Goodbye Nikon my old friend - it's been fun

[h_d4]

I did it - I switched. Finally. For 2 years I was aware that Canon was

a bit ahead of Nikon in dSLR's, but since I have so much nice Nikon

glass I stayed on the dark side (the dark lenses, that is) So I pop

for a D100, and the 17-35 2.8 with it, figuring I would stay the

course and hang on until N came out with a full-frame dSLR with enough

pixels that I would never have to look at Canons and sigh. I told

myself to keep the faith.

 

Well, years went by, then it became clear that we will be seeing dx

sized sensors in Nikons for a while, but - wait - the D2x is going to

be the camera of my dreams! So what it has dx sized sensor - it's

12mp! And 6 mp at what - 8 fps? Better than sex. OK, I'm going to

stay loyal, stay with Nikon - I put my pre-order in for the D2x.

 

Feb 25th comes - I call my guy at the Nikon store (local - no mass

merchant for me)- "Oh Nikon is shipping to NPS customers now - you'll

probably get yours in May or June". Great. You can buy a 1Ds Mkii

from bestbuy, or Dell or newegg, in stock anytime, but you can't get a

D2X until 8 months after it's announced. Nikon, I love you guys, but

you need to ramp it up. I can't wait. The D100 is just not enough

camera. The D2H is fast, but I don't shoot Shaquille O'Neill or Anna

Kournikova, so I need pixels, not FPS.

 

So I did it. I finally went over to the light side (light colored

lenses, that is) I'm going to the big C. Full frame. See ya, Nikon,

it was good but it was never great.

[eliasi_sharon]

congratulations...my switch is going to be this week.

[gary_woodard]

and the question was?

[squareframe]

> Better than sex

 

if your camera is better than sex, then you've got bigger problems than trying to decide what colour of telephoto lens suits you best.

 

I haven't been following the pricing of digital cameras, but isn't there quite a price difference between the two cameras? I'd stick with Nikon and use the monies saved to ramp up your romancing!

[jimi colteryahn - rep. of]

You sir are a sinner...<BR>

<DD>:(<BR>

Jimi

[ravi_swamy]

I just checked all 3 of your sites and I didn't see the 1Ds Mark II listed anywhere. Dell sells the 1D Mark II, Best Buy sells the 1Ds Mark I, newegg sells the 1D Mark II.

<p>

B&H actually sells the 1Ds Mark II and it is listed as Backordered.

[John Crowe]

Well, if it's pixels you need and not speed, you should keep your Nikon glass and mount it on your Eos DSLR via an adapter and maintain metering. At least until you decide to spend as much on lenses as the body you just bought/ordered. Good luck.

 

 

P.S. Are Shaq and Anna fast?

[mark_chappell]

<I>canon depends on the impatient buyer and markets directly to them, everybodys got

an angle, I usually will wait for what I want .</i><P>

 

Yup. When Canon came out with stabilized supertelephotos I rationalized the same thing

... wait for Nikon to catch up. <I>Surely</i> they would... they're <B><I>Nikon</i>

</b> after all. <P>

 

<L O O O o o o o n n n g pause><P>

 

After two years I lost patience and bought a 500 mm IS lens and a Canon 1v, and happily

proceeded to

make tens of thousands of images (now I use Canon DSLRs). Skip forward <I>another

</i> three years and there are

<B>STILL</B> no Nikon

superteles with VR. For that reason alone, they

lost a huge fraction of their former market share among sports and nature photographers.

This is a huge puzzle and a great pity for a company that had a leadership role in 35mm

photography for

decades. I stuck with them for 30 years but they've fallen behind and don't make

what I need, so like h d, I bid Nikon a fond adieu.<P>

 

Nikon depends on the buyer with infinite brand loyalty and faith, despite

seemingly interminable delays in delivering key state-of-the-art technologies. I wish

them

luck -- sincerely -- but I don't think that strategy is working well for them (as it certainly

isn't for

Leica).

[ellis_vener_photography]

I would have tried another store. But of course that is a bit too obvious isn't it?

[mark_rutledge]

yep, impatience and inferiority complexes make canon very happy.

[ShunCheung]

According to my local store K&S in Palo Alto, California, the EOS 1Ds Mark 2 is in short supply. The manager there told me that they are merely getting like 5 of them at a time from Canon while there is a waiting list. If they could get 30 or so, they would be able to supply everybody on their waiting list. Keep in mind that the 1Ds Mark 2 is supposed to have been "available" for 4 months or so. (K&S is no B&H, but they are among one of the biggest stores on the US West Coast.)

 

And Mark, it took Nikon a while but they do have a super-tele with VR, the 200-400mm/f4 AF-S. It is a very useful lens on small-sensor DSLRs and Nikon's competition has no equivalent.

[mark_chappell]

<I>And Mark, it took Nikon a while but they do have a super-tele with VR, the 200

-400mm/f4 AF-S. It is a very useful lens on small-sensor DSLRs and Nikon's competition

has no equivalent.</i><P>

 

Canon DOES have a 100-400/5.6, which is tiny by comparison but one stop slower (and

apparently not quite as sharp, as one would expect from a lens that costs 1/4 as much).

THe 100-400 has been available for -- what, 6 years? And rhetorically, are there any 500

mm or 600 mm Nikon lenses with VR? or a 400/2.8? For most of us nature fanatics, 400

mm is a medium focal length. For that matter, does Nikon yet make a fully-coupled

extension tube set? (I know Kenko does, but does Nikon)? Out of curiosity (I simply don't

know), do the high-end Nikons autofocus reliably at f8 (i.e., can you keep AF if you

combine a 2X converter with a 500/4 or 600/4 lens)?<P>

 

Shun, I'm very glad that N has the 200-400 VR (even though it's of little use to my own

photographic interests) but I sincerely wish they had brought out a 500/4 or 600/4 VR

several years back. Had they done so, I would still be in that system. And I hope they

<B>finally</B> come through with VR superteles soon. Canon needs the competition

(although without rancor I point out that Canon's 500 and 600 mm stabilized lenses

already cost

less than their non-stabilized Nikon equivalents). From the perspective of a wildlife

shooter, the D2X looks like a great camera, but were I making my 'switch' decision today I

would

still choose Canon, because of their stabilized lenses.

[ShunCheung]

Mark, I have put the TC-20E on my 500mm/f4 AF-S and its AF is ok, but I rarely use that combo. And with Nikon's small sensor, 500 and especially 600mm are frequently too long now unless you specalize in birds. That is why the 200-400mm/f4 AF-S makes more sense for Nikon. It is a different story for Canon with its 1D/1Ds series because they have larger sensors and therefore they need longer lenses to achieve the same result.

 

IMO, Nikon's real problems are stupid products such as the F6 and another 4MP D2Hs while there is still no 8MP prosumer DSLR that is a step above the D70, but that is another topic.

[mark_chappell]

<I> And with Nikon's small sensor, 500 and especially 600mm are frequently too long

now unless you specalize in birds.</i><P>

 

It's largely a matter of taste (and what you like to shoot), but I also use a 10D (which has

an even smaller sensor than the one in Nikon DSLRs), and very often I find 500 mm + 1.4X

or 2X to be the minimum appropriate for mammals (big and small), lizards, dragonflies,

and certainly for birds. For most anything needing less millimeters, the 100-400 covers

nicely. The 200-400 range, even with APS-sized sensors, is pretty short for a lot of

wildlife work (or at least, for what I do).<P>

 

If one isn't a wildlife nut (and if you don't need any of the peculiar specialized lenses found

in each system, like the Canon TS lenses or the MP-E 65 1X-5X macro, or Nikons 200/2

VR), then either system can deliver superb results.

[kelvinphoto - arlington, t]

same here, good buy to Nikon camera and glass, and say hello to Canon 1d Mark II and 24-70L and 100.

 

d2x is over-price for dx noise sensor, and I know I will save more with canon and have better glass and no noise at iso1600.

[mark_chappell]

<I>d2x is over-price for dx noise sensor, and I know I will save more with canon and have

better glass and no noise at iso1600.</i><P>

 

Oh, come on. I have a 1D Mk. II and the statement of 'no' noise at ISO 1600 is wildly

optomistic. There is surprisingly little noise at high ISOs, but definitely more than at ISO

100 to 400 or so. And for leisurely shooting rates the D2X has more resolution (at least

more pixels) than the Mk II

(but not at high frame rates when the D2X is in 'crop' mode) -- although the

difference between 8 and 12 megapixels isn't enormous. And I'd be surprised if there

was a

meaningful difference in 'glass' quality between N and C in the 24-70 or 100 mm range --

or most anywhere else for that matter (the lack of stabilization in long Nikon teles I was

whining about above is a different issue).<P>

 

Comparisons among systems can be entertaining and educational but should have some

grounding in reality.

[astcell]

I have been without my D100 or D2H for a year now, and have used my 1D Mark II exclusively. And the number of images I have shot tells the whole story.

[pbizarro]

Indeed, what was the question? It looks to me you have dumped/lost a vast amount of money, just out of impatience. Not for reasons related to improve your photographic results.

[umd]

Don't feed the troll.

[jcuknz]

Now you poor guy, you have just reached a 17-35 f/2.8 lens .. tough that, I have a 35-432 equiv f/2.8 and know that if I want the occasional wide-angle shot I can stitch two or three shots together .. only needed to do it twice in over three years.

 

 

I didn't desert Nikon but added Panasonic to my stable and use the pair of them as each job, and the accessories I have built up for each, whichever is the most appropriate. Panasonic makes the Nikon look like a draughthorse for operating speed ... but both kinds of horses have their place.

With tele converter I go out to 950mm equivalent too, at about f/3.5

 

 

I find the antics ... or buying patterns .... of some most amusing.

I wonder if anybody will notice the better photographs your new camera will take for you ... don't dispute that Canon may have a few wrinkles ahead of Nikon .... Panasonic has too .... but will both of us take any better photographs ... that is the real question.

[suhaskulkarni]

"figuring I would stay the course and hang on until N came out with a full-frame dSLR with enough pixels that I would never have to look at Canons and sigh"

Belive me, very soon Canon will move to uniform 1.6x crop factor DSLRs by dropping 1.3x and full frame DSLRs.

First step toward this is Canon's 1.6x crop is being upgraded to 8 mp from 6 mp, with improvement of image quality (which shows that frame size is not the indication of image quality) . Then why dont you think it will go for 10 mp or 12 mp or 16 mp after some time with the same picture quality of full frame sensor?

Nikon already understand this, so there is only one sensor size and they are now playing with the megapixels. Down the line both Canon and Nikon will merge to same path - cropped sensor high resolution DSLR.

[vivek iyer]

Sorry h d, Daniel Taylor said it better. Seek some help.

[hendrik]

Got my D2X over the counter, asked the salesman how long will I have to wait and he just put the box in front of me.

 

A D2X with a compliment of lenses, 2flashes, remote release, spare battery and 2x4Gig CF is just about the same price as a C 1DSmkII.

 

My 2 bits.

[dmanthree]

Funny, I just switched this week, as well. Don't hold your breath waiting for Nikon to compete with Canon since the key to camera development now is sensor development. Nikon does not have access to an 8MP sensor, so they can't introduce a camera with 8MP. Can Sony supply enough 12.4MP sensors at a low enough price to allow Nikon to introduce a consumer camera at that rez? Who knows? Anyway, my switch wasn't totally related to bodies, but Canon offered some lenses, like the 70-200 f4 L, that suited my needs better than the Nikon backbreakers. Not all of us need high-speed glass, and some of us gladly trade speed for weight savings. The good news is that my Nikon gear fetched decent prices on E-Bay.

[gary m]

I shoot mainly Medium Format, but I'm about to replace my 35mm Nikon with a Canon DSLR. Are you listening Nikon???