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I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately over why I’ve been shooting Canon gear. And rightly so. During the course of the year, I personally come in to contact with thousands of photographers who have seen me shooting Nikon. But lately, I’ve been posting some Canon photos here on the blog (I always mention the gear and settings I use when I post an image). And many of you have nicely (well, mostly nice) asked what’s the deal? Why Canon? So I figured I owed you an answer.

Interesting Side Note
I used to shoot Canon. My first DSLR was a Canon 10D back in 2003. In fact, I never got rid of it. My kids use it actually, and I still have a few lenses. I wasn’t very heavily invested though, and when I started at Kelby Media back in 2004, I switched to Nikon because everyone shot Nikon. I’ve always told people to “use what your friends use”. Mac/PC, Nikon/Canon, etc… That way you have a built in support network. You can ask questions, share gear, batteries, lenses, battery chargers, whatever… So that’s exactly what I did. I invested in Nikon over the years because that’s what everyone I shot with used.

Back To The Back Story
Okay, back to the story. First off, as timing would have it, I sent Scott an email a couple of days ago because I knew he mentioned the topic of how he personally switched to Canon on one of our shows, and I wanted to see which show it was so I could point to it. He sent me back an email saying he was actually covering the same exact topic on his blog the next day (yesterday). So, when you get a chance, go watch the video and you’ll get an idea on how our relationship with Canon, started at KelbyOne and why Scott switched.

As Scott mentioned in the video, Canon wanted to sponsor Scott’s Photo Walk and Photoshop World last year. And since we were all mostly Nikon shooters in-house, they simply hoped that we would at least mention/show that Canon has equivalents to many things we talked about. Makes total sense. And probably the right thing to do since, depending on which stats you go by, let’s just say a very large percentage of the people that watch our training shoot Canon.

How I Got Canon Gear
Our video team was clamoring for some Canon gear to shoot the Kelby Training classes. Canon is revered among the HDDSLR shooters out there, and they wanted to try some stuff out. Among the gear they tried, was a 5D Mark III. Well, last October I was heading out on a trip to Colorado and I figured I’d bring it along to try it out. I thought that it would be good to check out, as I hadn’t shot a Canon camera in nearly 10 years. I did still bring my D800 though because it was my first time out with a Canon in a while.

To me, it was perfect. Ever since I started teaching photography, I’ve been asked why I just teach using Nikon. That so many people shoot Canon and why don’t I give settings, tips, tricks, etc… for Canon cameras too. And I teach workshops all the time. It’s frustrating when a Canon shooter comes up to me and asks a question about how to set up their camera and I can’t answer.

So… this was my chance. I could now get familiar with Canon cameras too, and it wouldn’t cost me a small fortune in a body and lenses to do it. Since then, I’ve been bringing Canon gear with me when I go shoot. And honestly, I’ve liked it so much, that ever since the first shoot in October, the Canon is all I’ve taken with me.

Where Am I At Now?
I still have my Nikon gear and I have no plans of selling it right now. Both my Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III have things I like about ’em. I’m not going to do a feature-to-feature comparison. They both make gorgeous images and we all know it’s more about the photographer behind the camera, and what you take a photo of.

I will say this. After spending a short amount of time with the Canon, my first thoughts are: I love the 5D Mark III as a camera body. I totally agree with Scott (you have to watch the video above) on how the camera feels. It just feels better. That was immediately my first reaction after using it for 5 minutes. Dials and buttons feel like they’re positioned better. The menus, settings. The way everything is accessible through a menu, which means I can save all of my different shooting setups without messing around with analog controls. Really nice for jumping between landscape, long exposures, night photography, and portraits. I like the bracketing on it better than my D800 too. I’ve long wished I could change the number of stops between brackets on my Nikon D800 because it fills up my memory cards too quickly. Seems like that would be such a simple firmware upgrade, but it’s never happened.

The one thing I do miss about my D800 is the file size. I may not always print large enough to take advantage of the D800’s file size, but I certainly enjoy having it. Aesthetically, there’s something about post-processing a photo of that size. And say what you will, but we’re visual people so that counts for something. Just like the “feel” of the camera counts for something, the “feel” of the image on the computer counts for something too.

So that’s it. To the conspiracy-seekers out there, think what ya’ want. This post isn’t in any way directed toward you, because no post I write will get you to not think that way. This is to all of the people who kindly have asked over the last few months about why I’m shooting Canon. Now you know why 🙂

Have a good one.

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