Why did you choose Canon?

[CanNotYet]

For me, it was largely my wife's fault. When we met, she had a konica P&S for film. I accidentally put it in the washing machine (long story), and it was no more. Next up, she got a IXUS APS and liked it. Then she got a EOS 500N from her father, which we used for a loong time.

When digital turned up, we started from scratch, as we wanted first a P&S. We looked at all the brands, but my wife had two criterias: IQ, and skintones. She disregarded all other brands after looking at pics, and we became the owners of an A80, which we loved. Adored the vari-angle screen.

A year later, it falls out of our car, and we get an A95 on the insurance (same, but better than A80).

Three years later, we get married. (yes, she is my wife now, but we were together for many years before it happened). So, what to give my wife as a "morning gift"? (old tradition in my country).

The 40D had just come out, but I got a sweet deal on the 30D, and funds wer limited, so I went for it (thinking I can use the old sigma lenses for the 500N for it). The 70-300 worked, but the 28-80 did not, so I sold that package off to a relative, and bought the Tamron 17-50 non-VC.

And now? Several lenses later and flash etc.? I will not switch brands unless Canon goes bankrupt or starts using baby hearts to power their cameras (or something similarly unprobable royal screw-up).

So, pros:

Ergonomics. Nikons feel weird.
Total package. Room to grow that only Nikon can compete with.
Colors and skintones. (yes I know you can change it, but I don't know how, and with Canon, I don't need to...)
Lenses. Both Third-Party and the lovely USM ones
Build quality. (thats the reason I chose a 30D over a Rebel, it has been banged up many times, and still works as new, over 120.000 actuations later)

Cons:
Well...price? (but you DO get what you pay for, both in houses and lenses)

DR does not affect me that much, as I am not remotely pushing the boundaries there. I want fast autofocus and good Hi-Iso performance.

[UrbanImages]

My father taught me how to use his AE-1 when I was around 12. (35 now) When the Rebel G came out I bought one along with some third party lenses. I later upgraded to a 7E and in 2005 bought my 1st digital DSLR, the 300D and I was hooked. Having shot film for so long I was resistant at first, but after shooting with it for the first time I was hooked. From then on I got serious and moved on to a 40D and started upgrading my lenses and bodies to the collection I have now. I have tried friends' Nikons and I don't like the way they feel nor do I find them user friendly. Ironically enough my business partner shoots Nikon and she picked up my 5DII and 7D yesterday and she found them to feel better in her hands than her D3. She also acknowledges that Canon has superior glass so the die hard Nikon girl is exploring a switch. At least we would no longer be a divided studio... 

[drolo61]

Started out in the mid seventies with a Fujica SLR, Dad worked for Kodak, so there was always plenty of Kodachrome in the house. Upgraded myself to Nikon FA, added a FM2 and a couple of lenses. Forgot about photography for some time. Found some "fun money" and added a Leica M6 plus glass to the line-up. Bought first digital (Olympus P&S with great 1,8, lens, forgot the model) around 1999 for the need of a (fast) digital "low cost" workflow for product pics. IQ sucked in those days and for private stuff I a took a quick ebay tour through medium format (RZ67, Hassi C500 and Mamiya 6x6, still my Rollei 6008i). Upgraded digitally 2001 on KonicaMinolta (5MP over the Olymus 3MP), got rid of it after a week for extreme low light noise. Swapped to first version rebel, felt cheap and plastic, so the 10D was my first "keeper" in digital world. Waiting for FF the 5D changed my photograpy as I have not touched much of the film gear since. Have no need for video, so just upgraded last year to 5DIII and completely happy with it. While owning my Nikon film gear I was so much of a "fan boy", that picking up the Rebel almost felt like treason. Was very tempted to go back while waiting for the 5DIII, but for ergonomics and lenses happy to have waited. Nonetheless Canon has to regain speed in developing cutting edge technology - still wait for the long announced firmware update to fix the AF point illumination.

[sharka23]

TS-e 17mm !

[msowsun]

Brand Loyalty ..... In the late 1966 I was 10 years old and started taking photos with my Dad's Kodak Bownie.   




He eventually bought me a used Canon Canonet QL19 (35mm film rangefinder)  in 1971 and I have been shooting with only Canon ever since.

[7enderbender]

a) It started with my dad's Canon A-1, so I also bought into the FD system. A good friend and neighbor had an A-1 as well, so we shared a lot of lenses and gizmos at the time.

b) I don't like the color of mustard and zoom lenses that turn the wrong way.

c) I couldn't afford the Leica system.

d) Canon lenses for me are the better bang for the buck. For about equal quality Nikon lenses are always a bit more expensive. And there are a bunch of lenses I was interested in that Nikon simply doesn't have an equivalent for.

[JPAZ]

After moving from 35mm Rebel to Olympus digital P&S, got a Canon G6 (still have it).  When moving to digital SLR, the Canon XTi felt beter in may hands than the Nikon d80.  Nuff said.

[K-amps]

Not sure how I got into Canon... but what keeps me is the 70-200 F/2.8 mk. ii

[pdirestajr]

EOS Rebel G. Andre Agassi.

[Area256]

I've owned a number of Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Minolta, and Canon digital cameras over the last 12 or so years.  My first Canon was the G7 that I used for travel, and I really enjoyed it.   My DSLR at the time an Olympus E520 (or something like it), and it had awful noise.   So I went looking for a new DSLR brand.  Initially my plan was to get a Nikon D7000, since it seemed to have good noise performance, however then I discovered it had a half-backed LiveView system.  So I picked up a Canon 60D, and loved the controls and LiveView functionality - and just about everything else about it.  I've been shooting Canon almost exclusively ever since - with the 6D being my latest toy.

[Axilrod]

I had various Canon MiniDV cameras over the years and found them to be quality products.  Also, my neighbor and close friend that was a photog both shot Canon, so it seemed like the obvious choice for me.

[Sporgon]

Full frame in 2005

Been in photography since 1978, used Nikon 35mm and Pentax 6x7 exclusively, then Nikon digital to 2005. Nikon had publicly stated they'd never produce a FF chip (!)

However since using Canon really like the ergonomics of the cameras and the quality of manual focus on the L lenses, although I am attempting now to make more use of AF. Also I believe that in the "prosumer" category the Canons are inherently better made.

In the helicon days of film I really didn't like Canon, apart from the wonderful F-1.

[leftnose]

I've been involved with photography since I was very young.  My father was a student of Walker Evans and did some nice work on his own.  The first real camera I used was his old Leica M2 with a 35mm Summarit.  After that, he let me use his Nikon F3 with a 35/2 AIS lens.  When it came time that I was old enough to have my own "real" camera (about 1996--I had had many P&Ss up to this point--who else remembers Disc film?),  couldn't justify the additional price of an N90s over an EOS A2 so I went with Canon.  At that time, Canon was the clear leader in AF performance and that was more important to me than the advantage Nikon held with better TTL flash performance.  The first lens I bought for that A2 other than the 28-105 kit lens was the 35/2 (see a pattern here?).  I still own both and use the 35/2 today but I've pretty much retired the 28-105 though it still works fine.

Not too long after I bought that A2, the digital revolution started.  But I decided to wait it out a bit, inhaling more fixer fumes in the darkroom until things settled a bit, especially since I knew I wanted a full frame sensor, being a fan of the wider end of the focal length range, not to mention better DR, DoF considerations, and low light performance.  I was getting results in the darkroom which were very pleasing to me and I didn't want to take a step back with my equipment.

So, several years go past and the 5D Mark II is released.  Between that and the D700, it was pretty much a no brainer for me, especially considering the EF glass I already owned and the fact that I could pick up the 5D2 in the store and do everything, the controls were so similar to my A2.

So, my journey with Canon started with cost/feature considerations and then I kept with it due to features/specifications/ergos.

[digital paradise]

20D was the cream of the crop for crop sensors at the time. Nikon was using CCD. I have never liked Nikon colours out of the box and I prefer Canon ergonomics. More glass was available and was less expensive compared to a Nikon equivalent.     

[Pixel]

I just went with what I knew. We had Canon at my high school yearbook and that was pretty much it. I spent a few years on the dark side but the original 1D was light years ahead of anything Nikon was producing and that was all she wrote and I'll never look back. I'll be with Canon now until the lights are out.
What keeps me WITH Canon, the CPS program is absolutely the best thing going. Fast turnaround times, loaners, being at the sporting events I cover with loaner gear, sending back updated refurb gear instead of repairing something near the end of life....what more can I ask for?
A pro friend of mine who is in the middle of switching from Canon to Nikon just sent in some gear to Nikon for repair.....took weeks to get it back....have fun with that!