Canon / Sony comparison

[ConradM]

If you go professional, there's no Sony rentals, you have to find a Sony dealer, there's no Sony Professional sevices. Sports shooters can't count on Sony having a presence at large sporting events to support them.

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

 

[chuasam]

Getting serious usually leads to upgrading

 

[ConradM]

Getting serious usually leads to upgrading

Again, getting "serious" does not mean someone aspires to be a professional sports photog. You could maybe say Sony might not be right for a professional photog but it's a little silly to say you can't upgrade within the line.

 

[chuasam]

Why limit yourself? I've seen many aspiring photographers forced to make an expensive switch when they could have gotten it right from the start.

 

[ConradM]

Why limit yourself? I've seen many aspiring photographers forced to make an expensive switch when they could have gotten it right from the start.

I could say the same thing about how people continue to use bodies with optical viewfinders. It's like the driver that chooses a manual over a modern DCT because it's "pure".

 

[chuasam]

I've yet to find a mirrorless camera with as fast an autofocus as my D810.
Going with nikon and canon means you're more likely to have friends you can share gear with.
I drive manual because it's more fun.

 

[ConradM]

I've yet to find a mirrorless camera with as fast an autofocus as my D810.
Going with nikon and canon means you're more likely to have friends you can share gear with.
I drive manual because it's more fun.

Who said anything about mirrorless?

 

[rexbobcat]

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

I think what he's saying is that if they ever decided to go professional, choosing Nikon/Canon would make for a much easier and reliable ride.

I do know professionals who shoot Sony, but most are natural light family/senior portrait shooters who don't need rentals or lots of compatibility and support in the first place.

In all honesty, Nikon uses Sony sensors and they have a wider range of lenses and features, so I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

 

[ConradM]

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

I think what he's saying is that if they ever decided to go professional, choosing Nikon/Canon would make for a much easier and reliable ride.

I do know professionals who shoot Sony, but most are natural light family/senior portrait shooters who don't need rentals or lots of compatibility and support in the first place.

In all honesty, Nikon uses Sony sensors and they have a wider range of lenses and features, so I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

EVF, high FPS, Better AF-C in certain cases...

 

[rexbobcat]

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

I think what he's saying is that if they ever decided to go professional, choosing Nikon/Canon would make for a much easier and reliable ride.

I do know professionals who shoot Sony, but most are natural light family/senior portrait shooters who don't need rentals or lots of compatibility and support in the first place.

In all honesty, Nikon uses Sony sensors and they have a wider range of lenses and features, so I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

EVF, high FPS, Better AF-C in certain cases...

Meh, the EVF is a personal choice. Often times when I'm using my X100S with flash I have to turn it to the OVF because the screen is too dark (Sony cameras probably have a way to turn off exposure simulation though do this point might be moot). And those other two points are advantages of the SLT at the cost of low light performance due to light lost with the translucent mirror.

Add to that Sony's lack of support, lack of lenses, and lack of dedication to one system; it really puts a damper on my enthusiasm for Sony cameras.

I think that he EVF is about the only real advantage I could see since they're actually becoming quite useable, otherwise, there are just so many drawbacks (in my opinion) for going all in with Sony SLTs/DSLRs

 

[ConradM]

I think what he's saying is that if they ever decided to go professional, choosing Nikon/Canon would make for a much easier and reliable ride.

I do know professionals who shoot Sony, but most are natural light family/senior portrait shooters who don't need rentals or lots of compatibility and support in the first place.

In all honesty, Nikon uses Sony sensors and they have a wider range of lenses and features, so I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

EVF, high FPS, Better AF-C in certain cases...

Meh, the EVF is a personal choice. Often times when I'm using my X100S with flash I have to turn it to the OVF because the screen is too dark (Sony cameras probably have a way to turn off exposure simulation though do this point might be moot). And those other two points are advantages of the SLT at the cost of low light performance due to light lost with the translucent mirror.

Add to that Sony's lack of support, lack of lenses, and lack of dedication to one system; it really puts a damper on my enthusiasm for Sony cameras.

I think that he EVF is about the only real advantage I could see since they're actually becoming quite useable, otherwise, there are just so many drawbacks (in my opinion) for going all in with Sony SLTs/DSLRs

The a77ii has decent low-light performance so that light lost through the mirror seems to be a non-issue now.

 

[bananabender]

The Sony has a better sensor. The T3i is scoring a 65 on DxO Mark's sensor performance scale; The Sony A77 scores a 78. The Sony has 1.9 EV better color depth, and 1.7 EV more dynamic range. The Sony has a little over 24 megapixels, the Canon 18.79 megapixels, so the Sony could be seen as offering roughly one-third more pixels than the Canon has. Perhaps the totality of all these things are what you are seeing as creating better images from the Sony?

The most-troubling issue with these now-old (2009 era) Canon sensors is the limited dynamic range they can handle.

Here are state-of-the-art-APS-C compared with best-of-the-last-generation compared with Canon technology designed in 2008, and first put into a camera in 2009, and the same sensor continually reiterated across five subsequent cameras.

Nikon D7100 versus Sony SLT Alpha 77 versus Canon EOS 600D - Side by side camera comparison - DxOMark

Derrel,
Thanks for your thoughts and the link to the handy DxOMark site. I think that it's like you suggest an accumulation of incremental positives giving an overall improved result, hopefully commensurate with the higher financial investment. For my own satisfaction I'll try to get some sample images from a D7100, just for a subjective comparison. Thanks again for your feedback.

Cheers,
BB.

 

[Ido]

Shots were compared on a 23" computer monitor, full screen with some additional zooming in... I look at sharpness from the viewpoint of an old B&W enlarging hobbyist and miss it if it's not there. They were viewed in JPEG via basic Windows 7. I'm tending to think that you do "get what you pay for" and the pricier A77 has a better AF engine than the 600D/Kiss 5, given that my 70-200 L Series Tele doesn't seem to change the comparison. Be interesting to know how the high-end Canons compared.

Have you ever tried shooting in raw file format and processing them? You can potentially get far better sharpness, as in-camera sharpening and noise reduction are often not very good at getting a good balance between them, to say the least.

 

[chuasam]

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

You get to travel more...when looking to find dealers that carry the lenses.
and Hipster pride when no one else in the scrum has the same camera as you.

 

[ConradM]

So upgrading = going professional? Huge difference IMO.

I'm not exactly sure what the benefit of having a Sony camera would be unless you were going to buy the A7/R/S full frame mirrorless.

You get to travel more...when looking to find dealers that carry the lenses.
and Hipster pride when no one else in the scrum has the same camera as you.

Hipster pride is using a system where the mirror has to move out of the way to record an image.