Sony A1: Call Me Unimpressed (Extended Cut)

(Yesterday I wrote some quick thoughts about the A1. Now I’m adding more details, especially about the global shutter sensor.)

I guess I’ll have to repeat myself again. When R5/R6 was announced I said:

“I have no doubt that Sony can make an equally powerful or even more powerful camera. I’m worrying about the overall user experience. There are other features I desire, like Olympus’s ND filter emulation, Sony’s good old smooth reflection, focus stacking needless to say, internal RAW processing and a lot more. In the era of excessive performance, these are the things that matter. And Sony has been doing a really really bad job in the past years.”

Yet here we are, exactly what I’ve expected. You can’t say that Sony has done nothing, for example they have in-body image cropping and the long overdue lossless compression now. You can also downscale your JPEG/HEIF to 21MP but somehow it doesn’t work for RAW (I mean, how difficult can it be?). But it’s far from enough, especially when they’ve done the outrageous crime of removing the flip-out screen. This one really caught me off guard and I’m a little bit scared about what’s gonna happen for A7IV now. I though the flip-out screen is 100% guaranteed but now I have some doubts.

Some people are arguing that a tilt screen is actually better than a flip-out screen from a photographer’s point of view. First of all, I disagree:

Second of all, Sony also disagrees. They know perfectly well which screen is more popular, and that’s exactly why they crippled it. This is the equivalency of removing SLOG from the A9 series. If you think it’s actually for your benefits then I’m sorry to tell you: sir, you’re a little bit retarded. We also know that there are screens that combine the strength of a tilt screen and a flip-out screen. But hey, I guess these components are too expensive for a $6500 camera.

What’s even funnier is that the buffer size is only 155 compressed RAWs, which runs out in 5 seconds. I don’t know how well the CFE-A card performs but the label says maximum write speed = 700MB/S, so in the best scenario you’re getting 14FPS with lossy compression after the buffer is fully loaded. I guess now you see the point of a downscaled RAW format.

It’s the typical old Sony that brings out a “slap your face” sensor that crushes their competitions, so they think they’re entitled to cut some corners to make sure that you can’t have the perfect camera. This approach used to work well in the past but not anymore. There is something about the EOS R5 that I think I’ve never shared before:

EOS R5’s readout speed is actually 60 fucking FPS

at the expense of the dynamic range for sure:

But I was expecting a 30FPS sensor with reduced DR. Oh boy, how wrong was I. Of course this doesn’t put R5 in the same ballpark as A1. The readout speed of A1 is at least 1/200s thanks to the integrated memory (it seems to be 1/240s so this sensor is 3.1x faster than the one in A9/A9II). But R5’s 20FPS e-shutter mode is not completely unusable either. It’s actually much much better than any A7x cameras out there (maybe except the A7SIII). Now, consider that R5 also has an excellent IBIS and a flip-out screen, which are probably going to be much more useful for most enthusiast or even some professional users (like wedding photographers), I would be hesitant to choose A1 over R5 even if the prices are the same!

OK to be fair, if you’re more demanding than most people then at least A1 can easily obliterate Canon 1DX3, which is also a $6500 camera with… a fixed screen. I think A1 does mark the death of sport/journalist DSLRs. Canon has tried every mechanical approach to extend the lifespan but 30FPS is just out of DSLR’s reach. Sony wants the sport camera market and it looks like they are going to get it. The A9II is already doing a fantastic job stealing Canon’s contract with those big clients like the Associated Press, and A1 is surely going to be the final nail in the coffin. Canon can make a 45MP30FPS EOS R1 using R5’s sensor but the target clients aren’t going to be as tolerant as me with the 1/60s rolling shutter. Unless Canon has another secret sensor coming there is no way they can stop Sony in this niche market in the future. But this has nothing to do with us mainstream users, unfortunately.

There is a more realistic approach for Canon though: the global shutter sensors. Since GS sensors have more components in each pixel, the image quality (both the dynamic range and the low-light performance) is going to take a hit, and there could be some weird artifacts due to the parasitic light. Camera makers usually try to avoid it because of the IQ issues, but if there is no way for Canon to match Sony’s integrated memory sensor then GS sensors actually make tons of senses:

1. The rolling shutter is 0. It doesn’t make it any more useful than A1’s 1/240s sensor for high speed shooting, but it’s gonna be a GAME CHANGER for any strobe light users. There is probably going to be new flash lights designed specifically for GS cameras. While Sony is using some interesting technology to increase the sync speed of the mechanical shutter to 1/400s, it’s still pretty useless during daytime. Tons of people are going to pay for a global shutter camera just because of the infinite flash sync speed.
2. Again… while Sony is working hard on their mechanical shutter, a GS sensor does not need it AT ALL as long as you can achieve a good parasitic light sensitivity. This is going to reduce the size/weight/cost of the camera and bring some interesting changes to the autofocus.
3. Since mechanical shutters are useless for a GS sensor, Canon can abandon their dual-pixel AF technology and use Sony’s PDAF, so that the AF pixels can still work while the sensor is capturing the image. Therefore, a GS sensor doesn’t have to be super fast to reduce the AF blind time. You can make a 30FPS sensor for a 30FPS camera. This is going to level the playground for Canon because Sony’s excessive speed is going to be meaningless, except for the video specs. However, those professional users don’t really need video specs that much, and I’d say 4K120P is pretty much all we need right now.
4. Many people believe that GS sensors are much more expensive than a normal sensor. This is not true. The cost is more or less similar. So it’s gonna be significantly cheaper than Sony’s super fancy sensors.

Well I think these advantages are good enough and I’ve wrote about some of them in the 索兰经. So the major downside is the image quality, but if Canon can make sure that the low-light performance is still OK maybe with the help of the gapless on-chip micro-lens then I’m pretty sure that there are tons of ways to fix the dynamic range. Even if the low-light performance can’t be fixed, desperate times require desperate measures, if Canon is desperate at all. I’ve been constantly underestimating Canon recently so who knows.

Anyway… I’d be lying to say I don’t want a 50MP30FPS camera with A9’s AF capability, but there is no way I’m going to pay $6500 for it when you can buy the R5 for almost half the price. For a normal user like me (and I’m on the more demanding side) the benefit is so limited. The ironic thing is that, at the moment it’s really the E-mount lenses that have kept me from switching. Let’s hope that Sony won’t fuck with the A7IV, and A7RV can come a little bit sooner since A7RIV is obviously a lost cause now. On the other hand it does look like that Canon has some supply issues and it’s not entirely Kung Flu’s fault. I guess their new sensors still have a relatively low yields so Sony’s not in hurry right now.

Despite The Overheating, R5/R6 Are Still Awesome

====Update====

OK SAR just said A7SIII has a flip out screen. Oh shit he should had said that earlier. I was so fucking scared. Now we have some hope. I’ll delete the flip out screen part about Sony. 12MP sensor still sucks though.

==============

A lot of people are talking about R5/R6’s overheating problem. The spec sheet says you have to like shoot 20min and then cool it down for 10min, after that you can shoot only 3min again, under 23℃. So kind of like driving a Tesla on a German highway. Also Canon doesn’t allow anyone to reveal detailed test results or even share a full resolution sample, while the shipping is only 3 weeks away. It does look quite suspicious.

However, there is a bottom line. I didn’t expect R5 to be a great video camera. It doesn’t even have FHD 120P which already tells you what game Canon is trying to play here. Most of the full frame mirrorless cameras on the market are essentially still cameras that can also shoot video, just like PD Sling V6 is a sling bag that can be used as a fanny pack, but it won’t be as good as a real one. At the end of the day it’s a camera with 45 megapixels, 12FPS burst probably without any DR drop (unlike A7RIV’s 10FPS burst), 20FPS when you don’t give a shit about rolling shutter or reduced DR and really need some speed, very generous buffer, a flip screen that some people hate but still way better than Sony’s stupid screen that can’t even take selfies, and the highest rated IBIS ever. It’s still a fucking awesome camera. And it can shoot 4K60P or 4K120P or 8K occasionally, which is probably the exact user case of most still photographers (including me). Maybe it overheats but it can. A7RIV can’t shoot 60P at all. You don’t even have the chance to overheat. Case closed, game over.

The moment I realized that EOS R5 and RF15-35 can actually fit into my bag, I did have some wild thoughts. I expect R6 to do better in the video department but even if it doesn’t, it’s still quite good.

The A7SIII Letdown

///rambling about the flip out screen deleted///

SAR is now reporting that it has a 12MP sensor just like its predecessors, without the Quad Bayer support. Nowadays without any oversampling it’s not even that interesting for video shooters. So Sony is basically applying strict segmentation policy here. A video camera is a video camera, we demand still photographers to fuck off please. It’s like Sony is the new Canon now and Canon is the new Sony. Maybe it’s a very good video camera (probably much more reliable than Canon with a stacked sensor, maybe also integrated with video processors? That’s gonna reduce the overall heat dissipation and power consumption by A LOT), but it’s not really competing with R6 or R5. They’re simply aiming for different target clients.

So now we have to wait for Sony’s next announcement to truly go toe-to-toe with Canon. And we don’t know when it’s going to happen. Meanwhile R5 & R6 are going to fly off the shelves no matter how bad they overheat. It’s just like Trump said that he can shoot someone on the 5th Ave and still get elected.

///rambling about the camera after A7SIII deleted///

EOS R5/R6: More Than A Wake Up Call?

OK I’ll admit it. I have underestimated Canon this time. To my defense it’s because in the past years I’ve constantly overestimated them.

In my failed prediction I said:

“my guess is that R5 is gonna be good enough that Canon users are happy to pay for it with some extra push of brand loyalty, but also crippled enough to give hardcore Sony fanboys some relieves.”

The more I look at EOS R5/R6’s spec sheet and early reviews (propaganda?), the more I realize that this is probably not the case. Canon’s not pulling their punches this time. Even if they cripple the camera a little bit here or there (for example it seems like R6’s crop 4K is interpolated just like EOS M6II, and there is no All-I compression), R5/R6 are most probably still the best cameras in their class, and they are the closest things to perfection. They pack almost everything you could ask for, and even the price is fair enough. I don’t feel any relief. I feel like a Canon fanboy now.

I do think 20MP is too limited based on my experience with RX10/100, but R6 probably does one thing better than R5 thanks to the lower resolution: its 4K60P video might be oversampled just like 1DXIII. If that’s true then R6 is basically the A7SIII that you’ve been waiting for: 2-axis screen, good IBIS, DPAF, Oversampled 4K60P, 10B422 internal recording. And it only cost $2500. This camera has just rendered the entire Panasonic full frame line obsolete (it even looks like Canon has some grudges with the M43 duo). Sony’s happy hour is also over, if they don’t get serious enough quickly, I’m not sure whether JIP wants to buy another camera department.

The Pursuit Of Ultimate Performance Is Coming To An End

Can Sony catch up? Well, performance wise I don’t think it’s so difficult for them to make a 45MP/20FPS/8K RAW/4K120P camera. They can probably do better. The real issue is that after EOS R5/R6 these specs are not that important anymore, because they are good enough for most people. For some maybe too good to handle. It’s just like I don’t have the urge to upgrade to an A7RIV because my computer is already slightly struggling with 42MP files. A 256G CFX card can only record 13min of 8K RAW video or 18min of 4K120P. If you can handle the 8K RAW workflow, then EOS R5 is probably just a very cheap toy for you.

I’m not saying that EOS R5 is the ultimate beast that doesn’t need any upgrades anymore. There are few things I can bitch about like 4K60P/120P is most likely not oversampled or the 20FPS burst mode probably has a lot of rolling shutter and much reduced dynamic range. But we are getting closer and closer, and this has changed my view about what’s a good camera. Performance is just the new baseline now. To further prove your worth, you need something better than 16K RAW or 4K240P or 50FPS burst or whatever. And this is exactly where Canon beats the crap out of Sony.

Canon’s Deadly Blows

IBIS

It is said that the Earth rotation limits the performance of IBIS to 6.3 stops but apparently some manufacturers no longer care about Earth’s feelings anymore. Just kidding, I guess Earth’s rotation has a different frequency signature than human motions so maybe it can be differentiated.

I did say that Canon is probably the king of mechanics in the industry but it’s still quite shocking to see them crushing their competitors in the first attempt. Of course I don’t buy Canon’s propaganda completely or the CIPA rating shit (after all Sony is also rated 5.5 stops) but some initial footage show that at least they do look good in the video mode. Sony’s IBIS on the other hand, is crap. In the past years it’s no big deal because Fuji still can’t fix their video AF and Panasonic is beyond fixable. Well now you have a new sheriff in town. If Sony doesn’t fix their shit in the next announcement then it’s gonna look very very ugly. I’ll never abandon my tripod unless the camera can float in the air by itself, but between two powerhouses that can both suit my needs, of course I’m choosing the one that can shoot 1-second exposure and nice handheld video. I hate gimbals to be honest.

The IBIS issue is becoming Sony’s Achilles Heel. After so many years I do wonder if Sony can really fix it. Maybe their engineers are just incapable. Or maybe E-mount is indeed too small for IBIS? That’s scary for sure.

Dual-Pixel AF

I told you guys that dual-pixel AF + slow sensors is not going to change the game but now Canon has faster sensors, so dual-pixel AF is going to show its true colors. It has the highest resolution we’ve ever seen (F22 AF in the center area! What the fuck!!), better low-light capability (-6EV with F1.2 lens) and the Dual Pixel RAW can build a full depth map that enables computational photography.

EOS R5 has a new function called Portrait Relighting which is similar to what iPhone has years ago. It’s not the most useful gimmick on iPhone but here is the deal: you can only measure the distance accurately by having a larger circle of confusion, or bokeh. iPhone has no bokeh. Their entire system is probably based on face recognition instead of a depth map and that certainly limits its capability. EOS R5 is a completely different story. You put a 50mmF1.8 there and it’s better than any TOF sensor in a flagship smartphone.

Canon didn’t say a lot about this new function, so maybe it’s still not that good (you do need some very sophisticated desktop software to fully exploit it). But it will be there in the future. And there are a lot more functions that can be implemented with the dual-pixel RAW. If Sony doesn’t use dual-pixel AF or something better like the quad-pixel AF, they’ll never be able to pull the same trick. Currently they are already losing on the minimum usable aperture and the low light capability.

2-Axis Screen

Of course it’s no difficulty for Sony to implement such a screen. They’ve already foreshadowed it on the ZV1. But you never know, maybe they are still living in their own dreams. When I shoot low angle vertically with a Sony camera I do feel like a moron.

User Interface

It’s not something I consider that important in the past but when performance is no longer the differentiate factor, it is the trivial things like this that set the camera apart. Needless to say Canon is doing a much better job than Sony overall, despite of some stupid designs like removing the mode dial or putting the power button on the left (I’m a daddy now so I hate it even more). And they are still polishing it. Here is the interface of 1DXIII:

And this is EOS R5:

Just look at it. Let that sink in.

Now I’ll repeat myself again. I have no doubt that Sony can make an equally powerful or even more powerful camera. I’m worrying about the overall user experience. There are other features I desire, like Olympus’s ND filter emulation, Sony’s good old smooth reflection, focus stacking needless to say, internal RAW processing and a lot more. In the era of excessive performance, these are the things that matter. And Sony has been doing a really really bad job in the past years.

3rd Party RF Lenses Are On The Horizon Now

I think Sony is actually doing quite well on their latest lenses. RF on the other hand is still in its infant phase, with some weird entries like the F11 primes. Personally I don’t find their out-of-the-box thinking as intriguing as Tamron, with maybe one exception:

Anyway the RF vs E lenses debate won’t matter that much in the near future. Sigma and Tamron are going to join the crusade very soon especially after the announcement of R5/R6. It’s just foolish to not to do so. After all RF protocol = EF protocol + some extra features (however the cooperation between the body and the lens for stabilization could be a challenge. The worst case scenario is that no 3rd party lenses get any IBIS at all. That’s gonna hurt badly for Canon users).

The three companies combined can make probably more than 15 lenses annually, plus RF mount will get all the available 3rd party options for E-mount in an instant. In two years it’s going to be a super strong system. I only use Sigma/Tamron lenses at the moment so when they joined the RF camp, lenses will be no longer a concern for me.

Will Z-mount also get some 3rd party love? Maybe yes maybe no. L-mount? Tamron doesn’t have time for the loser.

Sony’s Upper Hands

Well they are not entirely hopeless.

Tracking Algorithm

They now have the best tracking algorithm in the industry and maybe also the best deep learning capability. Meanwhile Canon is still lagging behind Nikon according to DPReview’s 1DXIII review. But I’m not sure if that matters that much. The rule of diminishing marginal utilities certainly applies here.

Sensor Technologies

Currently it looks like Canon’s power consumption is still much higher than Sony based on their CIPA rating. The huge discrepancies between the EVF and the LCD mode indicates that it’s most likely the sensor’s fault. The worst scenario is that R5/R6 being constantly haunted by the overheating issue for video shooting. That’s gonna be a deal breaker for those who make videos for a living. Actually it already looks like Canon is gonna flop big here according to some early reports. They are probably pushing their lagged-behind technology too far.

Besides that there are plenty of deadly weapons in Sony’s arsenal. But I don’t really feel like talking about a 42MP A9 or some other empty promises anymore. Previously we were just doing some mind masturbation about future possibilities. Now it has come to the point that Sony can’t fool around with their normal BSI shit anymore. They either bring out some big guns out of their basement or they can hide themselves there and never come out.

There is one technology I’d like to talk about though: the Quad-Bayer filter.

Quad-Bayer

This is not some cutting edge technology that Canon can’t copy, but Sony surely has some more experience about it. It seems to me that QB is the only solution to combine high resolution and high speed for a traditional sensor. EOS R5 won’t be able to do oversampled 4K60P unless it’s more than twice faster than the 1DXIII, which I don’t think is the case. But for a QB sensor it’s just a piece of cake. Plus it brings you quad pixels autofocus (= cross-type focus point) and real-time HDR exposure. Just imagine a 20MP A7SIII that can output 80MP files, that’s gonna be something. My spider sense keeps telling me that a Quad-Bayer full frame camera might be on its way now.

Size Does Matter (At Least For Me)

Now this is where Sony really does well:

EOS R5 is even thicker than the S1R, calculating from the mount to the back of the EVF. This distance determines the overall length of the body + lens combination. There is no way I’m going to buy those two bricks from Canon, otherwise there won’t be too many lenses left for me to choose from given the limited width of my Cosyspeed bag. I’m not kidding about “choosing the gears for the bag”. If you can’t even carry/access your gears with ease then you’ll just use it less often. And Cosyspeed has brought me unmatched user experience that I can’t use any other bag anymore.

The main problem with Canon’s R line is that the EVF hump is significantly larger than Sony/Nikon, and it fucking sticks out. Panasonic also has a huge head but at least that EVF has a crazy 0.83x magnification. I’m not sure what’s Canon’s excuses. Nikon move the hump a little bit back probably just trying to win a beauty pageant. It could have been slimmer. It seems to me that Sony is the only company that still try to make compact full frame cameras (Sigma’s toy doesn’t count), and I certainly appreciate that.

I do understand that not that many people share my enthusiasm of compact full frame cameras. Actually many people consider the A7 line too small for their hands.

Besides their huge ass EVF, most people don’t realize that CFX card actually has a big impact on the camera body size. Even the monstrous S1R can’t stack two CFX card slot vertically. I do think Sony is being smart not to jump on the CFX Type B ship. Canon/Panasonic’s SD+CFX hybrid setup doesn’t make a lot of sense. Eventually they’ll have to switch to CFX+CFX, and that’s gonna be very painful for their designer.

Type A or the proprietary SFX is not commercially available at the moment but if someone decides to use them then they will be there. Sony can even make their own cards.

Canon’s Forward Thinking

Canon is using the new HEIF format with the HDR support. HDR for photos is quite different from HLG for videos. HLG is already widely supported by high-end televisions now, while HDR photos… well let’s say it’s a fucking mess in almost every aspect, video cards, windows, PC monitors, you name it.

(Funny that PC monitors are basically garbage now compared to TVs. The only problem of TVs is that they are actually too big to be monitors. But I am thinking about getting a 48 inch LG CX, which is the smallest high-end TV you can find, as a computer monitor. Hopefully it won’t break my neck).

If you can figure the HDR workflow out then you’ll find that HDR is going to boost your image quality to a whole new level (but only on your own screen). Bright isn’t just white but truly bright. In the TV industry it’s probably the most revolutionary thing in the last decade. Unfortunately nobody in the photo industry is trying to push it to the customers except maybe Apple. There is still a very long way to go but I definitely appreciate Canon standing out and being a leader here.

Final Words

There is no doubt that Canon has just dropped two huge bombs in the camera world, and they are going to shape the landscapes for sure.

Panasonic is totally destroyed. You have to be insane to invest in their stupid cameras. So fucking huge and so fucking incapable. They better sell their camera department before its value plummets. Or make a wish while the comet is still there, that R5/R6 just burn themselves while shooting 4K videos.

Canon’s going to steal a lot of market share from Sony if Sony doesn’t act strong and quickly. They needs to mend their ways completely. Bring out some secret sensors, drastically improve their IBIS and user experience, stop using their stupid one-axis screen. Unfortunately I don’t have too much faith on their user experience or the IBIS, so their secret sensors better be insanely good, like we-can-get-rid-of-the-mechanical-shutter good. I’m still a big fan of compact cameras so I do hope that they unleash their full power this time. Otherwise E-mount is going to be the new A-mount.

Nikon’s fate depends on a lot of factors so it’s premature to draw any conclusion. Well uncertainty is already bad enough. Doesn’t look like a very bright future in my opinion.

Fuji is like a cockroach that can survive any nuclear apocalypse in their APS-C/44*33/Instax crevices. Don’t worry about them.

Pentax is always the best.

1DXIII Sensor Performance Summary

Since EOS R5/R6 are going to be announced today it seems to be the right time to recap 1DXIII’s sensor performance. Actually it looks like R6 is sharing the same sensor as 1DXIII.

The sensor performs very differently depending on the shutter type (mechanical or electronic). Here are the PDR (Photography Dynamic Range) results from P2P (Photonstophoto):

• 1DXIII + MS: 11.25EV
• 1DXIII + ES: 10.03EV
• A9II + ES: 10.9EV
• A7III + MS: 11.6EV

PDR tends to close the gap between EDR so basically the EDR drop will only be worse than 1.22EV. Unfortunately P2P didn’t provide the EDR results and I don’t care enough to try to find out. The ADC resolution also drops to 12bit in the ES mode. So this is just like Sony’s chicken blood mode, sacrificing image quality for higher speed. The EDR drop seems to be higher than Sony’s sensor. For example A7RIV looses about 1EV EDR in the boost mode.

So how fast it is? In the MS mode it can’t be tested. In the ES mode it’s 60FPS, which is very impressive. The total bandwidth is 1.2G pixels at 12bit, quite similar to Sony’s latest 8 lane SLVS-EC sensors.

It looks like the dynamic range is still a bit on the low side in the ES mode compared to A9II, but the difference is not really meaningful now. We can say that 1DXIII’s sensor is just as competitive as A7RII, A7RIII, A7RIV, maybe even slightly better than A7III. But Canon has clearly exploited more of the sensor’s performance, giving us 4K60P and now even 4K120P, unlike Sony the cheap bastard.

Sony needs to wake up now if they don’t want the meme to come true.

PS: All my lenses that I’m actually using are from Tamron/Sigma. Imagine when they extend their product lines to RF mount.

EOS R5: Maybe Just A Wake Up Call

To be honest I was extremely susceptible about all the R5 rumors. 40MP and 20FPS shooting from Canon? Too good to be true.

The truth is that I wasn’t giving too much thoughts about the camera industry recently because well, first the industry is so fucking boring. Second I have a newborn baby recently so I’m just sleep walking all the time. But now that I’m face palmed I’ve finally woke up, calmed down and gave some thoughts about it, and I start to realize that R5’s spec is not crazy at all.

The sensor of R5 has more than 40MP and the frame rate is obviously not slower than 20FPS.

IMX251 has 42MP and the readout speed is around 15FPS according to Jim Kasson’s test. And it goes to 30FPS with lowered dynamic range. JK’s results seem to be a bit on the high side but can’t be too far away. So basically Sony can make a camera just like R5 with IMX251. Now here comes the problem:

IMX251 was debut in June 2015.

So now it looks like Canon has finally come up with a sensor that Sony can make almost 5 years ago. That actually sounds quite bad for Canon.

The thing is that Sony was also hibernating during the past 5 years. They did have some highlight moments like A9, but their A7RIV still uses this stupid IMX451 sensor which is basically a IMX251 with higher resolution but lower readout speed. Their APS-C line’s sensor hasn’t been changed since February 2016. Their cameras are getting better but their sensors are still the same. This might give people some illusions that they can easily slaughter the dragon in its dream. Well I guess the dragon has to be awakened now, and that’s the real excitement for me.

I’m starting to sound like a Sony fanboy (as I am) but I do think that no matter how good EOS R5 is (and it could go the other way given Canon’s track record, like no AF in 8K video or 12FPS burst shooting with locked AF etc.), it’s wise to keep your money warm in your pocket until Sony announces A7M4.

I don’t want to make any prediction about the actual performance of EOS R5 because it’s mostly likely another face palm, but here is my general feeling: since the market is shrinking rapidly, it’s more and more important for all camera manufactures to milk their customers slowly instead of biting each other’s tails. So one small step at a time, nobody is gonna throw a nuclear bomb (like A6000) anymore, especially top makers like Canon and Sony. It’s just not sustainable for their business. The companies that still want to drop A-bomb into the market are those underdogs. Unfortunately their uranium supply is totally in Sony’s control.

So my guess is that R5 is gonna be good enough that Canon users are happy to pay for it with some extra push of brand loyalty, but also crippled enough to give hardcore Sony fanboys some relieves. And Sony’s reaction, A7M4 or whatever, won’t make Canon look too bad either. It’s just like EOS M6II has a more powerful sensor than A6X00 and yet I still can’t convince myself that a $850 camera without EVF is even better than the $600 A6100 (yep, the price of A6100 is dropping pretty fast!).

After so much bashing I’ll give Canon the credit where credit is due: EOS R5 has a 2-axis screen just like its siblings. That’s gonna be a big stick in Sony fanboys’ eyeballs. So big that I’m not sure if it can actually fit there.

F7.1

This is another topic. As I said, give credit where credit is due.

A lot of people are mocking Canon’s new F7.1 brothers. But I think it’s a brilliant idea. 24-105F4-F7.1 = 12-50F2-F3.5 for the M43 system. You can bet that if Olympus ever make such a lens they are going to stick a big PRO label on their first M43 zoom that reaches F2 and sells it for probably $1600 or even more. And Canon’s lens only cost you $400.

Back in the old DSLR days you can’t go below F6.3 because most PDAF modules are just blind beyond that. Now we are finally free from the strings it’s time to shift the paradigm a little bit. Full frame lenses can just be as slow (equivalently) yet compact as M43 lenses. Canon and Tamron are clearly leading in the new age of mirrorless lens design and I totally appreciate it.

The problem is that this F7.1 lens is not as compact as I expected. You know Fuji’s 16-80mmF4 (0.25x magnification) is 440g and Sony 16-70mmF4 (0.23x) is only 308g. Well Canon does have a huge mount which might be the problem here. It’s just my wild guess, but as I said before, Sony might have chosen the best mount diameter in the mirrorless age.

Anyway it’s just a $400 lens and I guess the performance is better than any sub-full frame counterparts, so what’s not to like? Not to mention that delicious looking RF100-500. I think full-frame is showing more and more potential to kill off APS-C and M43 completely. But someone (except Sigma) should first make a full frame camera without the EVF hump. I’ve finally made my peace with it after using the A7R series for 3 years, but recently I bought a FeiyuTech G6MAX, which is probably the most compact gimbal that actually works with A7III+Tamron 17-28. And I can’t go inverted mode because of this stupid EVF hump. This makes me want to but an A6X00 camera again.

(Sorry dudes, it’s an article about EOS R5 but somehow I just can’t stop talking about Sony)

Canon 1DXIII: Return Of The King, Momentarily

There is still a lot that we don’t know about Canon’s latest flagship sport camera but I think it’s safe to say that its future is looking very promising now.

A little bird told me that 1DXIII has 28MP but I’m not sure if it’s a reliable bird. Anyway, since Sony has already disappointed us by not using their IMX435 sensor (36MP with 18 parallel ADC) in A9II, at least Canon is sitting in a very comfortable position now.

The exciting part is that 1DXIII can shoot 20FPS with AF/AE in the mirrorless mode, which indicates that Canon has a 20+FPS 20+MP full frame sensor. This is no longer shocking news nowadays because M6II has already proven that Canon may have some great leaps in the sensor department. I don’t have full details about M6II but it seems like it’s a 32MP 22FPS sensor with very sensational image quality and acceptable battery life. So it’s stepping into Samsung NX1’s game and might be better than anything being offered by Sony on the APS-C market right now (including the 26MP IMX571). Of course Sony still has a lot of tricks up their sleeves, but their sensors are only as good as what they are willing to offer us.

That being said, Canon’s new sensor is still nowhere near the one inside A9II, a 150FPS monster thanks to its novel architecture that disruptively changed the game. But that brings to Canon’s next innovation: 1DXIII is able to make it up (sort of) by using a full-frame sized mechanical shutter that runs at 20FPS! That’s a big push to the boundary. The 16FPS reflex mirror also sets a new record. If Sony is the king of sensors, then Canon is indisputably standing at the pinnacle of mechanical technologies now. I can’t help wondering how the 20FPS shutter sounds like. Should be giving me some orgasms.

Their marvelous and respectful achievement makes it possible for 1DXIII to go toe-to-toe with A9II now as a sport camera. In the mirrorless mode you don’t have the annoying blackout caused by the flapping mirror anymore, making framing during high speed burst shooting a much more enjoyable task. Although A9II still has the upper hand by providing 60FPS AF/AE/liveview, I wouldn’t really consider 20FPS slides show vs 60FPS liveview a difference between heaven and earth. 60FPS is a good thing to have for sure, but at least 1DXIII’s performance shouldn’t be a deal breaker for many people now.

In short, Canon is now using some crazy fast mechanical components to fight against Sony’s crazy fast stacked sensors. What we are witnessing now is a death duel between the fiercest warriors from the old empire and the rising prodigy of the new era.

So who will be the last one standing? A9II still has few important advantages. It probably does AF tracking better, because well, stacked sensors. You can easily carry your A9II around, which is enough to appeal a lot of rich amateurs and some professionals who needs more mobility. A9II can also be completely silent without any significant penalties. This has been proven to be a killer feature in the White House, the Royal weddings, the presidential debates, and a lot of other occasions. On the other hand, 1DXIII is also whipping Sony’s ass in the video department. The storage is faster and the lens selection is much wider, with some enticing options like the 200-400TC. The battery probably lasts longer for those who uses their cameras like a binocular.

So it’s actually quite difficult to tell which camera is better overall, and this is already good enough for Canon. We all know that the mechanical era is going to be ended very soon, but Canon has sent a loud and clear message with 1DXIII: NOT TODAY. It’s a camera that rebuilds Canon users’ faith and keeps them from switching side, and it just bought Canon few more years to prepare for the next round.