Originally posted by beholder3 I wonder what will be left of Sony, once Canon brings out a dslm brother of their 5D.
I don't think Sony is going to die anytime soon. They are the masters of "Let's throw a lot of products at the wall see what sticks." They have had the money and the resources to do that for decades. Now they have a winner in their mirrorless cameras. The only reason they are in the position they are in now is because Canon and Nikon fell sleep behind the wheel. Now Canon and Nikon have come out of their respective comas to find out that the bus left the station a while ago. I don't know about Nikon but Canon and Sony are massive diversified companies. They can lose money in one area and because of revenue from other areas, they can stay in the game for the long haul.
As to actual user I know of (wedding and portrait photographers), these are guys that buy cameras and lenses all the time, one went from Canon to Fuji two years ago. One is using Sony and Canon in parallel, gradually favoring Sony and buying more Sony and almost no new Canon gear. One ditched all Canon gear in favor of all Nikon stuff with some Sony 6000 class bodies and lenses. I stopped full time wedding work back in 2007 when I saw the rise of digital and comodatiztion of our beloved industry. I was a Canon shooter for weddings. I love my K1 and my limited FAs for some personal and occasional paid work. My mirrorless camera (for occasional 4K video work) was a lone Panasonic GX8 with two lenses which I sold and later bought a Fuji XT-2. If I had to start all over again, I will probably go with all Sony gear. The only reason I did not buy Sony and tried Fuji is the cost of lenses. Thinking that in the long haul the total cost of the system will be lower. The other reason was the form factor of the Sony which I still do not like.
The digicam game is totally out of control now that Panasonic is jumping into the FF game. Way too many players and choice. Just like other industries, we may see consolidations. It is bound to happen. The question is who is going to buy who and if the technology or the platform is adaptable. Let's not forget mighty Samsung gave up on camera biz. If I had to guess, my money would be on the bigger players. Unfortunately, smaller players, Pentax included, are in danger of extinction.