Engineering at Nikon is different from Canon. The "ethos" of Nikon's upper-end cameras is vastly different from that of Canon cameras. Why do you think four out of five of the editors of Popular Photography & Imaging magazine say they prefer Nikon d-slr camera ergonomics to those of Canon d-slr cameras? Canon does some really stupid things, since it designs a lot of its cameras to be used by newbs and what designers smugly refer to as "end-users". Canon uses a camera control interface where four buttons are each assigned two, different control functions. So, eight functions, spread over four buttons--admittedly, a LOUSY DESIGN INTERFACE, but it was the only thing they could come up when they had to slap the EOS system together in a hurry.
When your most-critical controls, lens aperture and f/stop, yo-yo back and forth between two different control wheels,depending on which exposure metering mode the camera is in, you realize that the designers at Canon suck. When you try and focus stopped down, by hand (an advanced user method) and use the depth of field plunger on a Canon and can NOT reach it because your left hand is supposed to press the plunger, and then see how a Nikon uses the UN-OCCUPIED middle finger of the right hand to actuate the same control, you'll understand just one reason Nikon's ergonomics are considered superior to Canon's.
When you use a camera in full darkness, like to shoot fireworks or to do light painting, you will appreciate the fact that Nikon keeps the shutter speed control and the aperture control and the self-timer control all separated and on their own, dedicated controls that NEVER VARY. When you pick up a Nikon, you can see what it is set to, even if it is OFF. Basically, Nikon is designed by photographers, for real photographers who have an idea of how a camera ought to be engineered for real-world use. Canon OTOH, is designed by engineers who expect that the cameras will be used on auto-pilot by "end-users". Nikon tends to break camera control functions down into separate,dedicated buttons and switches, where Canon has gone with the multi-mode buttons and menus system that they half-assed back when they rushed the EOS system to market, and developed an ALL-new, never-tested interface method in a year and a half, and had to stick with it. When you f()C& over your entire user base,and make ALL their gear useless, you need to stick with the new system, and so that is what Canon did. Nikon OTOH, approached the transition to "electronics" much more slowly, with a MECHANICAL control interface (ie, shutter speed dial and f/stops on the lenses) for the first few generations, slowly trying to figure out the best way to move to all all-electronic camera and AF system with the least disruption in the user base's preferences and habits, and without making any critical mistakes, like Canon did with the 4x2 and yo-yo control system and the left-handed DOF preview button and the whacked self timer/single/continuous motor drive mess of the EOS system. EOS sprang out of the ground fully formed...Nikon has "evolved" slowly, with better engineering over many decades of refinement.
As to the D700...it's a professional-level camera body, with Nikon's TOP AF system and TOP metering system, but in a $2,700 body. It has the same AF and metering system of the flagship Nikon bodies. Canon's 5D-Mark II is a $389 EOS Elan body basically, with cheap sub-systems, and an excellent sensor. The D700 continues a long Nikon tradition of having the "advanced amateur" camera (ie, the Nikkormat EL, the Nikon FE, the Nikon FE-2, the Nikon N8008s, the Nikon N90s) being every bit as capable, or around 90 percent as capable, as the then-current "flagship" body, at a much,much lower price. Canon does not take that same approach, instead forcing you to pay $4899 or whatever, if you want a professional camera, with the"advanced amateur" Canon always being a crippled or stripped down model. Canon 's "crippled" original Rebel was a good example of Canon's corporate ethos--deliberately refuse to enable,in software, features that the higher-end cameras had!!! The famous Russian Hack to bring the original Rebel up to par was a good example of Canon deliberately forcing customers to spend more to get features that SHOULD and COULD have been included on a $1,000 camera body,and instead forcing users into the $1799 camera one model up! Canon is still screwing over its users with the 5D Mark II, with its primitive feature set, while Nikon is making what would be basically, a 1D-series Canon body in the D700, and selling it for $2,000 less. A different ethos, indeed.
