Actually it's all about the controls and what you feel comfortable with. For D-SLRs I happen to like the way Nikon has the controls laid out on the D-SLRs.
Not a bad reason at all for sticking with Canon. My advice tends to be pick up and handle different cameras. See which one fits your hands and has a control layout that you like. And to remember once you start buying lenses and certain accessories, it's really expensive to change brands.
Agreed. When I was looking to move from a manual SLR (Pentax K-1000) to an autofocus SLR ... 1990s ... Pentax was pretty weak (as was also my lens collection, which gave me the freedom), Minolta just rubbed me wrong and I didn't care for what Nikon was doing at the time, so I went with Canon.
Ironic, since at the time I already had a "Nikon System", but a specialty one: the Nikonos V underwater camera, yet went with Canon for my land photography. There was no disadvantage to doing this, since the UW lenses can't effectively be used on land, and the Nikonos wasn't an Autofocus, so it didn't offer any advantages over a Pentax K-1000.
lol - that is
... for so many years, still, so in awe of the 645's. Love the medium format, but my wallet and talent are both too thin to warrant such a fine camera.
I rented a 645 on a few occasions...indeed quite nice. Was severely tempted to buy one just a few years ago as "film gear" prices were getting beaten up.
Funny, how years ago, when digitals where first coming out, becoming more popular, the Luddite in me railed against them,,, as I love film, how it captures the images (the science/physics behind it), and having in a B&W darkroom (and colour slides) for years. Now, hate to see how many $$$'s I'd be spending developing all the film shots that digital gives freedom to shoot, edit, delete, view on large monitor, etc. before printing the exact ones you desire. The instant feedback and gratification, ability to store and share images... awesome.
I was a fairly late adopter to digital, at least on the higher end. Used to buy Nikon film P&S, but been buying Canon digital P&S's since the A80. I didn't really read a ton of magazine reviews or the like, since I had the good fortune to have access to an Apple Quicktake 100 in the office, and later a Canon 10D, which gave a good reality check on the limitations of the early stuff. When I "finally" bought my own, the first dSLR was the Canon 20D. Canon here because my film SLR lenses.
Since then, I added a second 20D, had one of the two of these fail (shutter switch) and added a Canon 7D in 2010 ... which was actually part of a much larger plan to finally upgrade my underwater system to digital and finally replace my Nikon Nikonos V film system which I used 1990-2009.
So while I'm mostly now all converted to Canon, I do still have my Nikonos V system ... even though its not been in the water for a year ... and I had almost 20 years of overlap where I was routinely using both, it's hard for me to vote on this survey, since it effectively is asking Canon gear
-or- Nikon gear, while I have had a significant investment in both, for very specific reasons / capabilities.
And FWIW, now that I have 50+ dives with the (Canon 7D dSLR + Ikelite Housing) UW system, I can say that it clearly has some great features, but I still prefer the old film Nikonos for its substantially smaller size and lighter weight...if nothing else, the old Nikkor 15mm WA is still the best UW lens I've ever used ... absolutely sharp from corner to corner, due to its front lens element being in direct contact with the water and designed for that optically.
-hh
