Canon: goodbye and best wishes!

I had a painful decision to make. I have been a Canon user for some 50 years and had a plentiful collection of Canon glass, flash and other ancillary gear, but I had enough. When Canon introduced the M5 I thought that would be my go-to new body. I was using a 7D but after carrying it and several lenses around on a recent trip I knew that I had to go lighter.

Yes, I could use my existing lens collection with the mount adapter but that only saved weight from the body, the lenses still contributed significantly.

I started to look at other brands including Fuji, Sony, Olympus and Panasonic. At first I rejected Olympus and Panasonic due to the small m43 sensor. The Fuji line intrigued me due to the physical dials including ISO but as a package it was getting a bit expensive. Sony was nice but lacked a few features that I was looking for without going to their higher end line. Reluctantly I looked at the Olympus and was blown away with the in body stabilization. To me it was a significant feature, that, and the sample shots I was getting blew the 7D out of the water. I ended up buying the M5 Mk II ($899CAD for the body) along with the 12-40mm f2.8 ($750CAD with discounts) and have not looked back adding several other lenses to my kit. I would have loved to go with the M1 MkII but that, I find, is a bit overpriced ($2,599 vs $899, really!) and the M5 has many of the same features. I can now carry my Olympus and 3 or 4 lenses plus accessories in my photographer's vest with the camera on my Peak Designs' Slidelite strap (best accessory I've bought), no heavy bags on my shoulder and everything secure and perfectly balanced.

The one thing I forgot about was remote control, yes, Olympus has a great app for this but I was specifically using Helicon Remote that only works with Canon and Nikon bodies. Henry's, here in Canada had a sale on the Canon M3 body that included the lens adapter and for $50 more I could get the OVF, so for a total of $599CAD plus tax I bought it. Unfortunately, the only Canon cameras that Helicon doesn't support is the M line!! OK, I thought, could I still work with the M3? That was quickly answered by the pathetic AF performance with adapted lenses. So painfully slow and many times it just wouldn't focus period! I had better results with my Olympus with adapted lenses. So much for Canon's marketing that the M series would work "with all your existing EF/EF-S lenses”! I quickly returned the M3 - what a miserable experience.

So now I'm looking for a Canon body that will work with my remaining EF-S lenses (2) and is compatible with Helicon Remote. I looked at the 80D, 77D and T7i and since they all have the same sensor and I didn't need a high performance body as my Olympus M5 covers that, I thought the T7i would fit the bill. Then the SL2 was announced with, again, the same sensor as the rest mentioned, and at a reasonable price. I checked with Helicon and yes, they said it would be supported, yes! As a note the Olympus does do focus bracketing but it's note quite as flexible as the Helicon program.

So now I'm looking for the SL2 to be my basic studio camera for macro work with Helicon, my microscopes and my last remaining EF-S mount macro lens. So after many months selling my Canon gear, which included a significant investment in L lenses I am now a happy Olympus shooter with Canon demoted to a minor role in the studio. I should point out that I do mean a minor role as, for static shots, Olympus' 40MP high definition mode is staggering.

I don't know where Canon is going in the future but mirrorless and in-body stabilization are technologies that can't be ignored. Canon's insistence of not having certain features included in their low and mid priced bodies (4K for example) because it may hurt sales of their higher end bodies may be hurting them more than they know as more people turn away from Canon to other brands that do support these features. They not only loose body sales but also lens and accessory sales.

Companies like Godox and Yongnuo are significantly taking flash sales from all first tier camera manufacturers so, as we move forward, companies will have to take into account their position in the marketplace and either recognize changing attitudes and technologies or stand aside and let others move them forward,

Brand loyalty is taking a back seat to functionality and consumer demands, Canon and Nikon had better recognize this. The internet has made it relatively easy to make the move, so once the decision has been made it's not a major issue to sell off your old gear.  As a side note, my son, at the same time I moved to Olympus, and unknown to me, made the move from Nikon and bought the Fuji X-T2.