Canon or Nikon

I’ve just agreed the sale of my Canon 300 f/2.8 L IS and if all goes to plan it will be sold tomorrow. Why am I selling what is widely regarded as one of Canon’s best lenses? Because I’m off to…..

….Nikon!

Five years ago I would have laughed at you if you suggested such a thing but Nikon has improved massively in that time.

I’m not going to get into ‘which is best’ or if Nikon has overtaken Canon, there is no point and it very much depends on the photographer and what they need from their kit.

For me, I’ve been very happy with Canon overall but I have felt frustrated by one thing. The metering on the Canon 7D just couldn’t compete with D300. In ideal conditions with blue skies, the sun behind you and lots of light you would never know but try shooting on a dull overcast day or a backlit scene and it soon became obvious to me.

Like many Canon photographers I just declared that I wished my 7D would meter as well and carried on. I couldn’t do anything about and I had spent too much on Canon kit now to change but I couldn’t put it out of my mind.

I found myself checking the EXIF information on photos to see what it was shot with. I wasn’t long before I didn’t need to and I could spot the Nikon shooters when the lighting conditions were tricky.

More recently I’ve found myself shooting side by side with people using the Nikon equivalent of my Canon 7D and Canon 300 f/2.8 L IS. The results were close but again the Nikon had metered better.

This may seem like a small thing and changing all your lenses and DSLRs is a big hassle not to mention the expense involved and you’d be right! I’m not going to argue that but it is an important thing to be. Light it was what makes a photo and metering is a very important part of that, if the tools I have aren’t the best for type of photography I do then changing them makes sense to me.

A decision like this is a big one and I hope I’ve made the right decision but either way I need to find out and in some ways I’m looking forward to seeing what the Nikon system is like having never shot with any other brand than Canon but right now I just feel nervous.

Time will tell.

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About the author

Fast Air Photography

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