Chip NoVaMac said:
Horses for courses they say Mike. And for our shop there a good number of "news" shops making the switch to Canon recently. The 1DmkII and the 1DsmkII are the primary reasons. As you mentioned the sensors are larger on these two cameras, and the theory goes is that they will have lower noise issues as the megapixel count goes up in the near future.
The other factor I hear is that they do not have to invest into digital specific lenses to get the wider field of view. And that if they truly need a longer telephoto, the 20D fill-in on a pinch.
There are other technical reasons for the switch also. But just as they switch now, they will switch yet again in 10 years (maybe less), if Nikon has what they need. Just as some will add or switch to the new Olympus E-3 that is rumored with their new fast pro-lenses.
Your first comment is completely non-sense. the more MP you try to cram onto a sensor, at this point, be it 1.5x, 1.3x or full frame, the more dense the pixel depth is and thusly the more noise you create.
Let's not forget that Canon and Nikon both use noise reduction in their cams. The Canon image sensors aren't the reason for the "clean" canon look but rather the Digic processing. The sensor size, as they squeeze more pixels onto it, is gonna exhibit more noise.
How much will show on, say, a 24 mp images is yet to be seen. But at this point, you're not seeing direct benefits from Canon's processor per se, but rather benefits from the Digic image processing. Same with the D2x.
I forgot that you were a salesman for cameras. I know for a fact from my local pro dealer that at most cam stores, Canon sends reps into stores and tells the locals that XX newspaper is gonna switch, that XX news agency is gonna switch.
The big one is Getty. Supposedly they were going to "stop taking all nikon files"
This was complete sludge, as upon my purchase of a D2x, I'm good to go with Getty. The only cams approved by most stock agencies are the D2x, 1ds series, 14n and 14c. The latter two aren't even made anymore. So that leaves one of each brand.
Surely Canon is currently way ahead in sports, but honestly, this whole bit about news agencies switching is generally a lot of mistruth. Maybe a few are switching and they make headlines. But on most of my shoots, all of the news folks still are using old, beat up D1's or D2h's. The only people I see shooting canon are the independent event shooters.
And we're talking local and national level shoots. Two John Kerry rallies? It was all Nikon, two people with old Pentax MF gear, and one guy with a 1d.
Bush rally that I was forced to attend? (don't like bush. love assignment money). Mostly Nikon. A few more Canons floating around. Couple of Pentax MF and Olympus gear.
All of the local election coverage I've done? Nikon all the way. And not to mention the 350+ events i've done, where it's been all Nikon on the press end, save for a couple events with Canon shooters from this other Magazine.
In reality, who really cares? Most of the time, I talk to these folks about the event, the people involved, who we should be looking for. I'm more likely to say "you should want a photo of such and such" as opposed to "my D2h is better than your 20d" or whatever.
The only issue I've ever had was some douche bag with frisky shoulders who kept elbowing me and the PJ from another newspaper. He was a canon user, but i'd have dreamed of punching him if he was a Nikon or Canon guy.
We were more worried about getting the shot. That said, when someone shoves you out of the way, you tend to stare them down and I got a good look at his face and his gear. I had the knuckles ready, believe me!
And as you guys might know from the PC/Mac debate, PC companies offer much higher commissions. To my knowledge Canon is a little more liberal than nikon in that regard. So they definitely pass on some perks to the Canon salesmen....I'd be leery of anything a salesperson says (no offense chip, as you're generally pretty knowledgable, but the camera business is about as corrupt in sales as any...these people SHOULD ask you the tough questions. Might weed out the good ones from the baddies.)
