for wildlife. Fuji has also had a couple of third party manufacturers finally announce lenses for the X system so I'm pretty optimistic about more/better lens selection in future. All of the Fuji lenses I have are incredible, IQ wise, but some are a bit iffy on focus. The 16-80, for instance loses focus quite badly when you rack the zoom. The 35mm focus breathes badly. The 27mm is great but it has a loud motor. That said, those lenses were still way cheaper and sharper than the Sony equivalents I was looking at the time I decided on my new system.

    The only use case I'm not specifically covered for is macro, but I've got extension tubes for that. I've tried Sony, and while they're technically great cameras, I didn't like the handling, the SOOC images weren't to my taste (I love using jpeg straight out of camera with my Fuji for family pics) and the handling of the cameras was atrocious.

    Plus, Sony cameras seem to have a lot of caveats that a lot of people overlook, like 4k60 but only with a massive crop. There's usually some asterisk hidden behind their big selling points.

    For your case an X-T4 with 10-24, 16-80 and 70-300 would cover everything you want AND be able to all fit into a 6L Peak Design sling. Smaller and lighter than any of the FF kits you're considering while being fully weather sealed with great IQ plus a really well handling body with IBIS

    • chartparker on 18/11/2021 - 12:16

      Or you go big and get a GFX100S :P

    • dust on 18/11/2021 - 12:39
      +1

      If you shoot astro/low light stuff (which OP does based on his Instagram) then FF is worth the extra size/weight.

      • chartparker on 18/11/2021 - 12:44
        +1

        Yeah I just a look at his insta and can see why he's looking at FF exclusively.

        I'd personally go Canon - either R6 or R5 if your budget can sway it, but that's because I love the Canon colours and handling, but Sony definitely has the lens choice advantage.

    • wittyusername on 19/11/2021 - 11:29

      Cheers for a thorough answer. I often hear great things about the Fuji, but as you guys note below, astro and evening shoots really benefit from that extra light. But also, where do you draw the line, why not a medium format indeed!

  • Big Lenny on 18/11/2021 - 12:10

    legit burglary or insurance job?

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