I Never Thought I Would Leave Canon

I never thought I would leave Canon and I really don't want to.
I am a tad over 65 years old. I have been a Canon shooter my whole life. I started off with Canon film bodies and when digital came on the scene I bought a Canon G1 back in 2000. Over the years I kept updating starting with a Canon Pro1 then bought a 20D, then a 40D, next a 7D and finally a 7D MKII. During those years, bit by bit I bought the best glass that I could afford and at one point my kit included the 2 last bodies mentioned here along with a Canon 50mm F1.4, a Canon 17-40 f4.0L, Canon 70-200 f4.0L IS and my pride and joy a Canon 400 f5.6L along with a lot other Canon accessories, e.g., flash, etc.

I was very happy with my kit and very comfortable using it. Then I fell on some hard times financially and had to sell it all off with the exception of my Canon S90. So, now things are better and I still hunger to shoot. I am retired now and on a fixed income and I realize that not only would reamassing the same level of gear be cost prohibitive for me but is probably not even the best course for me to pursue.

I recently read an article about bridge cameras and it piqued my interest. So, now I am trying to learn all that I can about the Sony RX10 M4 and I am really impressed by it.

Am I correct that Canon has nothing even remotely like this? I am primarily a bird photographer. Does anyone know if Canon has anything in the works that might compete with the Sony? I really want to stick with Canon but the Sony checks so many boxes for my needs and I just don't know of a Canon alternative. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

At one time I considered this Sony, as it also checks many boxes for me.
But I don't need 600mm, and for the price I'd rather have an interchangeable lens camera.

But that's just me.

As long as you enjoy using the camera and its producing great results for you, why does it matter what brand it is?

I have never shot Sony but maybe some of the folks posting in this thread might have some helpful opinions:

https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1486​722&page=1

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18785482
and for the price I'd rather have an interchangeable lens camera.

But that's just me.

It's also me.

That's a lot of money to be putting down on an all in one. I never looked at the Canon M series until someone mentioned it (the 50) lines up nicely with a 80D, and it does.

BellPhoto wrote in post #18785485
As long as you enjoy using the camera and its producing great results for you, why does it matter what brand it is?

Good question; I guess the answer is for me twofold. First off, I would call it brand loyalty. I have been a Canon shooter for over 45 years and I take a certain level of pride in being a Canon shooter. Add to that and probably more importantly is that I know Canon cameras, Canon terminology and Canon menu systems very well; it's all just second nature to me. In other words moving to another brand will present a small learning curve for me. Sticking with Canon would be for lack of a better term, comfortable. I know that all may seem silly to most folks but I truly wish Canon had a bridge camera that was on par with the RX10 M4.

ozziepuppy wrote in post #18785489
I have never shot Sony but maybe some of the folks posting in this thread might have some helpful opinions:

https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1486​722&page=1

Thank you. I have been aware of that thread for awhile now and I have asked some questions there and I am learning lots.

I have the 7D2, 100-400mm II and 1.4X III and enjoy these greatly. Like you I shoot a lot of birds. This combo works great for that.

But this gear is heavy and after a few days of shooting with it, I tend to get a backache. Even if I don't get to the point where my back complains, a day of shooting with the 7D2/100-400II is tiring for me.

With this in mind, I bought the Sony RX10 IV about a month ago. It is actually a fairly big camera and is heavy for its size. But it is a lot lighter than the 7D2/100-400II.

I haven't had the opportunity to explore the new camera as much as I would want, but I have some initial impressions. The first is that the results are not that great in poor light, because that forces you to higher ISOs. At those higher ISOs, especially if you have to crop, the IQ can fall apart. On the other hand, in good light, the camera makes great pics. It is very good at tracking birds in flight.

The menu system is famously dumb. But I deal with that by writing down the settings I need for different situations together with exactly where to find each of the relevant settings.

The silent shutter and lack of viewfinder blackout is a great advantage when doing continuous shooting.

Cropping can lose IQ fast if you are not at the lowest ISOs, a result of the small sensor. (BTW, the so-called 1-inch sensor is only 1/2 inch wide.)

Exposure control and auto white balance do not work as dependably with the RX10 IV as I am used to with Canon. I find that a bit odd because I would have thought that Sony would have figured out better algorithms for this. On the other hand, I am amazed at how well Canon does this. Anyway, white balance is easy to fix in post if you shoot raw. Under- and over-exposure is not always so easy to fix without losing some IQ.

The RX10 IV sometimes exhibits flare, and it can be bad if there is a lot of bright light outside the frame. I've noticed this when shooting at the full 600mm equiv. I attribute the flare to the wide angle lens shade, which is not very good at blocking stray light when shooting tele.

I don't know if you do macro, but I figured out a way to do macro with it. It seems to work well. So far I don't have much experience with that, though, because of the lack of subjects here (being it is winter).

Besides being great for BIFs in good light, the camera is very versatile and is a great vacation camera.

I will be doing a photo trip soon and will take the 7D2 combo as my main gear, because it gives better results than the RX10 IV. But I will take the RX10 as a backup and for casual shooting, and in case the 7D2 becomes too tiring.

I enjoyed sipping a brew at Crescent City where one older guy at the bar brought in that Sony bridge camera when I asked if he would share it with us. At least in his case, he used a lot of the features and was enjoying it. One of his favorite things was slow motion of birds from a long distance.

Airedale1 wrote in post #18785389
...

Am I correct that Canon has nothing even remotely like this? I am primarily a bird photographer. Does anyone know if Canon has anything in the works that might compete with the Sony? I really want to stick with Canon but the Sony checks so many boxes for my needs and I just don't know of a Canon alternative. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is it the Zoom range?
- G3x with 25x zoom.
- SX 540 HS
- SX 70 HS (or SX 60 HS)

I agree with Archibald's opinions, I'll add some of my own thoughts.

The RX10M4 is very good. For concentrating on specific types of shooting or subjects a DSLR will beat it easily.

For example a 7D2 with a 400 5.6, you could crop 50%, ie use about half the horizontal and vertical pixels resulting in about 5 Megapixels and under a lot of circumstances make a nicer 8x12 print than the full RX10 image would IMHO. You could use ISO 1600 on the 7D2 to keep the shutter speed up and still lift the shadows a bit. An 80D would be very similar, give a little away in high ISO, gain a few more pixels.

With the RX10's IBIS I can usually get sharp results at less than 1/200 sec (at 600mm equiv) and mine is very sharp at f4.5. From what I have seen most are sharp at f4, mine is a little less than the best.
It can shoot at 24fps which will sometimes get the shot a much slower frame rate won't.
The Sony has good customisation, 3 buttons you can assign custom functions to.

If you think you might try some video the RX10 provides a lot of bang for the buck.

It's in a class of it's own IMHO.

This is an interesting thread. I shoot with a range of Canon cameras from the little ELPH 330 to the 5DMkIV. While I love my 5D, I also love the ease and portability of a grab-n-go everything-in-one camera. I wasn't familiar with the Sony, so I Googled it. I eventually ran across a review by Ken Rockwell. Say what you will about him, his review is quite thorough and shows lots of sample images, including high ISO cropped images. The zoom on the clock at ISO 12,800 is interesting. While he shoots in jpeg, I'm not sure you'll recover that much in raw.

https://kenrockwell.co​m/sony/rx10-iv.htm

Here's an option. Rent one. [Oh! You're in Laconia, Airedale1. I grew up down the road from you in Boscawen.] As an example, LensRentals has it available for $105 for 7 days. I have no interest in LensRentals other than I've found them to be a very good company. There are however other rental companies. The point is that for a little bit of money you can try it out and see if it will do what you want. Yeah, it's a little extra money, but you'll have a good idea as to whether this will work for you. Also on the linked page is a pdf of the owner manual. Download it and look through it before renting or buying.

https://www.lensrental​s.com/rent/sony-cyber-shot-rx10-iv

In closing, I'm not aware of a Canon equivalent, though Jake has that covered.

Good luck!

I don't know used prices of Sony RX10 M4 but why not used 400mm f5.6 to go with a used crop camera. You do birding. There is no cheaper option to get that kind of AF or quality. I sold my 400mm f5.6 for like $500. You can pick these for $700 easily.

On renting, if you can afford, buy used, use it, sell it. Much much cheaper than rental.

If your looking for a birding camera, are open to bridge cameras, might check out the Nikon P1000. I got to play with one a while back and the zoom is simply insane. Nothing out there comes close to it's 3000mm telephoto.

Is this Sony camera with zoom by wire? For some it is OK, but to me if I can't zoom in and out by hand, it is slow camera in use.