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Interested to read in next month's Photography Monthly that one of Britain's greatest (or, at least, most publicised) landscape photographers is ditching Canon, whose cameras he has used since the start of digital, and switching to Nikon.
The reason he gives is that the colour depth and resolution of the D800 is so much better than the EOS 5D Mk11 and he was hoping that the Mk111 would have begun to catch up.
It's only one opinion of course, but nice to hear it from a practical professional user rather than a journalist.
Quote: one of Britain's greatest (or, at least, most publicised)
Are you insinuating there is a difference LF?...
I think Canon's sensor technology has fallen behind Sony's. Sony have made large investments in sensor technology over the last few years and apparently are still increasing their investment in this area, despite cutbacks in other areas. Their 16Mp APS-C sensor was reckoned to be the best when it came out and their 24Mp APS-C sensor is now reckoned to be the best. I think that the Nikon D800 36Mp sensor is a Sony one because Nikon get most of their sensors from Sony - and Sony said they were developing a 36Mp FF sensor - but Nikon, as usual, are claiming it's their "design". Yeah right.
Quote: Interested to read in next month's Photography Monthly that one of Britain's greatest (or, at least, most publicised) landscape photographers is ditching Canon, whose cameras he has used since the start of digital, and switching to Nikon.
The reason he gives is that the colour depth and resolution of the D800 is so much better than the EOS 5D Mk11 and he was hoping that the Mk111 would have begun to catch up.
It's only one opinion of course, but nice to hear it from a practical professional user rather than a journalist.
And there was me thinking it was the photographer and not the camera ;0) come on Ade and Chris L 
Did Tom have his 5D2 calibrated? I use a bespoke calibration profile with mine and cannot see the difference with a Nikon 300D owner who also calibrated his camera. I will admit that the bespoke profile made a larger difference to my images that the bespoke profile did to the 300D but that is down to the Adobe default profile I previously used for Raw conversion and not Canon. Even though I use the bespoke profile only fashion and product photographers need this kind of accuracy. Given that Tom's images seemed to be mainly landscapes and many are exaggerted in colour (though attractive), I do not believe that the colour depth arguement was valid. I wonder what deal he had from Nikon. A leading UK professional who gives many talks kept mentioning his favourite camera (a medium format film camera) but kept also mentioning various Nikon digital cameras he was using. When questioned about this apparent inconsistency, he freely admited that Nikon sponsored him and provided his cameras so naturally he was obliged to push their products.
Dave
Quote: Did Tom have his 5D2 calibrated? I use a bespoke calibration profile with mine and cannot see the difference with a Nikon 300D owner who also calibrated his camera. I will admit that the bespoke profile made a larger difference to my images that the bespoke profile did to the 300D but that is down to the Adobe default profile I previously used for Raw conversion and not Canon. Even though I use the bespoke profile only fashion and product photographers need this kind of accuracy.
Dave
Dave sorry I'm not techy, when you say you use a bespoke calibration profile is the profile in camera or associated with your processing software. EIther way could you explain how/what is need to create this bespoke profile please?
Quote: but Nikon, as usual, are claiming it's their "design". Yeah right
You may find this factually correct, the older 24mp full frame sensor used in the Nikon had many detailed differences so while it may have used the same fab process the Nikon had many detailed differences from the electronic circuitry used to amplify the signal to the micro lenses. It is why the performance was better on the Nikon camera (and also part of the explanation as to why it cost so much more). On the A700 and D300 sensor the Nikon again had at least signal processing circuitry differences. Also in the new APS 24mp sensor it looks from tear downs that have been performed that the sensor is again different for the Nikon and indications are it was not fabricated by Sony. It could be that for the sensors a fair bit of the knowledge being used is proprietary to Nikon.
What we on the inside cannot tell is how much of the design know how comes from Sony and how much from Nikon. Its good Nikon has the lead now, for too long it has been Canon making the best sensors etc, so for competition you expect them to leapfrog each other from time to time. To expect one to always be in the lead is unreasonable. And if loads of people leave Canon to go to Nikon then that makes lots of good 2nd hand lenses for those who do not jump ship. 
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