Canon vs Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Page updated: October 2007

Canon vs Nikon is a common comparison when it comes to digital SLR cameras.

These two companies were the first to make the leap from film SLR to digital, and their initial presence in that market made them the dominant players.

Today Canon and Nikon constantly battle for the top spot in the SLR market, while Olympus, Pentax, Sony, Panasonic and Sigma duke it out for a position in third.

If you pay attention to the digital SLR press releases, you'll notice a pattern: when either Canon or Nikon announce a new camera designed to capture some niche aspect of the market, the other company is soon to release a camera to compete.

This is especially true with the professional and pro-sumer (advanced amateur) cameras.

Once the two companies had established themselves as the camera of choice for professionals, then they began to go after the consumer market.

This page is designed to help you get a handle on the current state of Canon vs Nikon digital SLR cameras, with a focus on consumer and pro-sumer cameras, not ones for professionals.

Canon Rebel vs Nikon

Let's start by talking about the consumer-level cameras from both companies.

Canon was the first to introduce a camera with a sub-$1000 price tag: the original Canon Rebel. Nikon quickly followed with the immensely popular D50.

Both cameras had high sales volumes and were highly regarded by reviewers, but have since been discontinued. This is a lot like computer technology, and progress is relentless.

Today, there are two new Rebel cameras: the Rebel XT and the Rebel xTi.

It will come as no sup rise - given my introduction to this page - that there are also three competing Nikon cameras: the D40, the D40x and the D80.

The Canon Digital Rebels have three things going for them:

1. They are compact and light (making them easy to carry)
2. They are easy to use - buttons and controls are laid out in a logical fashion
3. They are compatible with a variety of high-quality Canon lenses

Canon digital Rebels can be used in point-and-shoot mode, but they also offer plenty of features for photographers who want more custom control.

The Nikon D40 and D40x are equally easy to use, and they both include an innovative LCD display that shows beginning photographers how camera settings like aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance will affect their photos.

These cameras are also exceptionally small and light, and they are priced with the budget photographer in mind.

The most significant drawback is that both cameras are only compatible with a limited number of Nikon and third party lenses. This is because the cameras don't include autofocus motor drives.

An autofocus motor drive can be included in either the camera, the lens or both.

When the camera has an autofocus drive, it can autofocus virtually any lens that is attached to the camera (even REALLY old lenses used for film SLRs).

Some lenses include their own autofocus drives: Nikon's term for these lenses is AF-S, while Sigma uses the acronym HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor).

The only lenses that can autofocus on the D40 and D40x are ones with their own autofocus drives. All other lenses will be manual focus ONLY.

For point-and-shoot photographers this is not an issue: there are plenty of AF-S and HSM lenses out there for you to choose from.

But specialty photographers (macro, architecture, etc.) and those on a strict lens budget are going to run into problems. The lack of an autofocus drive will severely limit the number of lenses you can consider, since there are a huge number of fantastic Nikon lenses that don't include autofocus drives.

The Nikon D80 has no such limitation, and benefits from an incredibly fast autofocus system and near-zero lag time when taking photos.

The following table shows how the Rebel xTi compares with the Nikon D80:

Canon 20D vs Nikon

In late 2004, Canon released the first camera for the pro-sumer market.

Who are pro-sumers? They're advanced amateur SLR camera users who know how to leverage a camera that performs more like a professional SLR, but don't want to pay over $3,000 for a camera.

The Canon 20D appealed to these photographers with its rugged construction, quick-access manual controls, 5 photo per second shooting speed and its fast, accurate 9-point autofocus system.

This camera was definitely designed for subjects on the MOVE.

When the 20D was released, there was no Nikon equivalent camera. Yes, there were more expensive professional models (and less expensive consumer models), but nothing with the feature set of the 20D within its price range.

This imbalance would not be restored until a full year later in 2005.

Canon 30D vs Nikon D200

In late 2005, Nikon released the D200 which drew the attention of many pro-sumer photographers.

It was just as fast as the Canon 20D, but boasted a larger sensor (10 megapixels vs. 8), more autofocus points (11 vs. 9), a larger LCD (2.5 inch vs. 1.8) and more access to the camera settings that pro camera users change most often: ISO, drive mode, white balance and image quality.

Nikon had themselves a winner - which quickly became apparent when the positive reviews started rolling in.

In time the Nikon D200 would go on to become one of the top rated digital SLR cameras - everyone who laid hands on it had a great time taking photos.

And did Canon just sit back and rest on the features of the 20D? Nope.

Just three short months later, Canon released an upgrade to the 20D - the EOS 30D. But the 30D really didn't break any new ground. While better than the 20D in some respects, it wasn't significantly better.

Many new digital SLR camera buyers picked up the 30D and enjoyed its features and functionality, but 20D owners - like myself - felt little need to shell out the cash for a camera with a mildly enhanced feature set.

Canon 40D vs Nikon D300

Today, the Canon vs Nikon digital SLR battle rages on.

In 2007, both companies released upgraded to their pro-sumer cameras within a month of each other.

Canon's announcement was for the new EOS 40D.

The EOS 40D does include some significant enhancements over both the 30D and 20D, including:

• Increased continuous photo speed up to 6.5 photos per second
• Increased buffer size up to 75 high-quality JPG images
• Increase in megapixels to 10.1
• Improved 9-point autofocus system
• Dust control system
• Live view LCD

Nikon's new camera is called the D300. It also includes many of the improvements of the Canon camera, keeping both cameras competitive:

• Continuous photo speed of 6 photos per second (8 with optional battery grip)
• Buffer size allows for up to 100 high-quality JPG images
• 12.3 megapixel sensor
• 51-point autofocus system
• Dust control system
• Live view LCD

Visitors to the site will periodically send me e-mails asking me which one is better: Canon or Nikon?

Once you get at this level of digital SLR camera technology my answer is "flip a coin."

If you have old film SLR lenses lying around the house, then you should definitely stick with the brand that matches your lenses.

However, if you're just starting out in the world of digital SLR cameras, and want some of the fastest models you can get your hands on, then you should be perfectly happy with either the Canon 40D or the Nikon D300.

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