Derrel
Mr. Rain Cloud
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2009
- Messages
- 48,225
- Reaction score
- 18,941
- Location
- USA
- Website
- www.pbase.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Dominantly,
A real-world comparison will show you that on the 40D, doing simple operations like changing the motor drive mode from single shot to continuous will require a two-handed operation,with the left hand being lifted from the lens and coming across the top of the camera to press the button while your right hand spins the front wheel to make mode changes. This is because Canon uses three tiny,round buttons, all of which feel identical, on the top deck, and those three buttons EACH have TWO functions...this is one of the single biggest ergonomic drawbacks of the 20-30-40-50D bodies. SIX absolutely critical controls AF-WB/Drive and ISO/ Metering Pattern and flash exposure compensation,are combined into THREE buttons, each which looks basically alike, and which can not be discerned by touch or feel. Nikon uses separate control buttons dedicated to critical things like ISO and WB. And metering mode. And allows one-handed control changes.
With the Canon 20-50D system, the front wheel controls are thus: in M mode, front wheel adjusts shutter speed; in A mode it sets the aperture value; in Tv mode the front wheel adjusts shutter speed; in P mode the front wheel adjusts the programmed exposure's suggested settings to your preference. With Canon, you are never absolutely SURE, never really POSITIVE which parameters will be shifted with either the front or the rear controls. This is like a car where the brake and gas switch function,depending on how fast you are going.
Again, on a Canon 40D you will find that the rear wheel and the front finger wheel SHIFT, and CHANGE what they control,depending on the exposure mode the camera is in, leading to "guessing" or "trying to recall" which control will actually make which exposure parameter adjustment. With Nikon there is absolutely NO guessing because the controls always control ONE thing--there are no dual-function buttons for aperture,shutter,WB,AF, and Motor drive mode and flash compensation. Separate controls for each operation mean you do not have three buttons giving you six chances to shift camera controls using two buttons that swop functions back and forth.
With Nikon, the rear wheel ALWAYS shifts the shutter speed, the front wheel always adjusts the aperture. In every mode, the front wheel is the lens control. The rear is the speed dial. ALWAYS (unless you use the CFn menu and reverse these controls). Nikon has no two-handed operations...turning on a Nikon requires ONE hand, the one that picks up the camera van flip on the On-Off switch with the right hand index finger as the camera is being lifted. Turning on a 40D requires two hands--one to pick up the camera, and the left hand to flip the back-mounted switch to the second of two On positions (yes,Canon has two On positions,not just ON). Ergonomically clunky and poorly thought out. Does it take two hands to turn on your car? Or can you do it with just your right hand, like you can with a Nikon?
I own both Canon and Nikon gear, and find Canon's menu-driven and dual-function setup less-direct. Nikon has two external buttons that must be pushed simultaneously and held for about five seconds to format a card, or you can use a menu to do it. Canon has NO external formatting method, you must ALWAYS find it in the menu to format a card.
Nikon's depth of field preview button uses the right hand's middle finger, which does almost nothing when holding the camera; with Canon, you must take your hand off of the barel of longer lenses, and use your left thumb to depress the DOF preview button, which is an ergonomic disaster on any longer lenses.
Navigating the focusing area on a 20-50D has the big wheel on the back,or that tiny pencil-eraser sized button called the multi-controller, which is a sad and pathetic imitation of the Nikon's huge, 25 cent coin sized 4-way controller, which has a huge and positive action.
There are a lot of ergonomic nightmares and incredibly kludgy systems that Canon has held onto over the years. They have finally imitated NIkon to put in a dedicated, thumb operated AF-ON button,and their tiny pencil eraser multi-controller way of adjusting the AF area in use is a truly sad, pathetic attempt to imitate Nikon's much bigger, better,and older system.
In terms of flash...Nikon's ahead with an in-built controller and a better-performing system for using multiple off-camera flash units. The color-aware light metering Canon just figured out for their new 7D??? Nikon has had that since the mid-1990's, and the D90 has a 3D color-aware matrix metering system, while the Canon 40D has non-color-aware light metering,like all other Canons actually on the market.
Nikon also has a perfected AUTO-ISO feature that Canon refused to adopt for years, and which Canon just can not seem to implement right.
Enough comparisons? These comparisons are from a guy,me, who owns three Canon d-slr bodies and eight or nine good Canon lenses, and who owns a very complete Nikon system. I bought a complete but small Canon system to find out for myself if I could really make the switch to Canon,and I bought a 20D and 5D and 580 EX-II and eight pro-level Canon lenses, a small portion of my Nikon system by comparison,and have been using Canon and Nikon since 2005. Canon has/had better sensors, but Nikon beats Canon on ergonomics and control ethos hands-down. Lens-wise the Canon L-glass system is a nice naming convention, but their L 135/2 is no better than Nikon's 135/2,and Canon's 100mm EF USM macro is a horrible bokeh lens.
Canon's 70-200 2.8L IS is a nice lens, but a fat, clunky,clubby pig compared with the 70-200VR, which is the BEST-handling of the 4 separate f/2.8 tele zooms I have owned over the years; Nikon's is designed for DX really, but has better bokeh than the Canon.
A real-world comparison will show you that on the 40D, doing simple operations like changing the motor drive mode from single shot to continuous will require a two-handed operation,with the left hand being lifted from the lens and coming across the top of the camera to press the button while your right hand spins the front wheel to make mode changes. This is because Canon uses three tiny,round buttons, all of which feel identical, on the top deck, and those three buttons EACH have TWO functions...this is one of the single biggest ergonomic drawbacks of the 20-30-40-50D bodies. SIX absolutely critical controls AF-WB/Drive and ISO/ Metering Pattern and flash exposure compensation,are combined into THREE buttons, each which looks basically alike, and which can not be discerned by touch or feel. Nikon uses separate control buttons dedicated to critical things like ISO and WB. And metering mode. And allows one-handed control changes.
With the Canon 20-50D system, the front wheel controls are thus: in M mode, front wheel adjusts shutter speed; in A mode it sets the aperture value; in Tv mode the front wheel adjusts shutter speed; in P mode the front wheel adjusts the programmed exposure's suggested settings to your preference. With Canon, you are never absolutely SURE, never really POSITIVE which parameters will be shifted with either the front or the rear controls. This is like a car where the brake and gas switch function,depending on how fast you are going.
Again, on a Canon 40D you will find that the rear wheel and the front finger wheel SHIFT, and CHANGE what they control,depending on the exposure mode the camera is in, leading to "guessing" or "trying to recall" which control will actually make which exposure parameter adjustment. With Nikon there is absolutely NO guessing because the controls always control ONE thing--there are no dual-function buttons for aperture,shutter,WB,AF, and Motor drive mode and flash compensation. Separate controls for each operation mean you do not have three buttons giving you six chances to shift camera controls using two buttons that swop functions back and forth.
With Nikon, the rear wheel ALWAYS shifts the shutter speed, the front wheel always adjusts the aperture. In every mode, the front wheel is the lens control. The rear is the speed dial. ALWAYS (unless you use the CFn menu and reverse these controls). Nikon has no two-handed operations...turning on a Nikon requires ONE hand, the one that picks up the camera van flip on the On-Off switch with the right hand index finger as the camera is being lifted. Turning on a 40D requires two hands--one to pick up the camera, and the left hand to flip the back-mounted switch to the second of two On positions (yes,Canon has two On positions,not just ON). Ergonomically clunky and poorly thought out. Does it take two hands to turn on your car? Or can you do it with just your right hand, like you can with a Nikon?
I own both Canon and Nikon gear, and find Canon's menu-driven and dual-function setup less-direct. Nikon has two external buttons that must be pushed simultaneously and held for about five seconds to format a card, or you can use a menu to do it. Canon has NO external formatting method, you must ALWAYS find it in the menu to format a card.
Nikon's depth of field preview button uses the right hand's middle finger, which does almost nothing when holding the camera; with Canon, you must take your hand off of the barel of longer lenses, and use your left thumb to depress the DOF preview button, which is an ergonomic disaster on any longer lenses.
Navigating the focusing area on a 20-50D has the big wheel on the back,or that tiny pencil-eraser sized button called the multi-controller, which is a sad and pathetic imitation of the Nikon's huge, 25 cent coin sized 4-way controller, which has a huge and positive action.
There are a lot of ergonomic nightmares and incredibly kludgy systems that Canon has held onto over the years. They have finally imitated NIkon to put in a dedicated, thumb operated AF-ON button,and their tiny pencil eraser multi-controller way of adjusting the AF area in use is a truly sad, pathetic attempt to imitate Nikon's much bigger, better,and older system.
In terms of flash...Nikon's ahead with an in-built controller and a better-performing system for using multiple off-camera flash units. The color-aware light metering Canon just figured out for their new 7D??? Nikon has had that since the mid-1990's, and the D90 has a 3D color-aware matrix metering system, while the Canon 40D has non-color-aware light metering,like all other Canons actually on the market.
Nikon also has a perfected AUTO-ISO feature that Canon refused to adopt for years, and which Canon just can not seem to implement right.
Enough comparisons? These comparisons are from a guy,me, who owns three Canon d-slr bodies and eight or nine good Canon lenses, and who owns a very complete Nikon system. I bought a complete but small Canon system to find out for myself if I could really make the switch to Canon,and I bought a 20D and 5D and 580 EX-II and eight pro-level Canon lenses, a small portion of my Nikon system by comparison,and have been using Canon and Nikon since 2005. Canon has/had better sensors, but Nikon beats Canon on ergonomics and control ethos hands-down. Lens-wise the Canon L-glass system is a nice naming convention, but their L 135/2 is no better than Nikon's 135/2,and Canon's 100mm EF USM macro is a horrible bokeh lens.
Canon's 70-200 2.8L IS is a nice lens, but a fat, clunky,clubby pig compared with the 70-200VR, which is the BEST-handling of the 4 separate f/2.8 tele zooms I have owned over the years; Nikon's is designed for DX really, but has better bokeh than the Canon.
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