I started off into DSLR photography a couple of years ago with the then world's best selling DSLR - Canon EOS 350D. It was in a class of its own. For the money paid for 350D, I got the famed low -noise images of Canon. It was great then. And that was the main reason why I chose Canon over Nikon, which then was offering entry level DSLR hunter, the Nikon D70s as well as the Nikon D50.
The Canon EOS 350D served me well. I toyed with it, travel to a couple of places in Europe with it, and it brought me home loads of beautiful images. From Paris to Monaco, London to Boston, Rome to Amsterdam. Apart from these, the 350D opened the door to digital photography to me... and this I will forever be grateful.
Fast forward to end of 2007. I bought my second DSLR - the Canon EOS 40D, which is one series above the 350D. I fell in love with this piece of machine and for the first time I was confidence enough with the image quality. The technical spreadsheet oozes with great stuffs : 3 inch LCD, 14-bit images, DIG!C III processing powers, and other stuffs.
Then it hit me.
Nikon came out with 2 new DSLR which practically "wowed" the photography community. Nikon introduced to the world the 2 brothers : Nikon D3 and Nikon D300. It has set a new benchmark to working digital photographers. While most hardcore Canon EOS users will swear and scream out that nothing beats EOS, I for one would have to defy such conventional brand loyalty. For me, things are pretty simple. Credits need to be given to where it is due. I choose Canon EOS back then because Nikon DSLR was suffering from crap load of noise when high ISO is being used. But now, the noise issue is solved. Not only that, the image quality produced by both D300 and also D3 surpassed that of Canon's, and could easily put on paper a much better technical spreadsheet.
And since I am shooting a lot of weddings, I realize that the color reproductions of Nikon D300 is simply amazing. Fascinating is more like the appropriate word to use actually. Yes, read my lips : F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G . The tonal range is great, the colorful stuffs are vivid, and more importantly - the skin tone redention is natural. This camera spells one thing which I have been missing out with the Canon EOS DSLR bodies - proper and accurate white balance and image processing.
With the said factors and coupled it up with numerous other facts, I decided to make the leap. It's gonna cost me a bundle, but what the heck, great images means more smiles for brides and grooms :) and thats something good to wedding photographers.
So, I went on a selling spree to get rid of ALL my Canon EOS DSLR system, including lenses and camera bodies. Then dived right on into Nikon D300 with some award winning lenses. And after toying with it for a couple of days now - I can only smile from ear to ear with loads of content. :) All I can say to some critiques on my decision to shift to Nikon, is merely 2 words.
NO REGRET
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5 comments:
A well justified reason to leave Canon, I must say. Sad I may be because I am losing an ally, but at the same time I feel happy for you. Nothing beats the desire for that perfect shot on first shutter click. Do post more photos using your Nikon for us to see for our own self!
thanks jacky. the main reason i am opting for nikon now is driven steadily by business factors too. i am still confident canon DSLR's are good - but some criteria i needed for my job just cant be met by canon's. having said that, the canon vs nikon debate will forever go on, and i must say that it is us photographers that carves the masterpieces with the tools that we have. so snap on!
You have made a good decision :) I agree that changing from canon to nikon is rather a big step. I did once thought of changing from nikon to canon just like the reasons you mentioned. However, I stayed on and believing that nikon will produce something great one day and here we are the amazing d300.
Do post some photos of your new gear ;) take care.
thanks chee wei.
i still do miss the EOS 40D's live view functionality. the LV mode on D300 simply is just too cumbersome and not user friendly. Tripod mode needs to be improved further on the AF. Otherwise, on this criteria alone - my hats goes off to 40D :P
But ultimately, the D300 images are simply breathtaking. Oh the colors...!!
Welcome to the world of Nikons :) I knew you'd see the light some day, muhahahaha!
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