What made you choose.....?

amtaylor

amtaylor

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Andy
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.....the system you bought into.
What were the reasons you initially bought a canon, nikon, sony, pentax, olympus, panasonic, samsung etc and would you make the same choice again.

I'm just interested and think this would be a useful discussion and also one for someone considering a first purchase to look at to help them decide.

I'll start the ball rolling.
I chose canon for a few reasons.
1) I had owned an old ae-1 and an eos3000 and was happy with them.
2) I had a couple of lenses from aforementioned eos (which soon got replaced anyway)
3) the 400d was on offer with cashback.

Would I do it again? Yes. I've been tempted by the dark side but I'm very happy with my setup now and couldn't imagine ever swapping.
 
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I shot Nikon in the film days, but couldn't afford a D200 and didn't like their entry level DSLRs. Bought a Canon 30D + 17-85mm new, with full warranty, after it was discontinued for about 40% of the D200 body only price.

I'm OK with my decision, but I won't replace or upgrade the body. If anything happens to it, I'll just sell or give away the Canon lenses and use my F2 and FM and a digital compact. I've found that having a DSLR is a lot less important to me than I expected. Actually, I hardly use it at all.
 
Started with nikon (as my dad had one) in the film days - hated that I had to wait so much to find my results were poor... gave it up...


Fuji bridge - for the zoom and at the time 4mp (wooo!)
Minolta 5d (end of line, cheapish lenses on ebay)
Nikon - felt great in my hands and menu/buttons were logical (to me). Had all the options I require (although I lust after leica/d700 dont really need them... do i? ;) ) - Also as one of the main streams there are plenty of lenses around to try out at fairly decent prices.

Of course the recommended lenses aren't cheap in most cases lol!
 
Canon - wrong colours, overpriced
Nikon, can't get on with the handling
Olympus - I loved my E520 but in the low DR, poor noise performance and the cripplingly small viewfinder had to go.

Why the Panasonic? Can use any lens I fancy more or less, the viewfinder is a better size and being electronic I can set focus far easier. Smaller and lighter than the Oly, Handling is nicer, I have dedicated mode switch on the top which is nicer than going through menu. (Especially the long winded Nikon one) I only ever have to use the menu to change aspect ratio, and because it remembers last menu position, that's as simple as chnaging the white balance or ISO. On top of that noise and DR have been increased sufficiently that it keeps me happy. Only drawback is I have to shoot raw, since the JPEG engine is awful.
 
Had MF Canon SLRs (FTb, AE1, A1, T90) in the '70s & 80's; decided I wanted AF in '90 or '91. The extremes of my lenses were 20mm f2.8 and 300mm f4 which Canon then didn't have in AF but Nikon did. Nikon released the F801s which seemed to be exactly what I wanted so I switched. Have been Nikon (D)SLR user ever since; if I wasn't happy I'd have changed to a different brand.
 
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Used a variety of film cameras. When I bought my first digital SLR it was a Canon 300D - affordable, and surprisingly good. Then came a lens upgrade, then the body upgrade and by that time your kind of committed.

I know own a 5D2, 5D (back up body), 17-40L, 24-70L, 70-200F4 L, 100L macro, Sigma 85mm 1.4. The cost of selling and repalcing that lot with another manufacturers kit would be excessive.

Plus I like Canon kit and am familiar with the UI and menus.
 
The 300D was the only affordable DSLR on the market when I wanted to buy one!
 
I used Canon 35mm AF cameras and liked them and for many years at work I used a succession of EOS digital bodies that were bought by people who didn't have a clue about digital imaging. They worked and did what was asked of them, but colours were never to my liking (although there was an imposed use of JPEG that didn't help).

I decided to buy my own kit and chose Nikon for the simple reasons that the bodies felt better built and more utilitarian, and on paper had better weatherproofing. Started with a D200 and quickly moved on to a pair of D2x bodies that i still use day-in, day-out. Yes, glass is more expensive at RRP (but I generally buy used) but I feel the equipment Nikon produces has a ruggedness that I never found with Canon.

Oh, also, the flash system on Nikon was streets ahead of what Canon was offering; the moment I picked up an SB800 I knew that canon had been making my life hell for many years with the crappy 550EX...

Would I still have gone Nikon If I'd have known what I know now. Yes, most definitely. Admittedly, I probably would have gone down the FF route earlier with the D3, but I still think its crop is more flexible (x1.5 as opposed to Canon's 1.6x crop) and the bodies are more intuitive.

each to their own though, and I still fancy getting an EOS 1D series body to see just what the x1.3 crop could give me...
 
Deciding which to go for now as i have a canon 450 and some nikon lenses. I do prefer the nikon but still looking into both. They were given to me so no money spent as of yet.
 
I bought a D40 because I simply loved my F70 which was my frist SLR bought more than 15 years ago. I still own both and not likely to sell either.

The other reason was price and quality, for the 200£ including a kit lens it was a bargain much more so than the Canons. I also always found smaller Nikons to feel perfect in terms of size and ergonomics. Saying smaller ones as I found the D7000 feeling terribly big and heavy.

Thus the move to Pentax and a K-5.

1. Lighter, smaller than its peers (60D, D7000) yet better built and with better ergonomics
2. A better camera where it counts for to me - worse on AF sophistication though not on speed or precision, video and it does not have dual card slots, minor things as far as I am concerned.
3. SR (IS/VR/VC/OS whatever you wanna call it) in body
4. Availability of pancake lenses, I still can't get over the fact that my D40+35mm is about as heavy yet less compact than a K-5+40mm ....
5. To me it just felt right!
 
I like the grip and controls of my 40D, plus only canon makes a lens like the MPE-65 (which I plan on buying sometime when I can build up the funds for it and an MT-24ex).
I also like my 100-400L, only beaten in it's class by the excellent sony 70-400G (but I didn't like sony's ergonomics, so ruled out the A700).
 
I used Nikon in the film days then went to Canon for digital and then back to Nikon as I prefer the handling of Nikon.
 
My father has a Canon; when I was getting my DSLR, he pointed out that it would be silly for me to get another system unless I really couldn't stand Canons, because this way we can share lenses/I can steal his lenses. :thumbs:
 
Got back into photography after a longish break and wanted a "modern" AF etc slr. Sat down with some brochures and pricelists and made a shortlist of models I wanted to try. visited a good local dealer who stocked as many of the shortlist as possible and had a quick play with them. the Nikon F65 felt best in my hands, so that's what I walked out of the shop with, having handed over the necessary funds to avoid the tap on the shoulder.

Gradually built up a small system of lenses, speedlights etc, so when it became possible to afford a DSLR, all the accessories fitted. carried on adding lenses to the kit and since I still used the film bodies, I made sure all lenses were 35mm (and thus FF digital) compatible. When Fx became affordable, I didn't have any extra expense in lens upgrades.
 
Canon purely because a second hand 1000D was so cheap. I was going to go with Pentax or Sony as they were also cheap but photographer friends said to go with one of the bigger brands as if the bug catches you have lots of options with lenses etc. It did bite and I upgraded to a 5D mkii.
 
Just gone through the same quandary myself.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=333324

My personal view is that in buying any of those brands you won’t make a mistake and that there is far too much put into the Canon/Nikon/other brands debate. I do not believe there is any significant difference between the two brands. Canons 40% market share compared to Nikons 40% market share would seem to support this.

Pick your budget, go to a shop and hold every single camera and see how it feels. You’ll soon discover that some cameras will feel awkward in your hands where as others will feel custom made for them. You can learn menus and how a camera works but you cannot modify your hand!

As a boy I saved to buy a new Canon EOS 650 but had long since sold everything so was starting a fresh.

I went Canon again when everything was initially pointing Nikon. I “wanted” a Nikon D7000. All my friends that own DSLRs have Nikons, so I’d have a wealth of lenses to plunder, but it and oddly all Nikons felt awkward in my hands.

I tried Canon. All felt too small until I held a 60D and 7D. In the end I bought a used 1D MK2 as that feels fantastic in the hand.

Would I change? To Nikon – no as I cannot hold Nikons comfortably.

The only thing I might possibly change is that a used 50D may have been a more sensible purchase.
 
weight, quality, lens choice.

The 500D was one of the lightest DLSR's available that still had the features I wanted.
I had already tried going the compact (G11) and M43 (G1) route but found both lacking.
 
When I was looking I started off looking for a Pentax as I have a bunch of old film lenses I could also use but found that as they weren't that popular there wasn't many 2nd hand so moved on to the big 2.

In the end I went Nikon as I found their line up easier to understand and pick out a model that suited me. For reasons I can't recall I just found the Canon line up confusing, I have a feeling I was confusing the xxxd cameras as different levels rather than generations.

If I was to do it again now knowing what I do but the same goals, I might well choose different. While Nikon has better ISO on the newer models the older ones where all much of a muchness as far as I can tell and Canon lenses seem to be better value on the used market for what I am after.
 
A lot of it was down to how it felt and which system felt more intuitive to me. The lower entry level Canons felt too small or didn't sit as comfortably in my hand - though I remember picking up someone's 40D and liking the feel of that.

In the end I borrowed a friend's D90 for a couple of months to get me started, felt comfortable with it and decided it was the one that would suit me.
 
menthel said:
The 300D was the only affordable DSLR on the market when I wanted to buy one!
Click to expand...

Same here :D

Went into PCworld, pointed at camera and asked to hold it. Checked it had dials/knobs/buttonsetc & that it was a DSLR Camera.....

Then bought it :lol:



Never used any another DSLR brand. Nikon/Canon/Sony etc, they're all as bad as each other (at least in my hands....) :help:
 
I started with a 350D and the same time I also looked at the Nikon D40 as it the reviews said it had better image quality
However there was the thing that it did not have in body focus mechanism so would not autofocus with all Nikon lenses . Did not fully understand it at the time and it put me off Nikon
the 350D was also significantly cheaper as well
I shortly afterwards got a 70-200F4 as well and have been happy with Canon ever since :)
 
A Canon 350d was offered to me at a very good price on exactly the same day as I decided I needed something better than my Fuji bridge camera.

If it had been a Nikon I would now be shooting Nikon.

Sam
 
i moved from canon to nikon because i wanted a camera that would work without batteries
 
Carousels Spin said:
My father has a Canon; when I was getting my DSLR, he pointed out that it would be silly for me to get another system unless I really couldn't stand Canons, because this way we can share lenses/I can steal his lenses. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

I did the exact same but with the sony. I have the exact same as him a200, but I have more gear now :lol:
 
I bought a D60 because one came up cheap at the right time, I wasn't looking for any brand in particular. Now I just like using Nikon, they feel better for me. :)
 
My first ever slr was a Minolta x370 s brought as a birthday present, I used it for a while then started looking at canon fd series and that was it, my minolta part ex'ed and built a healthy collection of fd bodies, sticking with canon I then had many eos film bodies, also buying a 200mm f2.8L. I was wanting a dslr so much, but couldn't afford one, and I was selling 300d's at dixons. I had a laptop that was insured, it broke and I got lucky with the replacement vouchers, more than my laptop was worth! So I quickly spent them and brought a 350d, which was my first dslr. I have just got so used to canon, and never thought about buying into other systems. My brother has a sony alpha, and my dad has pentax dslr so I can always use there if I fancy a change.
 
Owned a few Nikon manual cameras yonks ago (FM2n & FM), thought I've give Canon a blast for a change, I'm quite new to digital SLR, struggling a little....
 
I came from a long list of film cameras, my Father was an amateur and so I used all the cameras he didn't want anymore. I moved onto an SLR through Pentax and then Minolta film camera's my fave being the 600i classic. My first digital was a Minolta 7i bridge camera which i think cost £700! I have had a couple of Pentax DSLR's, the K100d Super and the D200 but have always liked Nikon cameras so when i felt the D90 in my hands I loved it the button positions, weight, handling, etc. Will stick with Nikon from now on i think.
 
I chose Canon as I used a Canon 35mm previously. I did look at the Nikon and Sony models before I purchased as I was quite willing to start afresh, but got a very good deal on a 350D.
 
I started at a young age with a relative's Yashica FX3 SLR and my dad's old Yashica MAT TLR, progressed to a Pentax P30 which didn't last long, then bought a used Nikon FG20 - all bar the P30 were great cameras.

Back in the late 90's I decided to get back into photography and handled a few cameras at Jacobs, it was the EOS 50E that felt the best in my hands for my budget.

I've gone through EOS D60, 10D & 20D and currently have a 5D and 1D mkIIN with 17-40 f4 & 70-200 f2.8 IS lenses.
 
My Dad had an EOS 1000Fn which I started using when I was 14, I then got an EOS 300 for Christmas that year then bought an EOS 30 then 10D, 20D, 1D2n, 40D and finally 1DIV.

By the time I had my 20D I had my first L lens and from then on all my lenses bacame Ls. Its now too expensive to change systems not that I would as I hate the ergonomics and UI of the Nikons. Sony isn't quite there yet and the rest are even further behind.

Oh and I'm about to give m43 a go and buy an EPL1 due to it being the cheapest on the market. Don't want to spend too much on a second system that I'm really only buying to play with


Neil
 
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Had a Nikon D50 because it was more ergonomic than the Canon 400D.

Went to Canon 7D because I wanted the best video available at the time. What I will do next is a tough one because I've bought into the Canon full frame range so it will be hard to tear myself away from it but I will probably 'downgrade' to an 4/3 system when I get fed up with carrying the heavy stuff about.

It's always just a phase with me :)

John
 
I used to use Nikon P90 in my previous job, so I decided to stick with the Nikon system, also I prefer the feel of the Nikon D90 over a Canon 40D, which I found awkward to use.

:)
 
I decided on Pentax because of the stupidly large number of cheap lens available, gotta love back compatibility!!!
And as when i was looking i didn't know if i wanted to take it seriously or if id drop it after a week being able to get a frankly amazing variety of lens at not much more than a tenner each to see what was capable has proved to be a massive advantage . . . as im now hooked and looking to move onto a more high caliber system as it were. .
 
I bought my Sony Alpha because it was the second cheapest DSLR on the market at the time. And I just love the name "Alpha" :D I mean, "EOS", "D", even "Rebel" don't have the same flair as Alpha. Sorry I don't mean to offend anyone.
 
I had a Minolta SRT100 and a Canon AE1. Loved the Minolta, hated the Canon (so hardly used it). Eventually I drifted away from photography for 20 years or more.

When I decided to get a DSLR I shopped around quite obsessively. Tried everything in my price-range before getting a Sony a350 for it's IBIS, resolution,tilt screen and colour. Now have an a850, but still like to the use a350 regularly.
 
In the old film days I had first a Mamiya-Sekor, then later a Minolta. Liked both, but ultimately found film expensive and I never could keep good enough records to understand what went wrong (or right) on any specific photograph. Then the fast photo places really ruined things for me by automatically adjusting under- and over-exposed photos, so even when I bracketed shots, they all turned out looking like mud. I had a young family and wasn't making a bunch of money, so ultimately just could not justify the expense of adding lenses or darkroom equipment, so gave up the hobby.

Fast forward 2o years, and I got my first digital point-and-shoot ... could not believe how great it was to get instant results that reflected what I was actually trying to do. Have been hooked ever since.

When the time came to get a dSLR I tried only the Nikons and Canons. I just liked the feel and overall look of the Nikon. Nothing quantitative at all and at the time, I did not realize how much information I could have found on the web that might have swayed my choice.

Looking back...I have no regrets. I've slowly accumulated some nice lenses; moved up from the D80 to a D300 and invested a lot of time in learning photoshop. While no one else may like my photos as much as I do, I can honestly say that having the creative freedom of digital photography and a darkroom-in-a-computer makes photography a highly gratifying, if sometimes frustrating, hobby.
 
Canon seemed to have a wider range of lenses and what seemed to me a more logical naming convention for them.

Also I'd been happy with the Ixus compact camera I had before.

Although I think the Nikon bodies may be slightly better and the flash system certainly is I would still go for Canon if I was starting from scratch, as to me lenses are most important!
 
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I moved from a zenit 11 to canon i walked into the shop tried the weight and feel of all the cameras and the Canon felt best in my hand job done and that was 22 years ago and i have'nt looked back :D
Regards
Richard
 
Moved from Nikon film to Canon film, as the Canon 500n looked the best choice for me at the time, and after buying a few Canon (fit) lenses, stayed with Canon when I moved to digital. I also preferred the sound of the word Canon to Nikon when I was much younger!!
 
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