From The Dark Side... To The Dark Side...

Here's to make clear I do not have a fixation with anything Star Wars...

After 9 years of being a Nikonian, I have finally moved from Nikon (known in certain photographic circles as the Dark Side) to Canon (also known in certain photographic circles as the Dark Side).

Confused? Apparently the term applies interchangeably depending on who you talk to... Reason Canon is known as such is due to their (previous) dominance in the digital photography world. And reason Nikon is known as such is because of the prominence of Canon's white L lenses (which makes Nikon with its predominantly black lenses the Dark side...)

To cut a long story short, I dumped the last vestiges of my Nikon system; the D60, Tamron 17-50mm and SB400 in early January. In place came the Canon 450D, Canon 17-40L lens and a Nissin Di622. It wasn't really a pain as most system changes go, as over the recent years I have been slowly selling off most of my Nikon stuff...

Why??? (amidst ugly looks from my Nikon-toting friends...) I chose to go Nikon in 1999 when I ventured into SLR photography due to their supposed ruggedness and superiority in lenses ie good and affordable. Canon seemed then to be very commercialised and it showed in their plasticky products. Also back then for whatever reason most Canon bodies bar the top ones didn't have spot metering.

Recently, the tables seemed to have turned, and Nikon is increasingly trying to milk consumers for all they're worth. (as evidenced by the D3X pricing fiasco...) Of late, Canon lenses on the whole are also cheaper than Nikon's. Witness the 17-55mm lenses of both camps. Nikon's is a f2.8 and costs the better part of 5 grand. Canon's is similar except for one crucial aspect; it comes with IS (Image Stabilizer) and you can actually get change from 4 grand. To add insult to injury, there are claims that the Nikon's optical quality is not as what its price tag suggests...

So far I've been pleased as punch with the 450D. Pictures are amazing, and I can shoot up to ISO1600 with little noise, which I had great difficulty with the Nikons (be they D60 or D80, apparently the D300 is a different story). The 3" LCD is also a nice touch, unlike the dreary Canon LCDs of yore.

Complaints? Mainly the size of the grip. I have to learn to hold it in a different way from the large-gripped Nikons. After a while I learnt to live with it...

Other minor issues are flash related. In aperture priority mode with external flash attached, it would go to crazy low shutter speeds ie 1/15, unlike Nikon which would default to at least 1/60. It can be set to default to a locked 1/200, but in some lighting conditions this would not let in enough light, and force the flash to fire at maximum, hence harsher shadows etc. Also Canon does not make a cheap tiny convenient flash like the SB400, forcing me to go to Nissin. Didn't want to spend too much on this as I don't really shoot flash that often... But as the Nissin offers really nice features ie tilt and rotate, built in diffuser and bounce card, can't complain aside from the size...

So from this day on, the pics you see on this site are very likely to be the product of the CMOS sensor and the DIGICIII processor...