This is John Roark; former Navy Photojournalist and now a technical guy down at Woods Hole. When I get back from Japan I think we're going to work on something together. (Nikon Shooter).
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I remember the first time I walked into a rental studio. The third question I was asked was "do you shoot Nikon or Canon?' It wasn't because they had equipment for one or the other. It was kind of like asking are you a Democrat or Republican (you pick which one is which). My gut reaction was, who gives a s%^&. But, I suppose on reflection there are differences between the two.

So, I will indulge in that tremendous waste of time that is a discussion of the merits of the systems.

My reason for being a dedicated Nikon shooter was very simple. It is what I could afford when I was getting started. Manual focus Nikon lenses will mount on any Nikon SLR from the 50's to today.

I come from a Canon household. My father used to own an EOS 620 and now has one of the D series. My brother is a D Rebel shooter. I was the oddball Nikon shooter.

Now, for what it is worth, in 2004 I did get a Canon Digital Rebel. I didn't really know what I was doing with it though. It gave me those C+ grade shots all day long in auto. In fact that is part of what started this quest. I learned how to kick ass with film. Digital seemed a bit crappy by comparison.

So, anyway, I stuck with Nikon. I believed the glass was simply a cut above. Maybe not Zeiss, but better than Canon anyway. They had different design philosophies when it comes to lenses (contrast, resolution, etc).

I moved into the pro side of Nikon digital and was mostly happy. I resigned myself to Film being my love and Digital being my work tool. Then one fateful day I posted to my facebook wall a question:

Should I buy a Mamiya AFD setup or a Canon 5D for the same cost (just for fun either way)?

The answers didn't surprise me - the 5D weighed heavy (especially with my friend who works for Canon). I decided that it was time I gave Canon a shot. You see, I was using the D300s and Fuji S5 Pro (I am a Fujifilm guy for film). They are "crop frame" sensor cameras.

Here's the straight dope, fair dinkem?, simply truth. I used to lust after the Nikon D2x. It was Nikon's top dog. But, it was surpassed by the D3 and D300. Now, the D300 was (according to Nikon) the best crop frame camera they ever made at that point. So, when I got my D300s I knew I had a quality in my hands surpassing the D2x. Forget that there were higher resolution cameras and full-frame available. I didn't need full frame. My commercial work is shot at low ISO so who cares about the High-ISO. Heck most of my work was still shot with the Fuji S5 because of its color and super Dynamic Range.

Anyway, basically the D300s was a great camera. But, it lacked something. It still felt digital.

So, when I foolishly followed the advice of my friends and picked up the used 5D it caused a weird thing to happen. I stopped shooting film almost immediately. The 5D was just fun. The colors were crazy. The dynamic range was so slim I may as well have been shooting slide. And I loved it! The cherry on top was that my 50mm looked like a 50mm again. (Nikon's 50mm f1.4 AF is crap. You may disagree but my copy is total crap.)

Anyway, so for 6 months I fool around with the camera and I pretty much stop shooting film. I still shot Nikon for all work. But, for myself I was shooting all Canon.

The time had come. The switch. Two weeks ago I shot a mag cover series on Nikon and then two days later shot a feature on Canon. My first job with the Canon. It's a twofer. That film magic and full-frame focal lengths. It doesn't hurt that the 5D is decent at high iso as well.

More to come.

P.S. My thanks to those who helped me understand the various lens options.