System Options for a Change of Pace

 

OM-1, 40-150/4 Pro

So in looking at other options I decided to lay out my needs overall.

I'm looking at crop systems, APS-C and m43. not full frame for now.

I want a higher-end performance body as primary. Needs at least half-decent weather sealing, a solid viewfinder, good DSLR-style PASM ergonomics and a big battery. dual-axis or flip/twist screen is a must, as is IBIS. USB-C with charge/power is also needed here. Good tracking AF (the A7RIV and OM-1 spoiled me), but I don't need crazy FPS. 

I want a lighter second camera. Ideally sharing a battery with the primary. Flip/twist screen (so I can use it on my video setup). USB-C charge a must, power a nice to have. Good tracking AF matters, FPS doesn't matter. IBIS not a big deal for this one. 

There must be a solid selection of lenses, 1st party adaptation is OK, 3rd party is not. Minimum is a UWA/tele zoom combo, wide prime, wide/normal prime and a solid macro option, adapting for macro is fine. 

Fuji X - The first option I looked at. X-H2/X-T4 meets the basic need requirements perfectly, but the X-T4 is on the chonky side for light carry. X-T3 or X-T30(II) are options for light carry if I give up flip/twist and common/large battery. Lens lineup is pretty good across the board, without adaptation. Biggest issue is ergonomics, Fuji's good at the body shape, but sucks at button design/layout. Still no good/inexpensive wide zoom, but a used 10-24/4 WR and 70-300WR cover my real hiking needs. 

Nikon Z DX - Umm.... No. the Z fc meets my light carry body needs (aside from a decent battery), but I'd have to go to a Z7 or Z7II for the primary, and still won't have an LCD setup I'm happy with. Nikon just isn't a player in crop anymore, and won't be until they branch out from selling 3 different variants of the same basic mid/low range camera. The only saving factor for them is the pricing on their Z DX bodies are sane. Lens line is a semi-issue, the 12-28 just isn't wide enough, but the lens lineup matches the bodies well, focused on higher-end consumer/entry-level enthusiast needs. 3rd party native options are getting to the excellent point thanks to Sigma and Viltrox. Nikon needs some higher-end Z DX lenses, but they also need a body to match it. Where is the Z90 Nikon? Or even a Z70 to match the Canon R7.

Sony E - Again, that's a no. They have workable light carry bodies, but not a primary crop body worthy of the name. Lens lineup is very workable these days, but the A6600 is too old, too expensive and too slow as a primary body for me even before you look at the absolutely terrible ergonomics. There's a reason people have been asking for an A7000/NEX-9 since the NEX-7 was launched. I don't know why Sony just doesn't recycle the A7IV body with updated A6600 guts and sell it for $1500USD. It will sell and is pure parts bin. 

Panasonic G - G9/GX9 combo is exactly what I'm looking for, except neither body meets the AF requirements and the IQ is not quite there either. Plus an increasingly limited lens lineup. This would be viable if Panasonic had MkII versions with PDAF and competitive AF, plus updated sensor & processing to get them over the IQ hump, I did not find the G9's IQ held up in situations where even the E-M1.2 was acceptable. 

Canon RF - Now I really have to think. Canon has traditionally been the system I ignore, because I had a fair bit of bad luck when I tried it seriously the last time 15 or so years ago, and because the RF system started off very oddly and I was not impressed at all until the R5/R6 duo dropped. The R7 really does meet my needs as a primary body, and costs barely more than some of the secondary bodies I've been looking at (OM-5 and A6600 are $1-200 cheaper). The viewfinder specs look awful, but otherwise it's pretty decent. 3 other lower-end bodies are now available as light carry options, the R10 probably makes the most sense, although the R50 is even smaller and cheaper and surprisingly capable, plus it supports UVC/UAC so is plug & play as a webcam, but really has no buffer worthy of the name (7 RAW). 

Canon RF-S (crop) lenses are a mixed bag right now, the tele and prime situation for crop is actually pretty good. Remarkably so if you consider all the primes are actually FF lenses, but inexpensive and small 16, 28 and 50mm primes and the reasonably priced fast f1.8 macros in 24 and 35mm really make for an interesting lineup, and one that crosses the APS-C/FF boundary well. What is lacking is any native wide or fast normal zoom. But there's two good EF-S options that adapt easily for UWA, multiple normal zoom options and the adapter is both inexpensive ($179CAD) and a much better experience reportedly than even the FTZ on Nikon, which worked well for me with the 70-300E. Rumour has it that a native UWA zoom is coming soon, but a couple high-end RF-S zooms are needed to support R7 users. The 18-150 kit zoom also gets decent reviews, but the tiny 18-45 on the other hand just does not do well, especially for close focus. Right now those are the only three RF-S lenses, everything else in RF mount is full frame.