I have used a lot of Canon and Nikon cameras over the years. My Canon line-up was T60 (yuck!), Elan and 620 on the film side, followed by 30D, 10D, 5D and 5D2. I also used other people’s 1Dmk2, 1DSmk2 and 300D. I was not a fan of Canon manual focus line, liked their AF film cameras reasonably well, and was a big fan of the DSLRs mainly because the alternatives were all much inferior.
My Nikon line-up was F, F2, with occasional use of borrowed FM, FM2, F3, F4, N90S. In digital, I played with D1, D80, D100, D200 — none of which impressed me favorably. D200 AF was rather imprecise, and the build quality was actually worse than Canon despite better initial impression.
I have since come to really dislike Canon bodies. 5Dmk2, my current camera, is a good studio body. It is a real pain to use for action because its AF seems very poor at any kind of focus tracking, and the interface is much too menu-oriented. Vertical grip doesn’t duplicate AF selector. Newer Canon bodies, 7D and 5Dmk3 don’t seem to be much of an improvement. I have not played with D1X but it seems to have the same interface issues. I am sorely tempted to dump my whole kit and get a Nikon D800. I could actually use the extra pixels in my work. Nikon viewfinders seem sharper to me and I like the LCD overlay availability. However, the switch-over would cost at least $7000, if not more.
Since I lack recent experience with Nikon bodies and lenses, I’d like the input of those who have that. Would I be just trading one set of annoyances for another, or the current Nikon offerings actually improve on Canon? I would be looking for 24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8VR, 100/2.8 micro, 90TSE and 45TSE initially.
