Sunday, September 28, 2008

Thanks and a question re Nikon or Canon

Hey Mike,
 
I just want to say thanks again for all the great information you have provided us when it comes to photography.  Photography is something that I have always been interested and wanted to pursue further, however time and income always seemed to prohibit that.  Now those two items are slowly becoming less of a problem, and I am looking forward to finally going forth with this.  I did have questions in regards to purchasing camera's and accessories. 
 
I noticed that you used a majority of Nikon cameras.  I got a chance to use your extra camera yesterday and was pleased with it.  However I have always been interested in Canon's.  What I am wondering is what you see to be pro's and con's of the Nikon SLR's over the Canon SLR's.  I read somewhere that the Nikon's can use almost any lens that the company has manufactured dating back to 1956 or something like that, where the current Canon's can only use lenses manufactured as far back as 1986 or around there.  Seeing as I have no collection of lenses, this does not concern me too much.  I suppose this will be a good start to my decision of which camera to purchase. 
 
Thanks again for all the help and advice you and your helpers provided.  I look forward to hearing from you and will keep in touch with questions and comments I acquire over time. 
 
Erik P

Reply:

Hey thanks for coming the the workshop and I'm very glad you learned and had a good time taboot.

When I bought my first digital slr I did not have any lenses that would fit either nikon and canon.  I did have a bunch of pre 1986 canon's, but they wouldn't auto focus and now-a-days you very much need auto focus.  I also had some of the best glass made, it was a 60mm macro for my film Minolta 7xi, probably the most advanced camera ever made, nothing today does what it could do so long ago.  The current batch of slrs depend on autofocus so they do not give you a focus screen worth anything.  My canon ftb, ae1, and a1 all had great focus screens.  But none of my digital slr's nikon d100, d2x, and now d300, have good focus screens, although in the d2x you could replace the focus screen.

My opinion is that both Nikon and Canon make excellent cameras.  Look at features per dollar that you care about.  Also look at the lenses you expect to buy over the next few years and price them.  Then let it be an economic decision.  OR figure out the canon you'd buy and play with it at the store.  Then figure out the nikon you'd buy and do the same.  Then play with them side by side.  There are basic differences in the design of each, but you have to feel them yourself.  What's important to the reviewer may not be important to you.  AND MAKE SURE you thoroughly review the cameras, look at imaging-resource.com and dpreview.com.  Look at the images they produce, they should be the same quality now-a-days.

It's important that the viewfinder is as large as you can afford.

There is a canon slr that does movies now, and the Nikon D90 does too, so look at them even if movies aren't important.

Megapixels are for enlargements, a 6mp camera can do 8x10's perfectly and I have a 40"x60" detailed print of a scene at Yosemite so megapixels aren't necessary anymore, think features and cost.  Here's the Yosemite image over my fireplace: http://www.besphoto.com/common/images/9707%20Controlled%20Burn%20of%20Yosemite,%20Yosemite%20Valley,%20Yosemite%20NP,%20CA%20fireplace.jpg

Your very welcome to call me to discuss this further.

Mike

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