Why do I use the equipment I use, and not something else, for instance Olympus or Canon, which I used before? Was something wrong with them so I “upgraded”?

The answer is in fact quite prosaic – I use Sony almost completely by accident, or, if you want, because of circumstances over the decades.

Initially, I used Minolta MC/MD system on film, with the Minolta Dimage IV scanner. Then digital became both good and affordable enough and I bought the Olympus E-1 with the ZD 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens, which happened to be on discount. I liked it very much, but I wasn’t really convinced by the propositions of the four thirds system which advocated for the smaller sensor but the lenses happened to be as big as the 35mm counterparts and I thought, as long as I’m having lenses this big, I might as well have the 35mm format that I had on film. So, when Canon 5d came out, I decided against investing more into the four thirds system and instead bought Canon 5d with several good but reasonably priced lenses. At some point soon thereafter, I had a serious financial crisis and sold the Olympus gear as well as the Canon EF 70-200 f/4L lens, and the crisis persisted on and off for multiple years, so I had more pressing concerns than photography. At some point, as things improved, and as I realised that taking the 5d with all the glass is impractical when riding a bicycle, and as I became annoyed with some people thinking that my photography is good only because I have the 5d and great glass, I bought the Olympus E-PL1 pocketable micro four thirds mirrorless camera with its 14-42mm collapsible kit lens, and a Minolta MD lens adapter and macro extension tubes, and started taking pictures with that combo, where of course the pictures looked the same as on the 5d. About that time, Biljana started taking interest in photography and taking out either the Canon film gear or the 5d to take pictures, and over the years it basically became her camera, while I made due with the E-PL1 and the adapted Minolta glass, only occasionally taking the 5d when I needed the lenses that I didn’t have on the Olympus.

I really liked the live view concept of the E-PL1, especially the ability to get 100% magnified feed from the sensor for manual focus, and I thought, if only I had a camera like that but with an electronic viewfinder and a 35mm sensor. Also, I really liked the in-body image stabilisation, basically the gyro-stabilised sensor that worked with any lens, which was great because I didn’t own any stabilised lenses; they were always more expensive and I had money problems practically at all times. Then Sony made first the A7 mirrorless camera, and then the A7II with the in-body image stabilisation, because they saved Olympus from financial problems and in return acquired right to use their patents, and so Olympus IBIS found its way into a 35mm mirrorless camera. I immediately loved that one, but I still couldn’t afford it, so I shrugged it off. At some point when the money situation improved, and it was already an outgoing model on heavy discount, I bought it and the FE 28-70mm kit lens, bought the Canon EF adapter to Sony FE mount, and the Minolta MD adapter to Sony FE mount, as Sony was the best platform for adapting other stuff, since it had the shortest flange distance and you could make a tube to put anything else on it easily. Then I proceeded to shoot with it for a while, but finally decided to buy a proper macro lens since most of what I shot over the years was macro and closeups, and I never got around to buying a proper macro lens, mostly for the money reasons. Then money improved even more, but I started putting it all into gold, and buying stuff only to replace stuff that fell apart, because I was saving for real estate, having been in a perpetual renting situation for decades at that point. Since I had other priorities, photography got swept to the sidelines, and I never got around to buying all the lenses I wanted, and the Canon system was what Biljana used for years at that point. Last year, I finally decided to get the Sony version of the 50mm f/1.8, since it was very cheap. Then I decided to finally get the native Sony wide angle zoom, and soon after that I decided to stop treating my photography with neglect and contempt and finally get all the equipment I wanted/needed.

So, that’s more-less the whole story of my photography from 2004 to 2025 in abbreviated form, leaving out only the experiment with early digital when I bought the Fuji S602 camera in 2002, tried using it, decided it’s not giving me the results I wanted and returned to film, and the phase before that when I didn’t really know what I was doing on film and my “technique” of getting digital files was to scan 15x10cm prints on a flatbed scanner. So, in essence, if I had to count all the camera brands I used over the decades, I started by shooting a roll of Kodak Gold 100 from a 1940-s Leica using the sunny 16 rule because it didn’t have a light meter, then borrowed my father’s Minolta X-300 occasionally to take a picture or two, then he gave it to me as a gift in 1999 or so if I remember correctly, then I got the Fuji digital, went back to Minolta and film, then switched to Olympus E-1, used it almost exclusively until late 2006 when I bought the Canon 5d and five lenses, then got the Olympus E-PL1, shot that for a few years, got the Mamiya 645 to experiment with the medium format film, bought the very cheap used Sony R1 that my son eventually got, then got the Sony A7II with kit and later the FE 90mm f/2.8 G macro lens, and that was it until last autumn. Obviously, with Leica, Minolta, Fuji, Olympus, Canon and Sony on the list, it’s obvious that I’m not really brand loyal and will use whatever suits me at the moment, but for the most part I used what I could financially afford or get my hands on, because for the most part I wasn’t in a position to choose. Since Sony happened to be the camera that I used most recently, and I was very satisfied with both the camera and the glass, I just expanded the system that I was already in, and it just happened to be quite popular at the moment which caught me by surprise when I started catching up with the new developments in photography since I was out of it. This meant that all the glass that I wanted was already made for the system and there was no “if only they made that lens that I want” thing. So, I don’t really see it as transitioning from Canon to Sony, because of the extremely convoluted and protracted way it came around; if anything, I saw it as switching from the micro four thirds Olympus to Sony 35mm, and then upgrading from there and sharing the Canon lenses with Biljana. As things stand now, the old 5d finally got replaced and both she and I now have separate 35mm mirrorless systems. If you expected me to say that I moved to Sony because it’s super awesome and so much better than what I had before, you’ll be disappointed; sure, it’s better than the Olympus, but I really liked the Canon lenses and the 5d, the image quality was excellent and I had no issues with it whatsoever, other than the weight when I wanted to pack light. My ending up with two Sony bodies and seven (I think) of their lenses was merely a continuation of the organic flow of events. In the end, since they acquired assets from both Minolta and Olympus, it actually feels like I never really left anything since I’m still within the same system, and all Canon lenses are adaptable to it.