The Ultimate Nikon versus Canon Debate!

OK, well not really. A friend called me last week and was asking what kind of DSLR he should buy his son for a high school digital photography class. His son is very serious about wanting to get into photography, so a good starter DSLR is a good choice.

I’ve always been a Canon fan. I bought my first Canon SLR when I was 13 years old and before that I shot with my father’s Canon rangefinder (which I still have). So I have a bias towards Canons. But that’s just my preference.

Coincidentally a friend dropped by the studio last week also. She is a Nikon shooter and happened to have her camera with her which led to compare a few of the differences between Canons and Nikons. Now we didn’t compare resolution, image quality, or any tech specs. We just looked at layout and handling.

I was surprised at how differently the camera were laid out. In very general terms, her Nikon was laid out so your left hand is more involved in the camera operations. My Canon was designed for less left hand involvement. For instance on my 5D MkIII, my left hand’s role is to support the the body with the palm of my hand while my index finger and thumb operated the zoom or focus rings. My right hand controlled aperture, shutterspeed, ISO, frame rate, shutter, and most other functions.

The Nikon seemed to divide up the controls between the right and left hand.

These are general statements and I’m sure different Nikon model’s controls are quite different. But I guess my point is that there is a lot more than tech specs to consider when buying your first DLSR and committing to a brand. The ergonomics and handling matter.

I like Canon’s layout better, but that is just my preference and you may like something different. My suggestion is look for a camera that meets your technical/price points in different brands then physically handle each camera to see which layout you like best.

Anyway that’s about the least scientific comparison between Canons and Nikon on the Internet. 🙂

Thanks for reading.

-Ken