Canon EOS 620 vs Nikon N90

While packing up my storage for moving I came across bodies of Canon EOS 620 and Nikon N90 that had been given to me a long time ago. I've been wanting to get back into shooting manual 35mm, and I definitely don't need both of these. As I have no experience with either, I'm wondering if there's anyone here who can recommend one over the other. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Keep the Nikon. Its a much newer and more advanced camera in so many ways. The Canon needs an expensive 2CR5 battery. The Nikon runs off four cheap AA's. Also the Canon suffers from a problem with the shutter, whereby a foam bumper deteriorates to a sticky mess which can get on the shutter blades and cause blank frames.

 

Your decision may however be influenced by which lenses are fitted or available for either camera.

Normally I too would say to keep the newer camera, but in this case, I have just been shooting with the N90 (=F90) and would rather shoot with the 620.

Upgrade to the later F80 (N80), and I'd say keep the Nikon, but the F90 is a fairly crude combination of features compared to the F80.

 

 

However, as I admitted in my 'review", the controls on the F90 fall easily to hands for anyone who has at least 15 fingers.

I don't know them. To me the decision to keep a camera body is based upon the lenses at hand. I have a good one for Canon and maybe an old consumer Sigma for Nikon. - Do you own an entire cabinet full of decent FF glass for each brand? - And if Nikon will the N90 work with your G (or further down the alphabet) lenses?

I have both cameras and they eventually perform similarly.

I think the handling of the 620 is superior, the viewfinder is better, the autofocus is better... and Canon glass is excellent.

No intention to start a Canon-Nikon war!

 

However if you use the camera in P or in shutter-priority, there is almost no difference in usage, in Aperture-priorityon the canon you use your dial, on the nikon the aperture ring.

 

What makes the difference? The glass you have! Now I have more Nikon glass and it is cheaper to find apparently, so I use the F90 more, but when I my Canon glass sufficies, I use it!

The F90 is much heavier... but takes Alkaline batteries, which last less and weigh more, but are readily available. So... it is up and down.

If you leave your Canon "on" it will eat your batteries in a couple of days, at least, mine does.