Question of the day..

[Jamdiver]

Soo the thought occured to me recently and I've noticed it while browsing on many underwater photography forums.
That there seem to be a pre-ponderance of Nikon DSLR shooters u/w as compared to Canon, Olympus et cetera..

At first I thought it was because the D200 is the newest, biggest, baddest boy on the block.
Lol, but now i'm not so sure.

I'm curious as to why this is so....
- Lens selection issues (i.e. a bag full of lenses that you've already got)
- Emotional attachment of shooters to a particular rig from their film days?
- Features, image quality, the whole nine yards?

Note, i'm pursuing this from a desire for information and insight.
I'd be grateful for everyone's input and thoughts.

I'd hate to see this degenerate into the usual trite C vs. N thing, lol as amusing as that can be at times .

 

[pakman]

Canon 350D was the cheapest body I could find... [partially joking...] Did the usual spending endless nights reading photography review websites measurebating the pros and cons of each new DSLR... And more importantly, looked at the pics people were actually taking with each camera....

In the end, after I calculated all that I spent on the housing, ports, domes, LENSES!, and other doohickies, it wouldn't have added that much more to the total package cost to have gone the way of the Nikon D200... I didn't have any SLR lenses previously so wasn't attach to the Canon brand.

However, if I recall at the time of my decision, the D200 had just come out and the housings weren't going to be out in time for my trip... Also, having seen the image quality that Dennis was getting with his "entry level" 350D swayed me as well...

Luckily the new 400D fits my housing as well and will keep me happy u/w and topside for a few years... or until Canon comes out with a 30D or 5D replacement... Now if I ever buy that Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS lens, I'll have to sign my life away to Canon with my blood...

 

[Mike Veitch]

cuz i have always had Nikon..



i have seen people lose their shirt selling their nikon lenses and going Canon and buying all those lenses again..

ahahahaha

 

[AUTiger]

My father-in-law has a Nikon (he's always had Nikon). He has a fat enough wallet to buy the pro-level lenses, which he'll let me borrow. Plus we spend time talking about camera stuff together.

Last, I don't like that little bitty grip on the Rebel.

David

 

[Jamdiver]

Thanks for the response guys....
These are the sort of responses that I was expecting.....

So far i've seen brand loyalty (too expensive to switch to another brand after acquiring many lenses).

AUTiger, that's a good father in law to have ..

I had wondered if it was due to Nikon's lens selection which was more suited to u/w photography than Canon.
Speaking about the 10.5 fisheye and other such super-wide and wide offerings.

 

[Mike Veitch]

yes the 10.5 kicks butt....

my friend who went from Nik to the 20D now wants to go back to a D200 so he can have the 10.5 again..

 

[dbh]

I really think that a person could be happy with either one. You just have to do your research, pick one...and not look back.

I think that (a few years ago), Nikon had better lenses and Canon had better bodies. Today, both have closed the gap in each category....so it is a toss up.

YMMV,
Dave

 

[Jamdiver]

Great points dbh and I do agree, it's just that with the fairly small differences and stellar image quality from both rigs.

I just find it curious that there seems to be a marked lean of u/w photographers to one brand over another.
Lol, which is really the reason why I started this thread.

Anyway just my personal observations, I don't have any data to back this up.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I ended up with Olympus, but Nikon was the other brand that made my decision incredibly difficult. I preffer the out-of camera images from Nikon and Olympus more-so than Canon. The color and tonality agree with me more and require less time in PS for an image that pleases me. I'm not so great with PS, so thats a plus. I hate the feel of the budget Canon bodies, they really put me off of wanting one. Fit and build quality of the Nikon and Olympus budget bodies were pretty much identical. Ended up with Olympus because of the glass available is excellent and it fit my needs. Oly's budget body also had more features(atleast features that interested me) than the budget Nikon.

I don't think there is a bad brand out there though. Put the camera in the right hands and you'll have excellent images gallore.

 

[Warren_L]

yes the 10.5 kicks butt....

my friend who went from Nik to the 20D now wants to go back to a D200 so he can have the 10.5 again..

The 10.5mm is my favourite lens too. I've gotten some great results from that lens, and doing primarily wreck photography, it can't be beat.

Been shooting Nikon SLR for over 20 years (I still have my old FM2), so I guess brand loyalty played a part in my decision to go Nikon dSLR - first the D70 and now the D200. However, lenses were the major factor in the decision process.