Canon or Nikon
Nikon D50 by Nikon Corporation
By Sayyed Bashir
30 July 2007
After researching all available DSLRs under $1000 and reading professional reviews and user's opinions on amazon.com, dpreview.com, dcresource.com and elsewhere on the internet, I purchased the Nikon D50 camera kit with 18-55mm DX zoom lens in Dec 2006, along with a 70-300mm non-DX zoom lens (works as a 105-450mm on my camera), and have been very happy with my purchase, as can be seen from the pictures here.
Recently I read a story on jpgmag.com (June 27, 2007) that Canon was using full size sensors and hence was superior to Nikon, so I decided to do a little research. In fact Canon does use full size sensors on the 1D and 5D (36 x 24 mm) but these cameras are pretty much out of the range of ordinary photographers ($8000 and $3300 respectively just for the body). The lenses for these cameras are equally expensive and large.
All other Canon DSLRs for us ordinary mortal souls such as the Rebel XTi EOS 400D, and even the $1400 EOS 30D (body only), use sensors that are actually smaller than those on Nikon cameras (22.5 x 15.0 mm vs 23.7 x 15.6 mm). Also these cameras have packed so many pixels on these smaller sensors (10.1 megapixels on the 400D) that they start contributing to picture noise. The file sizes created by these megapixels are huge (3.8MB for the 400D). They slow down the camera processing and fill up your computer hard drive, but don't add much to the picture quality. Megapixels should be appropriate to the sensor size. The Nikon D50 uses 6.1 megapixels which is more than enough, even for poster sized prints.
My purpose is not to disparage the Canon product but to point out that there are many factors to consider in selecting a digital camera, not the least of which are build quality, ease of use and handling, quality of the glass (lenses), and straightforwardness of the buttons, displays and menus. The solid build quality and natural feel of the Nikon D50 has been praised on dpreview.com. The menus, buttons and displays are easy to use. As compared to the EOS 400D, on which the separate LCD control panel has now been eliminated, so you have to turn on and use the large color LCD display on the back for everything, including reviewing the picture, setting menus, and monitoring camera settings. This results in a shorter battery life and extra steps needed to setup the camera.
The Nikon lenses are legendary for their optical quality. And almost any lens ever made for Nikon can be used on my camera. As any professional photographer can tell you, your investment in quality lenses will be many times the cost of the camera bodies, so you want to preserve your investment. In the case of Canon, if you purchased the EOS 400D or 30D now and purchased EF-S lenses for them, they will be useless if you upgraded later to the 1D or 5D which use only EF lenses.
Nikons have been preferred by news photographers and journalists over the years for their ruggedness in harsh and severe environments such as war zones and protest marches, and for the large variety of lenses and attachments available for them from Nikon and third parties.
In the end it comes down to personal preference, more than anything else. Both Canon and Nikon are leapfrogging each other in technology and capability. Each is better than the other in some things. You have to see which qualities are most important to you, and which camera fits the purpose you have in mind and is within your budget.
Most people would be very happy with just a nice $300 to $700 point-and-shoot with 12X zoom, without having to carry a large camera bag full of all the paraphernalia associated with a DSLR. Plus they could use the large color LCD screen on the back (flipable in some models) to frame, focus and take pictures, instead of squinting through a small viewfinder. They could also take movies of up to half an hour (depending on the size of the memory card), eliminating the need for a digital camcorder. Both Canon and Nikon as well as Sony, Kodak, Casio, Olympus and others have many point-and-shoot cameras to choose from.
More My Precious Stories
More stories by Sayyed Bashir
Thanks for letting us know!
Thanks for voicing your concerns. Rest assured, we take it seriously. We'll look into it and take any appropriate action.
