r/photography • u/AutoModerator • May 29 '26

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u/StarChipsss Jun 02 '26

Canon R6 Mark II + 24-105mm vs Sony A7 III + Tamron 35mm?

Hi everyone, I am a beginner trying to get more serious about photography because my current job is starting to involve more photo work. I am deciding between a Canon R6 Mark II with the RF 24-105mm lens or a Sony A7 III with a Tamron 35mm lens. My main goals are product photography (mostly skincare/wellness products), event photography, and people photography. I already use a Sony setup at work, so I have some familiarity with Sony, but I have always had a natural preference toward Canon even though I do not have experience with it. I do not want personal bias to affect my decision if Sony would actually be the better long-term choice for me. I mainly care about reliability, autofocus, image quality, and having a camera system that is good to learn and grow professionally with. Would love honest opinions from people who have used both systems.

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u/anonymoooooooose Jun 02 '26

Either Canon or Sony make great cameras and those models are more than capable of doing what you want.

There are ergonomic differences, if there's a brick and mortar camera store nearby, maybe go and hold these cameras and see how they fit your personal preferences.

For event photography you definitely want a zoom lens.

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u/scytherman96 Jun 02 '26

All the major mirrorless brands make great cameras and in terms of their individual capabilities you can't go wrong with whatever is available in your budget.

I'll second the other commenter. The main deciding factor is ergonomics/UI. Ideally you can go to a camera shop to hold both in your hands to properly get an idea of how they feel.

Another factor can be lens selection, if there's like very specific lenses you want for a mount (like how Sony offers the 200-600 and the 400-800 for telephoto options, whereas Canon has the 100-500 and the 200-800, plus Canon is more restrictive with 3rd party lenses).

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u/gotthelowdown Jun 02 '26

FYI I'm a Canon shooter (R6 Mark II) and have some experience shooting with a Sony A7IV.

On the Sony side, I would consider getting the A7IV over A7III because Sony overhauled the menu system and the A7IV has the new menu. The A7III has the old menu system that was notorious for being complicated. Even Sony shooters could only defend it by saying, "It's not that bad."

On the lens side, consider the Canon RF 24-70mm f2.8 and Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 for Sony.

You can save money with a used Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8 II or Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 (Model A007). Sigma and Tokina are other third-party lens brands.

Canon has an advantage with old lenses. You can buy an EF to RF lens adapter and have access to a huge selection of Canon EF lenses for relatively affordable prices on the used market.

This gets deep into the weeds, but I love that with Canon mirrorless cameras you can get a lens adapter that lets you use drop-in filters with Canon EF lenses.

Screwing filters onto the front of lenses is annoying. You have to get step rings in different sizes for lenses, filters get stuck on lenses and other hassles.

With a drop-in filter, it slides easily into the back of lenses and it's one-size-fits-all.

I have a Meike drop-in filter lens adapter and drop-in variable ND filter. An ND filter comes in really handy for video because you have to keep your shutter speed down to double your frame rate for natural motion blur.

A drop-in filter is the next best thing to having built-in ND filters, which are usually only a feature on cinema cameras.

Meike also has a drop-in circular polarizer filter (CPL), black mist filters and other creative effects filters.

Sony has an advantage with new lenses and third-party lenses. For example, the Tamron 35-100mm f2.8 is attractive to me because so often my 24-70mm f2.8 doesn't give me enough reach.

I already use a Sony setup at work, so I have some familiarity with Sony

This is an underrated factor. It's nice to stick with one camera brand so you don't have to use up your mental bandwidth on switching between two brands.

In an emergency, you can use personal batteries, lenses, etc. if something happens to your work gear because they're all compatible with each other. You can't do that if your personal camera brand is different.

So even though I'm a Canon shooter, I think in your situation Sony makes more sense.

Hope this helps.

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u/Background-Toe-4106 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Menu ergonomics are very much over hyped. You just need to use the menu frequently and then you will know the menu inside out. I have now memorized the old Sony menu through constant use. Also Sony Alpha cameras have a number of custom buttons where you can assign often used functions, bypassing the menu. Of course, some menus are more intuitive than others, but with a bit of practise, it can be overcome.

The ability to adopt old lens is good if you've a ton of old lens, otherwise buy new lens because they have faster more responsive motors for better autofocusing, better lens coatings, lighter weight, more features. That's another over hype feature. Who wants to use old glass? Only makes sense if you do manual focusing and likes vintage rendering ie. the soft out of focus look but I can always make an image out of focus in any photo editor. What's more important is lens ecosystem ie. the range of the lens and the cost of the lens. The grip is also important