Convince me to switch to Canon

[Dao]

Canon starts with a letter "C" while Nikon starts with letter "N". So C is always ahead of N. And there is a reason why Apple products are so popular. It is simply Apple starts with letter "A".

 

[table1349]

I've had this conversation with some photographer friends recently, and I'm interested to hear you all weigh in on it. I shoot Nikon because I find the build quality to be superb, I love the feel of the cameras in my hand, and I love Nikon optics. However, there are drawbacks as there are on any system, and I have had Canonites point out things like color reproduction/skin tones that are different among the two. So, set aside the fact that I am already heavily invested in Nikon, and set aside the fact that it is the photographer not the camera that makes good photos, why should I switch to Canon? Convince me.

If you have to ask....... We don't want you.

 

[Derrel]

Canon saves on card storage space by shooting at lower megapixels in several categories. Instead of 36 megapixels, you can shoot 22 megapixel images. Or 20 megapixels. Or 18 megapixels. Using fewer megapixels helps save Earth's resources! Shoot Canon, the lower-megapixel-picker-upper.

 

[runnah]

Canon saves on card storage space by shooting at lower megapixels in several categories. Instead of 36 megapixels, you can shoot 22 megapixel images. Or 20 megapixels. Or 18 megapixels. Using fewer megapixels helps save Earth's resources! Shoot Canon, the lower-megapixel-picker-upper.

Best reason so far: Derrel uses Nikon.

 

[tevo]

Best reason so far: Derrel uses Nikon.

/thread

So far I've seen no compelling reason to shoot Canon over Nikon...

Nikon Master Race it is.

 

[jaomul]

I went from canon to Nikon. They are both the same but different.

 

[astroNikon]

If you are catholic/eastern orthodox, then Canon is a better camera because you can say that you have been Canonized.


Oh drat, I have the wrong camera lol

 

[TCampbell]

I really don't know Canon specifics but today's technology is so good I think it's really pulling hairs. Yes, Nikon favors greens, Canons yellow. Big whoopie! Nikon's AF system is unmatched except at the top. Trust me, I have seconds shooting Mk II's missing focus a lot.

I've shot a 5D3 more than a few times and the AF was garbage in low light; my 6 year old D700 focuses far better in less light.

The principal reason I shoot Nikon is because I NEVER have to worry about my AF. It hits and it tracks perfectly, I never have to second guess. I'd say I miss one in five hundred shots because of AF error. If that.

I get this from time to time... my guess is you probably don't know the 5D III focus system. I would hazard a guess that many and possibly even *most* 5D III owners don't know the 5D III focus system. Canon has a 47 page document on the focus system of the camera (which is amazing, btw) and yet the manual not only does not come with the camera, they don't even make reference to where someone should go download it. The manual's explanation of the focus modes is fairly weak. The 47 page document is pretty good. Canon also has some video tutorials which are great at explaining all the differences and why you'd pick one mode over another.

If you're focusing on a tight area with strong contrast and fine detail and want to make sure the camera SPECIFICALLY locks on to that really tight area... there's a mode for that. If you're trying to to shoot something in lower light and/or with weak contrast and want to expand the AF zone... there's a mode for that too. If you're willing to let the camera pick any focus point it wants and surrender all control, there's a mode for that -- but if you only semi-want to surrender control are willing to let the camera pick the AF point but only if it falls within a region of the image that you picked... there's a mode for THAT.

And that's just how it handles the AF points... it also has an intelligent tracking and recognition system which is both configurable and tunable as to how it tracks subjects around the image.

 

[DaninMD]

I really don't know Canon specifics but today's technology is so good I think it's really pulling hairs. Yes, Nikon favors greens, Canons yellow. Big whoopie! Nikon's AF system is unmatched except at the top. Trust me, I have seconds shooting Mk II's missing focus a lot.

I've shot a 5D3 more than a few times and the AF was garbage in low light; my 6 year old D700 focuses far better in less light.

The principal reason I shoot Nikon is because I NEVER have to worry about my AF. It hits and it tracks perfectly, I never have to second guess. I'd say I miss one in five hundred shots because of AF error. If that.

I get this from time to time... my guess is you probably don't know the 5D III focus system. I would hazard a guess that many and possibly even *most* 5D III owners don't know the 5D III focus system. Canon has a 47 page document on the focus system of the camera (which is amazing, btw) and yet the manual not only does not come with the camera, they don't even make reference to where someone should go download it. The manual's explanation of the focus modes is fairly weak. The 47 page document is pretty good. Canon also has some video tutorials which are great at explaining all the differences and why you'd pick one mode over another.

If you're focusing on a tight area with strong contrast and fine detail and want to make sure the camera SPECIFICALLY locks on to that really tight area... there's a mode for that. If you're trying to to shoot something in lower light and/or with weak contrast and want to expand the AF zone... there's a mode for that too. If you're willing to let the camera pick any focus point it wants and surrender all control, there's a mode for that -- but if you only semi-want to surrender control are willing to let the camera pick the AF point but only if it falls within a region of the image that you picked... there's a mode for THAT.

And that's just how it handles the AF points... it also has an intelligent tracking and recognition system which is both configurable and tunable as to how it tracks subjects around the image.

link to that document?

 

[wickie44]

I think it's 6 of one half a dozen of the other


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[robbins.photo]

Umm.. because the Canon jackets don't make you look like your wearing one of those killer bee getups from the old saturday night live?

 

[snerd]

link to that document?

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2012/1dx_guidebook.shtml

Link straight to pdf for phone http://downloads.canon.com/CDLC/EOS-1D_X_AF_Guide_for_Smartphones.pdf

For larger version pdf http://downloads.canon.com/CDLC/AF-guide-EOS-1DX-firmware-v.2.0_CUSA.pdf

The 5D3 has the same AF system as the 1Dx

 

[Derrel]

Canon has a 47 page document on the focus system of the camera (which is amazing, btw) and yet the manual not only does not come with the camera, they don't even make reference to where someone should go download it. The manual's explanation of the focus modes is fairly weak. The 47 page document is pretty good. Canon also has some video tutorials which are great at explaining all the differences and why you'd pick one mode over another.

That's because when Canon introduced the 1D Mark III, there was a two-year window in which tens of thousands of professional sports and news shooters suffered through repeated 1D Mark III autofocus failures...after Canon had hyped the sh*+_ out of the 1D III's AF system as, "The world's most advanced ever," but it could NOT FOCUS properly...even with experts using the camera...the 1D Mark III autofocus issue was a debacle of thge highest order for Canon and its users. Many switched to Nikon to get a camera that could actually FOCUS properly on STILL targets.

It took Canon an entire failed professional model to figure out how to do multi-point AF right...remember, at THAT time, Canon's 5D was using the 9-point diamond array that had been borrowed from the 30D, the APS-C camera. Most Canon users just lock it on center-AF-ONLY and never use anything else.

Rob Galbraith DPI: An analysis of EOS-1D Mark III autofocus performance

So...Canon now maintains a 47-page "double secret probabtion" document available to assuage the fears of those who got burned so badly in their last focus fiasco. On the flip side...used Canon 1D Mark III cameras are DIRT CHEAP...saw one yesterday in Pro Photo Supply for $995...same-generation Nikon D3 is $1,850. LOTS of cheap, used Canon 1D Mark III bodies available at 1/8 of their new price!!!

 

[Derrel]

Now THIS, this was some funny ****!!! SOme of the introduction to the web site's lonmg,2-year article series on the 1D III AF debacle. Canon--the company that invented AF that grew WORSE under bright, sunny,warm weather!!!!!!! HILARIOUS!!! The 1D Mark III was the reason so many people left Canon and went to Nikon...to be able to buy a Nikon D3...to get a camera that could actually FOCUS properly.

Q. What are the camera's autofocus problems?

It has four, all of which are related to the camera's autofocus performance:

1. Under certain conditions, the EOS-1D Mark III has difficulty acquiring focus initially. In a multi-frame burst, the camera will sometimes shoot three to five frames before a moving subject comes into focus, and occasionally a moving subject will not actually snap into focus before the burst is completed.
2. Under certain conditions, the camera is unable to properly track a moving subject. We've shot numerous sequences of 20+ frames where no more than five or six frames are in focus, even when the AF point has been on the subject throughout.
3. Focus can shift slightly but constantly at times when the subject isn't moving. Under certain conditions, the subject may not actually come into focus through a sequence of frames, even though the point of focus can be seen to be shifting throughout the sequence. This is true whether the camera is set to AI Servo and focus is active throughout the sequence, or when it's set to One Shot and focus is activated between each frame.
4. When tracking a subject that's moving somewhat erratically, the camera is far too quick to shift focus elsewhere - to the background or, with a field sport like soccer, to a player passing through in the foreground. With the first three problems, autofocus settings changes don't make things better or worse. With this problem, Custom Function III-2, AI Servo Tracking Sensitivity, does have an impact. But regardless of how this Custom Function is set, it's not possible to make the camera's tracking sensitivity be right. There's more on this ahead in the article.

Q. You say the camera's autofocus difficulties occur or are worse "under certain conditions" - what does that mean?

It means that when the light is especially bright and the temperature is warm, the camera's autofocus performance drops like a stone. Yes, you read that correctly. On sunny, warm, beautiful days - the sort of conditions in which autofocus usually thrives - the EOS-1D Mark III's ability to make in-focus pictures of still or moving subjects is greatly reduced.

 

[snerd]

Well, that's what I get for getting involved LOL!!