Canon or Nikon?

[Lucky Poet]

I think I might be feeling a wee twinge of jealousy! Of course, that means you'll be under pressure to take nothing but masterpiece photographs all of the time

(PS I vote Pentax, so there!)

[Digitographer]

Well, after much deliberation (and mostly waiting for a decent deal to appear!!!!) I've ordered the canon 5D with a 24-70mm lens!!

You will so love that camera and lens, Sharon! Can't wait to see what you produce with it.

[cadd]

neither Canon or Nikon make bad cameras

have to say that as a pretty much daily photographer who spend a lot of time on photography related sites
that Nikon owners aren't doing themselves many favours with the fanboi/girl bias akin to that of Mac owners
they offer either no reason for their claims of superiority to ones verging on the ridiculous
both make great cameras but it remains to the user to produce the end result, not the camera

my choice of first dslr was the same as yours Sharon except with the 24-105mm rather than 24-70mm
three years down the line I've added another 5D and another 5 Canon lenses to the fleet and have had a great deal
of enjoyment out of them, just as I'm sure I would have if I'd chosen Nikon/Pentax/Sony/Olympus etc

[Boxer6]

neither Canon or Nikon make bad cameras

have to say that as a pretty much daily photographer who spend a lot of time on photography related sites
that Nikon owners aren't doing themselves many favours with the fanboi/girl bias akin to that of Mac owners
they offer either no reason for their claims of superiority to ones verging on the ridiculous
both make great cameras but it remains to the user to produce the end result, not the camera

my choice of first dslr was the same as yours Sharon except with the 24-105mm rather than 24-70mm
three years down the line I've added another 5D and another 5 Canon lenses to the fleet and have had a great deal
of enjoyment out of them, just as I'm sure I would have if I'd chosen Nikon/Pentax/Sony/Olympus etc

I agree with all of the above, totally.

I only have Nikons because that's what I was bought as a present when I was 16. I've simply stayed with them, from film through to the two DSLR's I have now, because I like the way they handle and I've had loads of Nikon lenses over the years. As someone else said, once you have the glass it becomes very expensive to change.

[cheesemonster]

The first SLR I ever used was a 3MP Canon EOS model and I absolutely hated it. Despite sitting permantently on a solid tripod in a floodlit room aimed at a white screen it struggled to focus and most of the shots somehow came out blurry. This was the first time I'd used a camera without an "auto" function and the other guys in the office struggled with it too.
Some time later a friend inherited a Canon camera from his older brother and made the usual claims about how much better it was than my non-SLR camera but again I found it a nightmare to use on auto-focus in lighting conditions that my non-SLR would happily focus and take pictures in, it would spend minutes focusing and re-focusing before you would have to give up and try manual focusing instead. Arghh.

I've learned a bit more about cameras and SLR photography since then but have only had a brief shot of one Canon since, and the results were certainly better than before. I also had an extended shot of a Nikon D300 recently with 2 prime lenses, and I'd say that this is the best camera I've ever used in my life, although it was probably the lenses rather than the camera that made the pictures what they were. So, in my opinion I'd go with Nikon but I've never been in a position to properly compare the two and I have no experience with "prime" Canon lenses. So er, that's not really much advice at all...

[Lucky Poet]

Primes do make a hell of a difference, it must be said. Since I bought two a while back, 95% of the photos I've taken have been with one or the other. (Consensus seems to be that to get similar quality from a zoom you'd need to spend four-figure sums, and stuff that.)

[BrigitDoon]

I've had trouble with the longer lens (75-300) on my Canon shunting around so I often use it on the manual setting. There are LEDs that light up in the viewfinder when it's in focus and this makes it easy enough. The lens that came with the body (18-55) works without trouble.

I've been given to believe that Canon and Nikon are much of a muchness and it depends on the phase of the moon which is the best buy.

I have Olympus, Sony and Chinon in my collection and my Cybershot goes everywhere with me. No loyalty here.