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It's On

Nikon D300

Oh it's been quite an exciting week to be a photography geek to say the least. First Canon impresses with the prosumer 40D and new flagship 1Ds Mark III and then two days later, Nikon answers with their, quite frankly stunning D300 and their first full-frame dSLR, the D3.

For those unfamiliar with the SLR scene, the Canon/Nikon rivalry is photography's version of the PC/Mac war. That being said, one would assume that I'd be a Nikon user since as with the Mac, the Nikon user mantra is that Nikon bodies are just so much more "user-friendly" than Canon's. Sound familiar? However, I'm not a Nikon user obviously. Primarily because I've used Canon digital cameras ever since the Powershot S10 so when I transitioned over to dSLRs, I just stuck with them. And also I believe at the time I got my first Digital Rebel, Nikon really didn't have anything similar on their end. I have in the recent past mulled picking up a D80 and the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens so I can dabble but it's just too cost prohibitive. Unlike the Mac/PC scuffle, you can't share accessories (lenses in this case) cross-platform. Well ok, if you want to be really picky, you can use Nikkor lenses on Canon bodies but it's just too much of a hassle.

Now when you look at Canon's lineup and then Nikon's, I don't know about other people but I don't really see much overlap and it almost seems like the 2 companies planned it this way. In my mind, this is how the bodies line up in terms of price and features (from lowest to highest):

Nikon D40x < Canon Rebel XTi < Nikon D80 < Canon 40D < Nikon D300 < Canon 5D < Canon 1DIII < Nikon D3 < Canon 1DsIII

These 2 companies are simply alternating their products. You'll notice there's a Nikon gap between the 5D and 1DIII because Nikon does not have a prosumer full-frame that matches the 5D just yet. So I'm not sure if direct comparisons (like D40x vs XTi vs D80 or 40D vs D300 or D80 vs 40D) really work. Actually the only comparison that makes sense from a price standpoint would be the D40x vs XTi which I'd hand to the XTi simply because of the measly 3 AF points on the D40x. But it's tough to compare bodies from the XTi to the D300 range because the price and feature differences are significant enough between each that it makes it unfair to the lower-priced body. Personally, if circumstances were different, I'd seriously consider the D300 as my one and only camera. However, now that I've already drank the full-frame Kool-Aid, I'll wait to see what Canon does with the 5D revision. Probably pick up the 40D as a backup body in the meantime. Truthfully though, in this day and age, any body you get at that price range is going to be pretty kick ass. If you're completely new to SLRs, whether Canon or Nikon bodies are more "user-friendly" is inconsequential because you'll be learning everything from scratch anyway. And once you get used to one way, obviously the other way's going to feel not as friendly to you. You may also want to actually physically handle the ones you're interested in at a store since it's hard to determine the fit of the bodies to your own hands without actually feeling one personally. But just choose the one that you feel most comfortable with and that is closest to the max that you can afford (don't forget about the lenses cause they're definitely more important) and go out and take pictures! That's what you're getting it for, right?

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 23, 2007 11:51 AM.

The previous post in this blog was How Could I Resist.

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