The end of an era - Part II

So what will replace over two decades (nearly three!) of Canon? As I mentioned at the end of the last post I don't actually know yet but I do have pretty good idea. About a year ago I sold almost all my non-birding lenses, including the wonderful 70-200mm f2.8, the third one I had owned - the original, the first version with an image stabiliser, and finally the fabulous second IS iteration. This was after a trip to Lisbon where my son had toted around a tiny and amazing camera whilst I struggled with the weight and size of my Canon stuff. I invested what pittance I got back in almost the same thing he had, the most wonderful and tiny mirrorless camera, a Sony Alpha 6600. It is miniscule, look! Paired with a Zeiss 16-70mm f4 lens (24-105mm equivalent) it weighs just 811g. By contrast the Canon set-up with the same focal length weighed 2.2kg. Even pairing it with my smaller 80D was 1.4kg. 600g may not sound like a lot, but combined with the small form factor it is just night and day. It takes superb photos, and is far far more sophisticated and infinitely more clever than my older Canon, benefitting from eight further years of wizard scientists dreaming up new things for it it do, and making existing things like autofocus ridiculously accurate. And whereas my first digital SLR had three focus points, this has 425! My 1DX had 61 so this is just incredible to me. I've been taking it almost everywhere, you just don't notice you're even carrying it.

Behold my miniature camera

But could I use it for birding? Well yes I could, but I'm nervous. I could operate the Canon 1DX with my eyes closed. I knew what every dial did, what my base settings were, and what I needed to do to change them without even looking at the camera. I knew it would be right and it was. Muscle memory kicked in, my fingers and thumb moved of their own accord to change the settings seamlessly. As such I got images I might never have got had I been less familiar with what I was using. When I moved from one Canon body to the next I set up the replacement exactly as its predecessor and it was if I was using the same camera. I am worried that it will not be easy to somehow relearn 20 years of using the same physical placement of menus and buttons. 

Now of course Canon do make mirrorless cameras and very good ones at that. Their lens range is also unparalleled. I could replace the setup I just sold with almost exactly the same thing, no work or effort would be required, it would be virtually seamless. But there are issues. The first is cost. To replicate most closely what I've been using would be in the order of £17k, a Canon R3 or R1 with a 600mm f4 lens. Read that number again. Jesus. I suppose I've spent more than that on camera gear over the years, but never in one go and also photography doesn't mean quite the same to me now as it did once. Frankly I don't deserve it at the moment, I just don't engage in bird photography with the fervour that I once did. It may come again, but right now it's not a priority and to spend that amount of money on one camera and one lens would be grossly indulgent. And it's not like I'm going to get back any meaningful amount on my old kit either. I've kept a record of every camera and lens I've ever bought and sold, and the unwelcome news is that I'm being offered 30% of what I paid for it, and that is without inflation. With inflation it's 20%. And they've not yet confirmed the amount as they need to assess it first. Half of me is spitting, the other half is remembering what a great time I had with that lens and camera, where they came with me to, and how much I enjoyed trying to get the best out of them. In deep snow and -23 degrees centigrade, in Middle Eastern deserts, in the tropics with 95% humidity, in cloud forests in Central America and on boat trips and safaris in Africa. That lens and camera went everywhere and did everything, and mostly they didn't skip a beat, they just kept on going and going. I never mollycoddled my gear, I used it as intended, and the value of the quote will likely go down once they've had a look at it. It always goes down....

The other issue is size - it might be technologically incredible, but Canon gear is by nature still large and bulky. They've trimmed the weight some, but it's not night and day by any means, and broadly speaking the physical size is still the physical size. The kit I just sold weighed 5.2kg, the direct Canon mirrorless equivalent would come in at 4.2kg. Lighter, but not an especially large difference. What I want at this juncture is much smaller and lighter....

So I need to make a change. I am not yet experienced enough with Sony to be entirely confident. The small form factor of the A6600 results in inevitable compromises that I am struggling with, in particular the lack of a dedicated rear wheel or a front dial, though I am discovering some custom settings that get around this. Possibly an A9ii or iii is in my future but for now I will back myself to be able to learn something new. All it requires is time and effort. I think I can get there, I just need to take a lot more photos than I currently do. It is amazing how correlated experience and profiency tend to be, i.e. I didn't get good at using Canon by sitting at home. So I have my eye on a beauty of a Sony 200-600mm zoom lens that paired with my existing A6600 will save me nearly 2.5kg, rather than just the 1kg mentioned above. It is also physically shorter than my Canon 500mm, and far less bulky despite still being a large lens by any stretch of the imagination, and with the APS-C format will yield 900mm vs 700mm on the Canon which included the 1.4x teleconverter. In my mind's eye I can feel it now and it feels amazing. It's also massively cheaper than Canon, as in ten times cheaper. And if I grow to like it, get good at using it, and deserve something better, then Sony also make some quite lovely prime telephotos....

Anyway, watch this space. I'm quite excited by the prospect, and it will almost certainly get me out and taking pictures again, which if I am honest I have not really done properly for quite some time and is a major part of making this change.