burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

AHK Loc: Lakewood Ranch, Fl.

Like you I'm a long time Canon user. I have the R5 and just purchased the R7. Recently, took the R5 to Costa Rico w/my 100-400mm Canon and adapter for BIF...could not be happier. I sure the Sony is a fine camera, but an quick learning curve + being able to use my old high end lens made the decision easy. An add on is that Canon's tech service over the phone for any questions is World Class.

As an aside just bought the RF 100-500mm...paired with the cropped R7, I now have an unbelievable reach...hand held!!!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The Associated Press (AP) made a company-wide switch to Sony in 2020. They probably got a very good deal buying camera gear in bulk direct from Sony. I don't know exactly how many photographers and videographers they employ, but they have something like 250 offices around the world, in about 100 countries.

The AP is a paid subscription service that provides news stories and images, as well as videos more recently, to all variety of mainstream media. Chances are you see many AP stories, images or videos every day... on the Internet, in newspapers or magazines, on TV, etc. They provide about 3000 images and 200 videos to news orgs every day (I'm sure a great many more photos are shot and videos recorded each day, but don't get out of the editing room.)

A friend of mine was an AP staff photography for 10 years. The AP owns the copyright of all the images (or videos or articles) their staffers produce. Permanently. My friend has on several occasions had to "buy" usage of images he took! He's also seen his images on stock photo sites and on those CD/DVDs of stock photos they used to sell. He lost count of the countries he visited during his years at AP. He would be assigned to an area where some news was breaking and spend days or weeks there shooting film. Every couple days he would meet with a runner who would take his exposed rolls of film back for processing and eventual distribution to news organizations. Of course today it's all shot digitally and transmitted over the Internet. But, shooting film my friend often didn't see the images he'd shot for months or years, and in some cases never at all. He finally left AP after ten years "having caught and survived every disease known to man" during his travels.

At least initially in 2020, AP got Sony A9IIs for their photographers and A7IVs for their videographers. You can bet they got a complete suite of lenses and accessories, too.

Note that the Canon R5 and R6 were announced the same month the AP/Sony deal was announced, July 2020. The Canon R3 wasn't announced for another 9 months, and the R7/R10 announcement was another 9 months after that. Then the R6 Mark II was just a couple months ago. So it's safe to assume that the AP photography who found the A7IV "twice the camera the Canon was", at best was comparing to an original R, RP or some of the Canon DSLRs. Most would agree that the 2nd generation Canon R-series, beginning with the R5 and R6, are very much improved and pretty much on par with Sony's excellent mirrorless cameras.

I think the consensus now would have to be: It's hard to go wrong buying mirrorless from Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Leica, Panasonic or OM Systems. There are differences between the systems that might or might not meet someone's specific needs. The buyer needs to first define their primary use(s) and then investigate which system best meets those needs. Someone who is primarily a landscape photographer would buy a different kit and possibly be better with a different brand than someone who mostly shoots portraits. A sports or wildlife photographer might make completely different choices. Someone who travels a lot with their gear may choose yet another brand and kit.

For example, most would agree that Sony and Canon autofocus systems are the best choice for someone shooting a lot of action photography such as sports and wildlife. But others are catching up. The latest Nikon, OM and Fuji have all seen a lot of AF improvement, but may still have a little ways to go or their new AF tech may not have "trickled down" to other models. Someone planning to do a lot of travel and landscape photography might want to reduce size and weight by choosing a smaller sensor such as APS-C, but still want higher resolution such as the latest 40MP Fujifilm or 32.5MP Canon offer. Other travelers might prefer the most compact interchangeable lens systems of all: Micro 4/3 from Panasonic and OM Systems (formerly Olympus). A lot of people feel Panasonic offers particularly good video capabilities, but "vloggers" may choose certain Sony or Nikon instead (and possibly a Canon model that will soon be announced).

There also are differences in the lenses and accessories offered. Today it's safe to say that Sony has the most E-mount lenses to choose among. Sony's E-mount has been "doing mirrorless" longer than anyone else, plus they've welcomed or even relied upon 3rd party lens makers to help build the system behind the cameras. Sony was a late-comer to photography in general. They bought the photography division of Konica-Minolta in 2006. But they rapidly began their transition to mirrorless cameras.

Panasonic and Leica are in partnership, along with Sigma, sharing a lens mount while each creating their own cameras, both full frame and APS-C. This makes for a healthier system of lenses.

Panasonic is also in partnership with OM Systems (Olympus), each producing Micro 4/3 cameras, along with a fairly robust system of lenses that can, for the large part, be shared between them.

Fujifilm is on their own with APS-C... plus medium format, but no full frame ...building a fairly comprehensive system of lenses, with some 3rd party support.

Actually Canon, Nikon and Pentax all jumped into mirrorless early too... Except Pentax gave up quicly, Nikon chose an unusually small 1" sensor and then backed away from their original mirrorless system after just a few years, while Canon sort of treated their M-series cameras and lenses as ugly step-children by not devoting a lot of effort into their development. Both Nikon and Canon re-committed to new mirrorless systems about four years ago. Nikon Z and Canon R have advanced quickly. Today their lens systems cover most needs, although the actual lens count is fairly modest. (However, both have a huge number of DSLR lenses made in the past that adapt well for use on their mirrorless cameras.)

Nikon and Canon new mirrorless systems have roughly 30 to 40 native lenses (note that their respective DSLR/slr systems each had well over 100 lenses, plus that many or more 3rd party).

Fujifilm, Leica, Panasonic and OM have around 45 or 55 native lenses (Leica, Panasonic and OM thanks to their partnerships).

Sony currently has upwards of 60 E-mount lenses, but if you add in 3rd party with AF there are more than 150.