Camera Labs

I had Konica Minolta SLR`s and so did my wife. Made sense to try Sony.
At the time the Canon 400 didn`t impress me, too small and the Nikon D80 was too big, and heavy much more solid.
The 5D was our favourite, but too expensive at the time.

The Sony A100 felt right. The twin lens kit was very good value and a good introduction into the world of DSLR`s. It worked well for 4 years until it developed intermittent electronic issues in hot / cold weather and humid conditions.
The problem with Sony lenses is the high price of the lenses and lack of availability, not like you see any shop stock them. With IS/VR build into the body, why have not have cheaper lenses?

The lower range of the Canon DSLR still feel like cheap toys compared to Nikon. Due to the previous experience I wanted a more weather resistant body. So back to look at Nikon and Canon, the 7D was a great package compared to the D300. Felt more comfortable and was cheaper.

Also really struck me, I maybe wrong here, that most Canon people actually have Canon lenses. More Nikon People use other brands lenses, why is that?

Anyway, I am not hang up on Canon or Nikon or Sony or Pentax, we looked at what was available, how it felt, how much and most importantly the upgrade path for lenses.

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

I don't know about the Canon owner using Canon lenses more, maxjj - this is probably quite a small survey.

I've never heard of a Nikon owner using a converted Canon lens, whereas when the 14-24mm came out Canon owners bought it to fit their bodies.

All in all though, they're much of a muchness in terms of lenses. Canon has a larger range, and more mid price "professional" L lenses, whereas with Nikon you don't have fixed aperture F4 zoom lenses all the way through to 300mm.

In terms of Zeiss lenses on another international forum, I'd say 60-70% of the posters are Canon bodies. It's not that there's a lack of quality in Canon primes, but people like the different look that Zeiss renders.

Why Canon....? Quite simple! I wanted a step-up from my FZ28 to do some more serious astrophotography. My budget was as low as possible, as I didnt exactly know if I wanted to stay with the hobby. Well, the 350D from Canon is one of the cheapest used DSLRs on the market, with a very very low noise sensor compared to same priced DSLRs, as the Nikon D100. And, not to forget, Canon's quite a bit cheaper in The Netherlands and Canon have the 70-200 f/4L zoom, which Nikon dont have. Half a year ago I bought the zoom, so I wasnt exactly searching for a reason to go Canon. Now waiting to get a nice 50D-offer though:)

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

I live in the Netherlands. Canon is not really cheaper. And again you get what you pay for. There is not a cheapskaters way to the best of te best to the lowest price. Maybe sometimes canon is cheaper with some products but with other products Nikon is cheaper so it's about the same in the end.

You get what you pay for. If you buy a 50% cheaper 3rd party lens (compared to a similar specified nikkor or canon lens) you don't get the same quality, not in build quality and usually not even in optical quality. You read many stories on internet about third party lenses and most of them end up in : I bought a nikkor (or canon) lens instead.

Doesn't matter what you buy as long as you realisze that you get what you pay for. Maybe Canon body can be cheaper because they have 10% smaller sensor then a Nikon but they also have more megapixels so noise performance dynamic range, color bit depth etc is 10% to 20% better on a nikon. Its not that the nikon is more expensive ten a canon you just get what you pay for (if you pay more you get more).

Canon 60D maybe cheaper then a Nikon D7000. But the extra costs are justified. 2 SD cards slots, magnisium alloy body, bigger sensor, better color depth better dynamic range, better noise performance, more focus points on the Nikon. Again you get what you pay for. As a matter of fact I think the canon 60D is overpriced for what it is.

Same story goes if you compare a Nikon D5100 and a Canon 600D.
Maybe canon is a bit cheaper but the Nikon has better performance because of the bigger and better sensor. So if you pay 10% more for a Nikon its because of the camera is at least 10% better in noise performance, color depth and dynamic range.

So price/performance wise canon and Nikon are on par with each other. One may be a bit cheaper with slighty less performance, the other has a bit better performance but is a bit more expensive. In the end what you paid for is what you get.

On some Canon users using Nikon lenses but not the other way around, that's due in a significant part due to physics. The difference in mount distances means Canon bodies are one of the more "receptive" mounts retaining infinity focus on non-native lenses. Going the other way, you can't get infinity focus with a Canon lens on Nikon, so outside of macro uses there is little incentive to do so. So occasionally there is the odd Nikon lens that has enough of an advantage over any Canon equivlent for photographers to go this manual route.

In practical terms, the difference in sensor sizes is insignificant. Assuming it is 10% difference in area, you're looking at less than 1/6 of a stop. The current more affordable Nikons may have a slight advantage in sensor technology as they have more recently refresh while Canon are still reusing the same sensor from about 2 years ago, but the next wave should be upon us soon and it'll be interesting to see where we go from there.

Side observation: not just on this forum but in general, I do get the impression that Nikon users are more... to put it nicely, more enthusiastic about brand

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I think both Canon and Nikon users are very enthusiastic about their brand, Popo...

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Sony α77V/VG-C77AM/α350/18-70/70-400 G SSM/NEX-5/18-55 OSS/Lowepro Pro Trekker 600 AW/CompuTrekker AW/Nova 140 AW/Street & Field gear/Toploader Pro 75 AW. And a huge wishlist...

My photos on Flickr...

I know you get all extremes of any brand, but definitely Nikon users seem to shout about it more than average! There may be some cultral difference in the relative markets too.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

on the contrary popo,from all the surfing that I've done over the last years,it appears that Canon users are more enthusiastic about their brand,by a large margin too. Also,I observed that a lot of them are agressive,in the way that they defend their brand with arguments they don't even believe in or understand. And for a lot of them,it seemed Nikon had better options for the money & for their needs,which is funny.

the ergonomics are something very subjective,but as a constructive argument,I would say I almost never move my hands or fingers from the normal shooting position,nor do I take my eye away from the viewfinder. that for me is the best in terms of ergonomics. (& it will get better with more pro model cameras,since they have a button for everything you need)

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

Definitely incorrect interpretation of physical fact is a common occurrance regardless of the system. I guess I might notice that one more with Nikon since they traditionally has had lower MP counts and there is a lot of pure rubbish written about that in support of it.

Unrelated to that, I have noticed that some Nikon users tend to make statements along the lines of wanting to be one with the camera. I don't hear that on other systems and I always found that curious.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

"at the heart of the image",remember?:D

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

I got this feeling lately, too.
Only Pentax users seem to be even more enthusiastic but there aren't so many of them. Still I really like Pentax.

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

I don't know anyone else with a Nikon. Everybody seems to buy canon here in Holland. If you go out on the streets, parks, zoo etc. 9 out of 10 chance that if you see somebody with a camera they either have Canon DSLR or some form of compact zoom camera.

My former job where I worked, I was not interested in photography back then, my colleages all had a Canon DSLR without exception (the ones that had intrest in photography anyway).

So in Holland I don't think Nikon is populair or anything. But that does not stop me from being enthusiatic about it.

When my first child was born(20 years ago) I
had a Zeiss ikon medium format camera that was completely unsuitable with the occasion. So I've asked around ,there was no internet then, and a friend showed me his Canon F1, a true pro camera, and I was hooked. Sadly my budget wasn't enough for such a beauty, but still with Canon on my mind I bought a Canon compact film camera that served me well for about 5 years until it was lost. About 8 years later, in a trip to Anchorage Alaska I've entered in the only camera shop there and the dealer let me handle a few cameras and again Canon was the winner, namely the Rebel G SLR. A year and half ago, after reading Gordon's reviews I've decided to jump into digital photography and opted for the 550D because I already had a few Canon lenses. The 550D was not in stock in the shop and I've tried the 50D. I liked how it feels in my hands and got it with a 50mm 1.4 lens. So, in my case, Canon got my business mostly because I liked how it feels in my hands and the fact that once I've invested in the system, I saw no reason to spend much more in another one.

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Radu
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon 50D , SIGMA 10-20 f3.5 ,Canon EF 24-105 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro Canon EF 50/1.4 ,Canon EF 85 f1.8,Canon EF-S17-85 4-5.6 Old Tamron 28-300 inherited from my Canon Rebel G film camera
Canon580EXII
http://www.errre.net

OK, that's quite right. That's what I saw here in Germany, too. 60% Canon, 20% Nikon, 20% whatever there's left.

Looking at the DSLRs of some friends of mine it's looking a bit different.
Nikon x5 (brother, colleague, fire fighter colleague, friend, photographer from around the corner)
Pentax x4 (friend and his father, ex-colleague, another friend)
Canon x5 (brother, sister, brother-in-law, a photographer I see everytime when something's happening in this town, myself)

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

It's probably 75% Canon in Dubai. Canon prices are closer in line with the rest of the world and Nikon prices are steeper. For me it was a simple case of ergonomics - at the end of the day it's just a tool and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a shot taken well (in good lighting conditions) between a D40 and a D3X with good glass on the internet.

Canon does seem to spend more in product placement and advertising though.