So I did a thing last week. I bought a new camera. Not only did I buy a new camera, I bought into a whole new camera ecosystem. I’m making the jump to Sony and leaving Canon.
I bought a Sony A7R IIIA. While not the latest Sony body, that title goes to the A7 IV and the A7R IVA, the A7R IIIA boasts one of the best sensors on the market. At 42mp and an absolutely massive dynamic range, the sensor will do everything I need for years to come. The body has all the bells and whistles I need for my type of landscape shooting, and can do 4k video, which will be great for my son’s lacrosse games.
Buying a new camera is always a big deal for any photographer. Going to a whole new system can be an utterly massive (and massively expensive) undertaking. So why did I do it? Several reasons pushed me off the “Canon cliff” and over to Sony.
At the time I’m writing this, Canon has nothing that compares to the Sony A7R IIIA in terms of specs at a similar price point. The closest is the Canon R5, but that body costs almost $1,700USD more than what I paid for the Sony. The money saved can purchase a new lens (didn’t do that), or pay for a trip to capture the best autumn colors (upstate New York, here I come). I checked all the Canon rumor sites, and it doesn’t sound like anything comparable is in the works either. Too often I see photographers spend all their budget on gear, but then don’t have the money to travel to cool places to take pictures. If my previous post proved anything, it’s that you can take great pictures without the newest gear. I saw no compelling reason to spend the extra money for the Canon EOS R5.
Another factor that pushed me toward Sony is the availability of native Sony E mount lenses. There is a significantly greater number of lenses available for the Sony E mount than there is for the Canon RF mount. I know there are adapters that allow mounting EF glass on an RF mount camera, but guess what? There are adapters that allow mounting EF glass on a Sony E mount camera, too. This is the path I took. Since 2 of my 3 main lenses are Sigma, I bought the Sigma MC-11 mount adapter.
The last major reason I moved to Sony has less to do with Sony, more to do with Canon, and has everything to do with the reason above. As of this writing, Canon isn’t really allowing 3rd parties to make RF mount lenses. Canon wants to be the only game in town when it comes to RF glass. Almost all of my “good glass” right now is from Sigma. I have no idea when, or even if, Sigma will be allowed to make native RF lenses. I feel as though Canon is pushing me to use an EF mount adapter to access the full lens market. Fine, I’ll use an adapter for my EF glass. The difference is there won’t be a Canon body on the other side of it. Plus, now I have an order of magnitude more options for when I buy native glass.
If you want to keep track of the gear I use daily, you can check out my new gear page.
So far I’m loving the new system, and I hope you enjoy one of my favorite new shots with the new camera. I caught this storm front moving across Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania chasing away the last remnants of the sunset.
Approaching Storm – Sony A7R IIIA, Sigma 24-105mm DG OS HSM Art lens, tripod, 24mm, f8, 1/8 sec, ISO 50. Edited with Darktable 4.0
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