Digital camera - SLR?

[Papa_D]

Originally Posted by DeadRiver

good luck. you can't really go wrong with canon or nikon, canon has the technology but nikon has the best "glass" (lenses). from all the reading and research of done that's what it came down to from the professional's point of view.

In many cases that's true, Nikon glass will outperform and in some cases it's not, but I think it depends upon which camera they are using as well and Canon's branded Pro lens selection is better which is the reason why I ended up with Canon in the first place.

You can't go wrong with either brand unless you need a particular Pro lens that is unavailable in the Nikon brand and I am just not a fan of third party lenses because of the compatibility issues that may arise when upgrading to newer bodies.

The fact is that I could have easily been shooting Nikon gear today if they would have had an equivalent to Canon's 100-400 IS L series lens when I needed it for sports and after reviewing what was available in the branded Pro lenses, I decided I wanted the selection that Canon had.

From what I have read, Nikon has some great cameras with regard to ease of function selection but I think much of that may be what you get used to although I get the sense that Nikon is leading the way in that regard but bodies are throw away and Canon will eventually do them one better because it's a tug of war between the two of them.

Nikon was king of the hill for a long time but Canon pushed them down that hill back in the 90's when Canon had good auto focus and Nikon's sucked so many Pro journalists and sports shooters switched to Canon and never looked back.

In the end, if forced to make a recommendation, I would recommend Canon based upon their Pro lens selection and although Nikon is gaining market share, Canon is well entrenched with all the sports shooters and photojournalists that they have to please so I assume that as before, Canon will pick up the ball at some point and run with it again with regard to their DSLR bodies but only time will tell.

Canon lenses vs Nikon lenses 2009

Nikon is lagging behind Canon in pro prime lenses category. Nikon has fewer collection, some of them are out of date, and the price is more expensive. These lenses are important for sports, portraits, wildlife and weddings.

Overall, Canon lens selection is better than Nikon in some area such as pro grade zoom lens and pro prime lens category. Canon has wider selection of pro/high end zoom lenses. On the other hand, Nikon only concentrate on making top quality lenses, but unfortunately there are not enough lens to fill gap between consumer grade lens and high grade lens, as a result, many Nikon owner might be a bit frustrated and buy third party lenses such as Sigma, Tamron and Tokina instead.

In high grade prime lens category, Nikon really need to update some of their lenses such as 85mm f/1.4, 135mm f/1.4 and add some more popular lens such as 35mm f/1.4 and 24mm f/1.4. Nikon definitely have plenty of homework if they want to compete with Canon in this category. It is an important category because many photographers use these lenses for sports, weddings, portraits, wildlife, etc.

[bestatchess]

Interesting article. I note that the 18-55 kit lens is rated as the worst lens for both Canon and Nikon. Nice marketing strategy, give the customer a bad first impression of your product by giving them a crappy lens. In my case, I went from a Canon Power Shot Pro 1, which had a good quality integrated lens (but was useless at anything above ISO 100 - so nuking people with a huge flash was my norm *), to a 20D with a crappy kit lens. I was really pissed at first at this "upgrade" to take worse quality images, until I understood that I needed to buy decent lenses. Now I have the 20D and a 1D III and a few good lenses, and I'm pretty happy.

* Here is one of my nuke shots on the bass player of The 5.6.7.8's with the Pro 1. I waited until the bouncer was busy carrying some stage diver out the door and then fired. Note that the hair on the people in the foreground is just about to ignite. I guess nobody ever takes photos of the bass player, so they put it on their myspace page.

[HRTKD]

Canon "L" lenses ROCK!! Love the Canon Speedlite 580EX flash too.

Here's a couple of pics I took last weekend with the crappy base lens that came with the body (no way I was taking an L lens into an unknown cave with me):

[Papa_D]

Originally Posted by HRTKD

Canon "L" lenses ROCK!! Love the Canon Speedlite 580EX flash too.

Here's a couple of pics I took last weekend with the crappy base lens that came with the body (no way I was taking an L lens into an unknown cave with me):

I have yet to upgrade from the 550 to the 580 so I'm glad you like it, it's on my list.

Cool cave, and at least you took a camera which I might not have done. I can't hardly stand taking a picture without an L series on the camera these days but that's not too tough to decide because I gave all my consumer glass to my father in law as a gift along with a Canon camera but the funny thing is, he rarely uses it since he got a smaller digital, the small stuff is just so much easier to Carry around when you have bad knees, a bad back, bad hips and you are pushing 80, lol.