A lot of my friends out there will probably think that this is some kind of early April Fool's blog post, but I assure you it is not. For the past several years I have been a Nikon shooter. I have owned a D300, D700, and even a mighty D3, along with much of the fast glass and expensive/exploding flashes. So I do have quite a bit of experience with the gear and I should add it treated me really well. Despite the occasional overheating of an SB-900, I really had no complaints about any Nikon equipment. Additionally I think it is important for me to preface this post by saying I don't think Canon is better than Nikon. In many respects they are very similar systems and of course a good photographer can make strong images with any brand of gear. I am not trying to start that silly conversation. Obviously I saved the silliness for the photoshopped picture of me on the right. ;)
So why am I switching? Let's go over the few small details that pushed me over the edge.
1. The Sports Factor
When I first started out on my digital photographic journey, I wanted to be a professional sports photographer. My first DSLR was a D300. At the time the 40D was Canon's most reasonable option for me (There was no 7D), and the better focusing system and ISO performance of the D300 were more appealing to me over the 40D. Additionally I was attending a school that rented out Nikon gear exclusively, so the stars kind of aligned themselves. As I continued to upgrade my gear, I eventually ended up with a nice used D3. Now that I have abandoned my hopes of being a pro sports photographer, the burst rate, intense AF system, and large buffer are features that I don't make use of often, if ever. So I can trade/sell my D3 for a decent amount more than it will cost me to buy a used 5D Mark II.
2. Prime Time
Before I ever considered switching systems, I made a decision to switch from a kit of 2.8 zooms lenses to an all primes set. In the near future I will be detailing this why, but there are many reasons. The most important to me is that I seem to pay more attention to my composition when shooting with prime/fixed focal length lenses. Also once you've shot with fast primes, your 2.8 zooms don't seem that fast anymore. For events, even one stop from f/2.8 to f/2 allows for a lot more of the ambient light in the background to burn in. So if I wanted primes, why didn't I just pick up a full set of the newish 1.4G AF-S lenses? Well of course price is an issue here. I can get the Canon primes I want (and FYI, I am picking up the 85mm f/1.8 over the 85mm f/1.2L) for less money than the new Nikons. Also call me crazy, but as sharp as they may be, the new Nikon 1.4G AF-S primes seem to focus a tad slower than the Canon primes. It may be slight, but I notice it, so it matters to me.
- The 135mm f/2L is going to be one of my staple lenses. Nikon makes a 135mm f/2 DC lens, but it is much more expensive, hard to find, and doesn't focus as quietly or as quickly as the Canon variant does.
3. Pixel Binning and the D800
If you've followed this blog or even just read a post here or there, you know that I'm not a megapixel hawk. While there is certainly some merit to increasing resolution, I simply don't need it for the work I do. Still, eventually I am going to want to upgrade my camera and Nikon's new D800 sits a little uneasy with me. Again I am not bashing it and by all means it seems to be a fantastic camera, but there is one small flaw... Or you could also say no small RAW. For a while Canon has implemented a sRAW feature that allows you to shoot RAW files at reduced resolutions. I decided a long time ago that 10/12 megapixels was plenty for a wedding/event. A lot of pros I know shoot their 5D Mark II cameras at 10 megapixels in sRAW mode (this is called pixel binning.) I never saw the need for it on my Nikon cameras as they (D300/700/3) were all 12 megapixels. It is good that I never saw a need for it because Nikon doesn't offer it as an option on any of their cameras, even the new 36 megapixel monster D800. So while storage is cheap these days and I also happen to own a speedy 27" iMac, I can see shooting 1,500-2,000 images at a wedding and being bogged down by unruly 36 megapixel files. I imagine that I'd have to get some new memory cards as well. No matter the new specs on the soon to be announced 5D Mark III, I am confident it will have sRAW capabilities, so to me that alone makes it a more attractive future camera for me. Additionally the sRAW (pixel binned/down-sampled) files out of the 5D Mark II seem to be great. I know there are pixel peepers out there who will scream "sRAW IS NOT REAL RAW!!! " I understand this, but I have seen the proof in the pudding and the pudding is good. Yum.
4. HDSLR
Being a purist I used to bash HDSLR video. I thought it was a silly distraction that was simply being put out there to get more people to buy cameras, but boy was I wrong! Working on our youtube videos here has exposed me to the wonderful world of HDSLR video and has inspired me to pursue it in my professional career separate from Unique Photo. I'm sure you won't find me on the set of a feature film, but being able to shoot a wedding/event video will open up more job opportunities for me in the future. Sure Nikon has finally caught up to Canon in HDSLR technology. For video, the D800 seems awesome and has many features that the 5D Mark II doesn't. These include a separate headphone jack and HD HDMI output, among other things. I'm not going to argue that, but again price becomes a question here. For me it makes sense to pick up a nice used 5D Mark II for a fraction of the price of the new D800. I also imagine that Canon isn't going to let Nikon pass them by in this regard and I fully expect the new 5D Mark III to have the same, if not better, video features than the D800.
5. The Bottom Line
At the end of the day I could have hung on to my Nikon system and reshuffled my lenses to keep me happy, but I wanted to be able to save some money for other things I want, including a new camera at some point. Both systems are great and I could be happy with either one, but the few nuisances I pointed out in this post are what made me jump ship. Sure it will be a slight pain to trade/sell some of my Nikon gear, but it clearly isn't junk and I've kept it in good working order, so it really won't be a big deal. I look forward to continue teaching Nikon classes here and reviewing Nikon products, but Canon is now going to be my go-to system for my personal work. As I learn more about Canon cameras it will also open up opportunities for me to teach Canon workshops here at Unique and of course to provide more accurate/genuine hands-on reviews. I hope this post doesn't start any asinine arguments about what system is better, but rather just shows why someone would consider switching systems at all.
-MZ