Friday rant: The future of Canon RF and 3rd party lenses

jwilliams wrote:

Lisa Horton wrote:

My #.02

Sales of interchangeable lens cameras have dropped precipitously since their peak. Camera makers have no choice but to adapt to that reality. In the past the pie was big enough that the camera makers could "let" the third party lens makers have a piece of it and there was still enough for the camera maker to be healthy and profitable.

The pie is so much smaller now. Even taking more of the pie, it's still a lot less than their share of the larger pie was. I think that they 'need' those lens sales more now than they did in the not so distant past.

The counter to that is that the end user has even less of a selection of lenses to choose from since they are not only being limited by lack of 3rd party lenses, but Canon itself will now put out even less in the way of lenses due to the shrinking market.

I'm not saying your statements are wrong, but if they are correct, the end user is getting hit twice. That will make it hard to stay in a brand with such limited options.

Although I prefer Canon's bodies over Sony's I think it would be hard to recommend Canon over Sony to most amateurs. Sony's own lens lineup is impressive and if you add the 3rd party lenses their users have a very nice selection with some truly unique lenses like the recent 20-70 4. Hard not be be impressed.

If you're a pro shooting only top tier glass Canon has you covered fairly good. It's the middle ground that is lacking. There are some nice lower/middle level Canon lenses but compared to other brands the selection is limited. Every other manufacturer is letting 3rd party manufacturers fill the voids in their lineup and that seems like a win for everyone.

Actual experience: Brought two camera bags - one full of Canon gears and the other full of Sony gears to a learning session with 30-32 amateur photographers, largely in the age range of 25-35 years old.

Showed them the R6ii and R7 with a slew of EF and RF lenses, Sony A7C with a slew of non-Sony FE lenses.

I was asked - what's the equivalent of A7C in Canon. I said likely the RP or the R8. Students went to Google for price, etc.  Then one of them asked, which is a more affordable system for an amateur photographer shifting from Go Pro / iPhone 14 Pro to his/her first FF camera. Another was even more specific: Assuming I can buy a pre-owned body at 70-80% of SRP (here in HK there are a lot of those), and I need a capable 20mm and 35mm for vlogging and street photography - which brand should I go with?

Of course I had to remind them the brand does not make the photographer. End of the day, system price is either an entry barrier or enabler.