Well I can't say I truly belong on this thread yet as I'm not yet an A7x owner, but I've 'just' part-ex'd my one remaining Canon camera body to pre-order the A7rII. It's a bit of a risk for me, but I've realised that over the last two years the Canon 1D Mark IV has only come out of the house for work purposes, and never because I wanted to shoot. As good a camera as it is, the old saying of 'the best camera is the one you have with you' was starting to ring true, as I never had it with me!
After a brief foray into the world of the Olympus EM-1 (great camera but bad quality control, sub-par durability, and the combination of a Diffraction Limited Aperture that rendered shooting below f/8 impossible and the Micro Four-Thids sensor just not providing enough for me), I've decided that Mirrorless is possibly the next path for me.
What was the deciding factor? Obviously the new advances in auto-focus, sensor quality / tech, DR and High ISO performance have all been major contributing factors, but I think what has largely made me switch is the apathy from Canon toward their users and their tech. The fact that Magic Lantern still has a place on Canon Cameras this many years on after the 5D Mark II is proof that Canon cripple their cameras so as to drive people to buy the more expensive gear.
So I had a WFT for my 1D Mark IV - this was actually proof to me that Canon make a basic piece of equipment and then whack a MASSIVE premium on top of it because 'only pro's buy it'. Well, yeah, they do, but that doesn't mean I'm happy spending £600 on a stupid Wireless Transceiver for the three shoots a year that I actually require it for, just because you think that pro's are rolling in the money and can afford to buy it. If there was a significant performance increase over consumer grade stuff, then thats fair enough to justify the price-tag, but the WFT is so poorly implemented by Canon on their pro-range that getting through the initial set-up is like pulling teeth - once you've got it configured, you only stand a 50% chance of it actually doing what it was supposed to do in the first place! Then Canon go and bring the WFT functionality to their basic consumer-grade DSLR's, basically because every other manufacturer has had in-body WiFi for the past 2 years and Canon are thinking their loosing the consumer market - Good on you, but then don't release two cameras that are the wrong side of £3400 and forget to put WiFi on the thing...
Even Canon's marketing is now riddled with this new ethos - Put Canon and Nikon at a (relatively minor) trade show (thinking the London Camera Exchange days they do down in Southampton), and Canon's stand will be maybe the side of two tables - if you're lucky there will be a few cameras there to play with and a couple of rather disinterest-looking staff. Nikon would have a stand that is at least twice as big, with every DSLR they make and a variety of lenses (though I've heard similar rants from disgruntled Nikon users recently too - maybe this is just the way of the DSLR industry now?)
The last trade-show I went to, even the Sigma stand was more engaging than Canon, with the staff showing interest in the people passing them and trying to find out more about their customer base.
Rant over - i know it seems like I really dislike Canon from this post, but its just not the case. I started out with Canon and will always love the kit they make - but maybe they're just forgotten who's buying their gear. If you can make something great, then why not make it great instead of just 'okay'?
For what they do right, their DSLR's are good! very good! Their AF system is(was?) revolutionary, and the Canon glass is superb. Will I ever sell all my Canon gear? Nope, as I love my 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM (definitely getting a EF-to-Emount adapter for that one!). Oh, and I have a 400mm f/2.8 IS USM that I'll never be able to afford to replace, so like it or not, I'll always be a Canon user at some level. Though to quote a number of photographers, Canon might have just become the worlds largest third-party lens manufacturer. Certainly if my A7x plans pan-out, thats what they'll be to me for the next few years of my ProTog life.
Its 3AM now, so some of this was probably a little rambling / ranting. Either way, i'm REALLY looking forward to getting hold of the A7rII - it looks like a brilliant camera - just hope it lives up to its hype!