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Why I Shoot Nikon

Scott

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After John posted his reason 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.

why-i-shoot-nikon

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 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?

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Comments

14 responses to “Why I Shoot Nikon”

  1. Vu Avatar
    Vu

    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.

    Reply
  2. Alan Nielsen Avatar
    Alan Nielsen

    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.

    Reply
  3. Alan Nielsen Avatar
    Alan Nielsen

    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.

    Reply
  4. Alan Nielsen Avatar
    Alan Nielsen

    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.

    Reply
  5. Gabrielle Kai Photography Avatar
    Gabrielle Kai Photography

    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!

    Reply
  6. Gabrielle Kai Photography Avatar
    Gabrielle Kai Photography

    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!

    Reply
  7. Gabrielle Kai Photog Avatar
    Gabrielle Kai Photog

    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!

    Reply
  8. Paul Retherford Avatar
    Paul Retherford

    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.:-)

    Reply
  9. scottwyden Avatar
    scottwyden

    Thanks for commenting Paul, however I never switched companies. I've been using Nikon since it my first Nikon was given to me

    Reply
  10. scottwyden Avatar
    scottwyden

    Thanks for commenting Paul, however I never switched companies. I've been using Nikon since it my first Nikon was given to me

    Reply
  11. Paul Retherford Avatar
    Paul Retherford

    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.:-)

    Reply
  12. Erik Lauri Avatar
    Erik Lauri

    I shoot Canon and here’s why:
    When I started more seriously, although not that serious, photography I used a Sony DSC-W1 compact camera. Great little camera during that time if you ask me. But I wanted more as a upcoming photographer so I looked around and I had basically two choices in mind: 300D or 350D. These were both extremely popular cameras at the time. But then the 400D came out shortly after I was beginning to look for a dSLR and I bought that one so I had a brand new camera.

    I did however consider a D70 for a while but I decided to stay with Canon since I had already gotten myself one, along with a lens or two. This was a couple of years ago when the 400D hit the market.

    Just some six months ago I sold my 400D and bought myself the 7D. Today I would never shoot Nikon. And it’s nothing other than the fact that I’ve grown into Canon and its interface. Hell, I like pretty much all camera brands. But for me, since I’ve been using Canon for a few years, the interface and the feeling is just right. The next step will be full format, but until then, I’ll probably be able to suck out a few years out of my 7D.

    Reply
  13. Nick Avatar
    Nick

    I shoot Nikon. Reason 1. I was a hold-out on DSLRs. and continued to shoot film small and medium format, though I had a Panasonic “superzoom” also. There were a lot of reasons I waited but one of them was I wanted an affordable “nifty-fifty” in crop sensor (which was all I could afford given FF prices at the time). Nikon came out with their 35 1.8, Canon did not. So I bought me a Nikon D5000 body, the aforementioned lens, and have remained with Nikon.

    Now I stay with Nikon and will continue to do so because Nikon outsources its sensors and apparently Canon does not. One of the review sites I swear by is DXOMark. To me, nothing is more important than the sensor. I want every bit of performance I can squeeze out of it. In DXO’s rankings Nikon and Sony dominate the top 10 (not counting medium format digitals). Canon, last check, I don’t think appeared until 18th (don’t quote on the list). I also prefer Nikon’s new glass and subjectively you seem to get more for your money imo. But mainly it’s due to their cameras, objectively rated, having better sensors in both their FF and crop cameras.

    Reply
  14. Deeve Lee Avatar
    Deeve Lee

    I think that the choice between Canon or Nikon will not make a big difference, amateur good photography will get great images with any camera. It’s only a matter of psychological comfort.

    Reply

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