Digital Home Thoughts: Luminous Landscape on Nikon vs. Canon

"There are two major brands of 35mm camera in the pro and prosumer camera market - Canon and Nikon. Yes, Pentax, Sony, Olympus and a couple of others have their niches, but Nikon and Canon between them share the majority of the marketplace. Both companies have loaner and rapid repair programs for pros, and rental houses around the world typically carry bodies and lenses of both brands, while rental facilities for the other brands are almost nonexistent. Economics being what it is, few photographers own both systems at the same time. A couple of bodies and a selection of pro-grade lenses runs between $10-$20,000, and once a decision and investment has been made few bother to switch, or if they do so it isn't more often than every decade or two. Also, brand loyalty comes into play because no one likes admitting that they may have made an inappropriate buying decision. We see this carried to its extreme with the adolescent fanboy attitudes displayed on some web forums and camera clubs in defense of one brand over another."

The choice of camera body - especially the choice between Nikon and Canon - is an almost religious-level decision for some photographers, but as always the delightful Luminous Landscape has a thought-provoking article on the subject. As someone who switched from Canon to Nikon myself, I found myself agreeing with many of his points - though to be fair I had fairly limited experience with DSLRs at that point, switching to Nikon after owning only one Canon DSLR. This article was written in January of 2008, so the landscape has changed somewhat since then, but it's a great read for anyone in either the Canon or Nikon camp. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the article after you've read it!