Yeah, yeah, it's the debate that never ends. It's emacs vs. vi. It's Coke vs. Pepsi. And I'm trying to make a decision. I'm now officially pondering going the SLR route, and facing the classic dilemma. I don't have any legacy lenses to influence my decision, although I do own a nice Canon flash. Several desires are pushing me to go to an SLR:

- faster frame rate and faster auto-focus (for shooting dancers, among other things)
- wider wide angle (for lots of things)
- better flash metering (metering on my Canon G3 is typically overexposed for close shots and underexposed for long shots)

As usual, I'm stuck pondering the two usual choices, and I seem to be leaning toward Nikon, which surprises me somewhat, since I've always been somewhat partial to Canon. Please double-check my thinking.


- Nikon has a better selection of wide-angle options. I'm particularly impressed with the new DX line, which seems to include:
- a 10.5mm fisheye (with optional software post-processing to "straighten" the image)
- a 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
- a 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom
- a 12-24mm f/4 zoom

These lenses seem to be of extremely high quality and get good reviews, but they're physically smaller and lighter than lenses meant to cover a full 35mm film frame. I'd be tempted to own two of them, with the only question being which two (probably the expensive 10.5mm fisheye + the cheaper 18-70mm). Then I'd buy a third lens that could do more in the way of telephoto coverage.

On the Canon side, they've only got one "EF-S" lens (an 18-55mm zoom) that's intended to be cheap, not high-end, plus it only works with the cheapest Digital Rebel camera. You buy Canon glass and you're buying full-frame wide-angle lenses, such as Canon's 16-35mm f/2.8 or 17-40mm f/4.0. Advantage Nikon. (Although, there are some interesting Sigma lenses, including a 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 lens that are available for Canon and Nikon.)

In terms of flash technology, I think Nikon has always had better metering and such over Canon. They seem to give you a lot more control over the flash, at any rate. Advantage? Possibly Nikon.

In terms of longer lenses, Canon has had the traditional advantage, but I'm unlikely to ever want to own a 600mm prime lens, and there's certainly no trouble in renting such a lens for either Canon or Nikon if I've got something specific I want to shoot. Both Nikon and Canon offer 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses with vibration reduction / image stabilization, which is what I'd likely want. No real advantage of one vendor or the other (for me, anyway).

In terms of the body, the Canon Digital Rebel, by all accounts, isn't up to snuff. The Nikon D70, for the same price, has gotten far more positive reviews and has better specs, in many ways, than the Nikon D100 (although I'd pay the extra $500 for a more solid metal body relative to a cheaper plastic body). The real questions for me are whether Nikon or Canon have successors to the EOS 10D / Nikon D100 coming out any time soon, and whether Canon plans to get serious about making EF-S lenses. Various accounts seem to say that Canon and Nikon have only put their "top" autofocus systems into the pro cameras (Nikon D1, D2H; Canon 1D, 1Ds). Maybe, with the low-end cameras pushing upward on the 10D/D100 class, the next generation of those cameras will have better autofocus tech.

Thoughts anyone?