After John (http://johnmilleker.com) posted this on Twitter I decided to write a short blog post about why I shoot Nikon. It is a very simple answer, but not as simple as John’s.
When I decided to change majors from music to photography my grandfather gave me my biological fathers old camera gear. One Fuji body and lens. That camera was already on its last legs so I asked my grandfather what he shoots and he said Nikons. I went to the store and bought a Nikon N80 kit. Soon after I had 3 bodies and a bunch of lenses. When my grandfather died he left me all of his gear. I’m talking classics like original Nikon F’s. He also left me about 8 lenses and a bunch of accessories. To this day I have been loving Nikon, its performance and comfort.
When my friend Andrew (http://www.ayaniuk.com) asked was switching to Digital a few years ago he asked me what to get. I told him that if I didn’t have Nikon gear given to me I would have went with Canon. But now I think I still would have went with Nikon because of its FX sensor. However if I did go with Canon I would have a 5d Mark II for sure!
Why did you choose your camera brand?
Why I shoot Canon? It goes way back to my high school days. I’ve always been a techie and had been shooting Pentax, Minolta, and Nikon manual focus gear. I ended up settling on Nikon MF as that’s what my uncle gave me. I loved my Nikkormat and Nikkors, but when it was time to switch to AF, I ended up doing a ton of research. At the time, early 90′s, Canon’s AF systems were far superior to the Nikons and Nikon’s decision to keep the F mount was actually a compromise in my view. When Canon swtiched to the EF mount they had designed it with forward compatibility in mind. With a larger mount, you could use bigger glass elements and create faster primes or supertelephotos. An area that Canon is still ahead of Nikon. Canon also put the focusing motor in the lens, which made them more expensive, but it made more sense in my mind as you could optimize the design to get the fastest focusing possible (can you tell I’m an engineer). It seems that Nikon is just starting to realize that with the introduction of AF-S lenses. It only took them 20 yrs to catch on :) I also didn’t really feel like if I was going to invest in AF, that I would really want to use MF lens…kind of defeats the purpose. It was a bigger initial investment, but why invest in obsolete technology. I loved my Nikon AI and AI-S lenses, but the new AF ones were better. I also didn’t have any investment in Canon FD mount lenses to it was a pretty easy decision. As far as DSLRs go, I much prefer the Canon ergonomics over the Nikon’s. Of course this is personal preference and probably stems from my history with EOS bodies. I do love the incredible level of customization on the Nikons, but there are almost too many buttons and most commonly accessed function require a 2 hand operation (hold button and twist dial). So there’s my $0.02.
I chose Canon because my dad shot Canon film from before I was born until about a few years ago when he moved to digital. It was just a name I was familiar with and wanted to stick with. Did I look at Nikon? Yup. But that familiarity with the Canon brand just stuck. I didn’t know anything about the technologies when I chose. Although, even now after reading lots of reviews, I’d probably still choose Canon.
For me, it’s definitely because of the ease of use. I love the rock-star user-interface – so easy to use and navigate. It just feels *right* in my hand!
Canon cameras have been in my hands for over 25 years now. I am now 35. I grew up doing Photography in Yearbook and they always had Canon. Thought Andre Agassi was awesome too. Why would you switch companies when over 25 years you can count on two hands the amount of problems with LOTS of gear being used. Canon also has something like 90% of the market share which allows them to offer superb products. Not going to say Canon is the best BUT they are in the top two.:-)
Thanks for commenting Paul, however I never switched companies. I've been using Nikon since it my first Nikon was given to me
Canon cameras have been in my hands for over 25 years now. I am now 35. I grew up doing Photography in Yearbook and they always had Canon. Thought Andre Agassi was awesome too. Why would you switch companies when over 25 years you can count on two hands the amount of problems with LOTS of gear being used. Canon also has something like 90% of the market share which allows them to offer superb products. Not going to say Canon is the best BUT they are in the top two.:-)
Thanks for commenting Paul, however I never switched companies. I've been using Nikon since it my first Nikon was given to me