Really? I had no idea (as an outsider.) I thought Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, etc were all pretty much equal in terms of serious quality. I thought their DLSs all looked pretty much the same. Is that not the case?
Obviously, I exaggerate for effect - but a pro body should first and foremost be utterly reliable no matter what it is subjected to...
(Oh, and it should be compatible with the lenses you already have - as they can easily be a few thousand dollars a piece. Now, that's some serious lock-in!)
Those two questions drive as much of my camera choice as do technical concerns.
I wonder how often that will happen with other brands like Alpha.
I first started using a full-frame camera in 2017 and looked hard at a number of options, expecting to wind up with an A7R-series camera -- the sensors are just awesome. I was coming from an EOS-M background. It was a revelation to me the first time I rented a DSLR and never needed to turn it off. I only turn the camera off when it is packed away within luggage.
One-handed case-open-grab-grip-up-to-eye-compose-and-shoot with gloves on was just amazing. No waiting... and I was practiced at switching on a camera as it left the case. Now, when I'm chasing wildlife, I can regard them through the viewfinder for hours without fear of draining the battery. The battery is only tapped if I hit the back-button focus or depress the shutter. I suspect my next camera will again be mirrorless, as the advantages are many, but if so, I'm really going to miss the always-ready capability of an SLR.
Honestly, I wouldn't buy Nikon or Pentax or whatever just because no aftermarket firmware.
Here you go. You can edit the firmware to change read-only settings and install Andrioid apps, with an API to access the viewfinder and to take pictures with various settings as well as access them, and the network.
However, take a look at articles like this[0] to see just how prevalent Canon gear is at professional events. Apparently, they even have relations with a lot of press outfits to have them exclusively shoot with their equipment.
[0]: https://www.shutterbug.com/content/battle-canon-vs-nikon-sup...
The brand wars are mostly an amateur thing.. once you decide on a brand if you're really serious and especially if you're running a business you don't jump brands over little differences in sensor performance because it's too much financial churn and you lose your muscle memory switching to a camera with a different control layout.
But it really sucks if your gear goes down and it's hard to get it serviced.
Canon's service is fast, excellent, and much more affordable than replacement.
This is a -huge- thing for some folks.
Have a colleague who does some light pro photography (i.e. weddings, concerts, etc.) I wouldn't call him a Canon zealot or anything, although his first comment at my Sony was 'Well, it's not a Nikon so I can still be your friend.'
We were showing each other shots and he was amazed at what I was able to produce with an e-mount. So he decided to give it a little spin.
All the feedback was around 2 points:
- It took good shots, but.
- Everything was so unfamiliar to him that he missed shots due to not being able to find anything.
Some time later I ran into him again; he had tried Sony cameras a few more times but just couldn't get comfortable enough with the layout.
(The Sony layout -is- kinda bad, even if it's what you've learned on.)
The Sony layout on the otherhand is just terrible. Sure, you can customize all the programmable buttons and menus and it gets much better, but it still takes a long time to learn. Also, had to watch a ton of youtube videos of people changing settings on their camera (the fact that there are so many for Sony cameras should hint to how terrible the menu is).
For instance, zoom rings on Canon and Nikon lenses go opposite directions; exposure compensation dials go opposite directions etc.
And when you're talking about camera systems, the camera itself (which is where Sony currently has the lead in mirrorless) is not the biggest factor in choosing a brand.
Canon and Nikon both have tons of specialist lenses that are still not available (or only have one flavor specializing in one space, at one very high price point) on newer mirrorless platforms.
And if you've invested $50k-100k in lenses (e.g. for a photography department) are you going to turn on a dime and dump that gear for new fancy Sony equipment that costs more than your old glass? Likely not.
And many PJs still need some of the qualities that you can really only get in top-end Canon or Nikon DSLRs (as someone else said, ability to drive nails with the camera, and huge grip).
As a concrete example, imagine if you were tasked with taking footage or stills of one of the protests at night. Would you rather bring a rock-hard large-gripped body that could even be used for protection? Or a smaller body with a screen that would break from a minor scuffle and cheaper plastic, less waterproof construction?
As long as the flange distance of the sensor from which you're adapting is significantly more than that of your camera and you manage to decode the autofocus communications protocol, you can adapt them.
Short version: optical physics, proprietary link for autofocus, capability differences
Really aside from Nikon, most AF protocols are fairly well understood and can be adapted to other lenses.
(in the case of Nikon, sometimes they go out of their way to break others using their systems/protocols without a license...)
But you can use larger mounts on a smaller mount (with care!) May not need a bigger tube, but perhaps a longer or shorter one.
As a point of humor, the Nikon paper was the working man's paper for city dwellers. The Canon paper was for suburban commuter suits.
Fujifilm, Nikon, and Panasonic are using Sony sensors, however.
And, to a lesser extent now that mirrorless cameras are a thing - their unobtrusiveness.
Do you have a source for that? As far as I remember they have been very secretive about their sensor supply chain.
And you're right, most high-end photos take amazing photos. There's some variance in their color science, but most can take near-identical photos. I think the main differentiator among the camera is haptics.
I didn't see any downsides to using the Fuji ecosystem. I loved it. Every time I found something that might be disadvantageous in my line of work, they fixed it (eg. Capture One support). In fact, if I were to have upgraded, I would've gotten their medium format camera.