Cameras

Comparing Sony, Canon, and OM System for Exciting Bird Photography

Chris Gampat
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08/30/2022
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Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony a1 with Tamron 70-300mm lens birding fights 6.31-1250s6400 1

Last Updated on 09/08/2022 by Chris Gampat

One of the cool things that we do here at The Phoblographer is update our past reviews. And we’ve worked to update our Canon, Sony, and OM System reviews as much as we can. Recently we added more to them after a head to head comparison we did. All three systems are capable of producing great photos. When it comes to making more visually grabbing photos though, we wanted to see which one does the best for bird photography.

Gear Used

To do this, we used the following cameras and lenses. All of the following are on loan except for the Tamron lens, which we bought:

Set-Up

Everyone captures photos of birds being absolutely still or in flight. Those are all wonderful images, but what about capturing birds doing other things? I set up a bird feeder on my balcony and, in recent times, it began attracting a variety of birds. They were pretty peaceful except for the mourning doves who occasionally fought. But then after a while, the pigeons came. This annoyed me, but then they started to fight. Pigeons fighting one another provided some incredible moments to capture. So, I used the three systems I’ve got on hand: Canon, Sony, and OM System. 

Canon EOS R5

I’ve got both the Canon EOS R7 and the Canon EOS R5 around. And honestly, this is too simple of a job for the Canon EOS R7. It’s one of the best cameras on the market right now for capturing birds. We encourage you to check out more in our review. So instead, I used the Canon EOS R5. To capture birds fighting, I had to change the settings a bit. First off, I enabled the animal detection setting; Canon bundles birds and animals into one section. Then I had to use eye-detection and face detection tracking combined with servo autofocus. Once that was set, I went into the many system to tell the Canon EOS R5 that I still wanted control over what it tracked in the scene. This made tracking birds easier on the camera because I gave it a bit of guidance. 

After that, It was just about setting the exposure up. Thankfully, the Canon EOS R5 and the RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 make birding easy. At one point, I even did this in the HDR PQ mode and got fascinating photos and moments I otherwise couldn’t see.

Sony a1

I don’t own the Sony a1, so I called it in from Sony along with the 400mm f2.8 G Master. While I had it, I used it with the Tamron 70-300mm f4.5-6.3 VC lens. For the most part, the Sony a1 was the easiest to use in this situation. The only time it became more difficult was with tracking sensitivity. Still, though, I’d argue that I got great photos. The 400mm G Master lens does a great job and is a bit faster than the more affordable Tamron lens. But both lenses helped me capture fantastic moments.

400mm F2.8 G Master

Tamron 70-300mm

OM System OM1

Finally, I asked OMDS if I could use the 100-400mm lens with the OM1. After they sent it to me, I was very surprised. The standard C-AF setting with Bird detection was alright, but once I set it to Pro Capture Mode, I got moments I never dreamed of. OM System is at an extra advantage because of its smaller lenses and deeper depth of field. Way too many people hate on Micro Four Thirds and aren’t aware of just how awesome it can be for stuff like this. 

So, Which is Best?

They’re all good, and they’re all going to do a great job. But if you’re shooting more than just sports and wildlife, I’d probably go with Canon. If you want the lightest system with the most innovation on the market, reach for OM System. If you want a more balanced system with tons of lens options, Sony is the obvious choice. I’m agnostic, but our staff typically prefer Canon cameras.

autofocus bird detection Cameras canon lenses olympus OM SYSTEM sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.