Thinking of changing camera system. Advice needed

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FlexiPack

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Gaz
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Hi all,

I've been a Canon user for 7 years. I'm very happy with Canon but due to health reasons I find the weight of the equipment an issue. I've held off changing systems in the past because the lighter alternatives weren't quite up to the mark for me. I'm not a professional tog, I'm a keen amateur though so I need a system that can do a bit of everything. Previously the main stumbling block was the poor quality AF tracking on the mirrorless cameras. That's largely a non issue with the latest bodies like the Fuji X-T1 and Sony A6000. I think for me, the main downside now is the lack of external flash options for these systems. I use my 430EX flashgun quite a lot and I like the way Canon's E-TTL II works. Sony has what looks like equivalent flashguns, though I'm unsure if they're fully compatible with the A6000? Also I've read that, currently, Fuji doesn't have any flashguns that support high speed sync. Can anyone confirm/deny this? At some point I would also like to expand into off camera flash. This another area that seems to be lacking in support in anything other than Canon/Nikon.

My current system is:

Canon 450D
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 mkII
Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
Canon 430EX Flash

Changing systems isn't easy and I want to make sure I pick the right system for me. If it wasn't for the weight I wouldn't even consider it. My current kit wouldn't be considered heavy by most people but unfortunately it is for me. I'm not going to rush into changing but I want to make a start of narrowing down my choices. So far I'm looking at either, Fuji X, Sony Alpha (not DSLR) and M4/3. M4/3 is almost the ideal option for me but although their sensors are very good. They'll likely always be a bit behind APS-C. I do like to use shallow depth of field a fair bit. I know you can still achieve this with M4/3 but you do have to work a bit harder for it. I do like the 5-axis image stabiliser in the OM-D EM1 though!

Any input would be appreciated.

Edit - A couple of things I forgot to add. Which ever system I switch to, I would like to be able to at least replicate my current setup as near as possible. In saying that, my budget isn't very high and even with selling off all my current equipment I will likely have to make some sacrifices in lenses.
 
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I don't know about the Fuji, but I believe you can get an adaptor to allow you to fit your existing Canon lenses to an A6000.

This might allow a more gradual changeover, rather than having to switch your entire system and risk then find the replacement doesn't give you what you want.
 
The G1X MKII looks pretty good but I think I would I find it to restrictive if it was my only camera. It's a bit to expensive to be considered as a backup camera. It would be a pretty awesome back up though.

Faldrax said:
I don't know about the Fuji, but I believe you can get an adaptor to allow you to fit your existing Canon lenses to an A6000.

This might allow a more gradual changeover, rather than having to switch your entire system and risk then find the replacement doesn't give you what you want.
Click to expand...

It's certainly a possibility. Especially with a metabones adapter. My main concern with doing this would be the AF speed. AF tends to suffer a fair bit with these adapters. Although perhaps with the new generation of on-sensor phase detection, the trade off in speed might be mitigated somewhat. I'll definitely keep this in mind.
 
I'm not thinking of changing systems but I'm seriously considering slimming down my SLR system by a body and getting a Fuji XPro-1 system to run alongside the SLRs. I'll be trading in my D800 but keeping the D700 - the D700 does all I need it to and the 1 series body adds a 2.7x crop factor and it was mainly for croppability that I got the D800.
 
I can only talk about the E-mount stuff. First of all, there are three hot shoe/mounts for the E-mount flashes (It's the Sony way of doing things). First of all the Multi Interface Shoe - That's the newest and current version for all Sony cameras, it's a standard hot shoe with extra pins for other stuff (Viewfinders, microphones, etc). There's the older Smart Accessory Shoe - this was used by the lower end e-mounts (Nex 3/Nex 5) - these flashes are usually smaller, so watch out for them if you're reading reviews or buying - they are nothing to do with the higher end E-mount cameras. Then there's the old Sony/Minolta hot shoe, this was used by the A-mount for years before Sony ditched it last year. Obviously there are more flashes built for the oldest hot shoe, the Minolta/Sony hot shoe. Some of these will work with the a6000 with an adapter and maintain HSS and TTL (for example, something like the Sony F43AM will work even with its older hot shoe + an adapter). There are also Multi Interface Shoe (MIS) designed flashes for the a6000, I think there's about 4 out at the moment? I know the highest two will give you TTL and HSS, these flashes are probably easier as they don't have an adapter for the hot shoe. Off camera flash with triggers and manual flashes is easy with all 3 hot shoes, again the higher end flashes will let you control flashes wirelessly as well.

Lens wise ; you'll be missing out on a few things there. As a standard fast zoom, there's nothing E-mount. The closest to a higher end zoom is the Zeiss 16-70 F4. There's a Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS, a Zeiss 55mm 1.8 and a Zeiss 50mm 2.8 Macro. The longest autofocusing prime is the Sigma 60mm f2.8 and the only two dedicated macros are a 30mm f3.5 and the 50mm Zeiss. Longer zooms are the 70-200 F4, 55-210 f4.5-6.3 and the Tamron 18-200. E-mount zooms and primes are good between 10mm and 50mm (Four Zeiss' - 12mm, 24mm, 32mm and 55mm primes. Sony 20mm, 35mm and 50mm primes and the 10-18 f4, 16-70mm, 16-50 pz), anything longer and you'll be looking at Samyang manual focus or average kit zooms (other than the 70-200 f4 but that's over £1k).

Even as an E-mount user, I think something like a Panasonic gx7 or OMD EM1/5 would suit better.

Ps - From what I understand - the phase detect autofocus will only work with some e-mount lenses, so no adapters can use it (even Sony's own) which is disappointing.
 
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I use a 5d III as my main camera but I have built up a lighter bit of kit for when I don't wanna carry all the weight of a 5d around with me, Have you considered the Canon 100D ? Its very light and much smaller than normal sized aps-c DSLR, The 18-55mm stm lens is very good although I guess you bought the sigma f2.8 for a reason, but you can also cut down on a bit of the weight with the 55-250mm zoom lens, STM version is very good.. These mirrorless cameras are are quite good but can still be heavy with there aluminium lenses by the time you've acquired a full bag on kit.
 
To save significant weight over what is already quite a light DSLR system, suggest M4/3. But it'll cost you, and if AF tracking is important you'll likely be disappointed. No CSC can do that as well as a DSLR. You need to try it.

As suggested above, there are lighter DSLR alternatives. Canon 100D, kit zoom or EF-S 17-85, EF-S 60 macro, EF-S 55-250 (STM version is a gem), 270EX flash. Sticking with Canon might allow you to spread the cost a bit, swapping out one thing at a time.
 
At first glance, if Af tracking is important to you the X-T1 looks good on that front. The initial reviews suggest that its more then capable of tracking a moving vehicle. But I would consider if you can spread the cost by staying with Canon
 
I'd suggest having a think about the lenses you're going to need and then look at what each system offers. I wouldn't bother getting hung up too much on the subtleties of the different sensors - you'll get good results with any of them.I've recently gone down the m4/3 route with a Lumix GX7, mainly because Panasonic and Olympus are producing some great lenses which interest me. In the long term I'll probably end up getting a GH3 or OMD-EM1 as I'd like something a bit more rugged. I'm not into flash photography, but I know that Panasonic, Olympus, Metz and Nissin all make m4/3 flashguns equivalent to the Canon Speedlights.
AF tracking on the sensor based systems on any of these cameras won't match a modern DSLR, but I think you'll find the overall AF performance a step up from your 450D.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Given me food for thought. If I switched my 70-300mm (630grams) IS for the 55-250mm STM (grams). I could save a fair bit in weight and gain in image quality (never been impressed with the 70-300mm). I'm going to look if there are other weight savings to be made. I had considered ditching the 18-50mm for the 10-22mm and perhaps get a lightweight prime (say 30mm) to give me something in that range. I don't know if i'd miss the 18-50mm range too much though.

Another point I need to consider is that when I do get a new body, I would really like it to be an upgrade in performance and handling. If i stick to Canon I will likely only ever be able to have a camera in the xxxD range because of the weight. Whereas switching to a CSC. I could have a camera near to XXD specs in a lightweight body. That's just something else I need to consider.

Micehorns said:
I can only talk about the E-mount stuff. First of all, there are three hot shoe/mounts for the E-mount flashes (It's the Sony way of doing things). First of all the Multi Interface Shoe - That's the newest and current version for all Sony cameras, it's a standard hot shoe with extra pins for other stuff (Viewfinders, microphones, etc). There's the older Smart Accessory Shoe - this was used by the lower end e-mounts (Nex 3/Nex 5) - these flashes are usually smaller, so watch out for them if you're reading reviews or buying - they are nothing to do with the higher end E-mount cameras. Then there's the old Sony/Minolta hot shoe, this was used by the A-mount for years before Sony ditched it last year. Obviously there are more flashes built for the oldest hot shoe, the Minolta/Sony hot shoe. Some of these will work with the a6000 with an adapter and maintain HSS and TTL (for example, something like the Sony F43AM will work even with its older hot shoe + an adapter). There are also Multi Interface Shoe (MIS) designed flashes for the a6000, I think there's about 4 out at the moment? I know the highest two will give you TTL and HSS, these flashes are probably easier as they don't have an adapter for the hot shoe. Off camera flash with triggers and manual flashes is easy with all 3 hot shoes, again the higher end flashes will let you control flashes wirelessly as well.

Lens wise ; you'll be missing out on a few things there. As a standard fast zoom, there's nothing E-mount. The closest to a higher end zoom is the Zeiss 16-70 F4. There's a Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS, a Zeiss 55mm 1.8 and a Zeiss 50mm 2.8 Macro. The longest autofocusing prime is the Sigma 60mm f2.8 and the only two dedicated macros are a 30mm f3.5 and the 50mm Zeiss. Longer zooms are the 70-200 F4, 55-210 f4.5-6.3 and the Tamron 18-200. E-mount zooms and primes are good between 10mm and 50mm (Four Zeiss' - 12mm, 24mm, 32mm and 55mm primes. Sony 20mm, 35mm and 50mm primes and the 10-18 f4, 16-70mm, 16-50 pz), anything longer and you'll be looking at Samyang manual focus or average kit zooms (other than the 70-200 f4 but that's over £1k).

Even as an E-mount user, I think something like a Panasonic gx7 or OMD EM1/5 would suit better.

Ps - From what I understand - the phase detect autofocus will only work with some e-mount lenses, so no adapters can use it (even Sony's own) which is disappointing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I didn't realise the new phase detect autofocus was only compatible with certain lenses.
 
With the Fuji X-series you might find that you need more than one body to get everything you want - perhaps a fixed lens X-100S for the leaf shutter and high synch speed, and an X-T1 or X-Pro1 for everything else. There are a number of off-camera flash options with Fuji, and as soon as you start using triggers the brand of the flash doesn't matter (unless you want off-camera and TTL). I've still to get around to testing my triggers and flashguns since making the move to Fuji. There are several Fuji threads in this section, and most of the Fuji shooters here seem to also be members on Fujix.

You seem to define your photography by your gear, is there a reason you list the gear you want to duplicate but don't want to talk about the type of photography you want to do?
 
FlexiPack said:
Thanks for the replies guys. Given me food for thought. If I switched my 70-300mm (630grams) IS for the 55-250mm STM (grams). I could save a fair bit in weight and gain in image quality (never been impressed with the 70-300mm). I'm going to look if there are other weight savings to be made. I had considered ditching the 18-50mm for the 10-22mm and perhaps get a lightweight prime (say 30mm) to give me something in that range. I don't know if i'd miss the 18-50mm range too much though.
Click to expand...

Yes, the 70-300 is a weighty lens and swapping to the 55-250 will save some weight for you.

I'd certainly recommend you try out what ever you are looking at, obviously with regards to weight, but more so with regards to quality and how it works...you need to make sure you are happy with it and it does what you are after.


You don't say exactly what the issue is with the weight of your equipment, my father in law struggles (due to a shoulder injury) to lift and hold the camera for anything over a couple of minutes, so we had a look as to what was out there and he now uses a "personal" monopod - a small monopod that fits onto a strap that goes round his neck, giving extra support and taking some weight away - basically using this, he can hold and operate the camera and a large heavy zoom, 1 handed... You can also get them that slot into a belt, if you don't fancy / can't wear a strap...

Hope this is of some help...
 
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