Nikon has many different user groups to satisfy:working PJ's,wedding shooters,nature and outdoor photographers,event photographers,keen amateurs,and also those who are looking for their very-first D-SLR. Nikon has lenses and flashes targeted to these varous segments as well. Nikon has enough glass to satisfy me and millions of others too. Nikon is about solutions for photographers. Canon seems to be a technology-driven company aimed at gear-heads and those who want/need/expect the camera to shoot for them,focus for them,and to be their status symbol. Canon pushes "technology" to those enamored of tech. Nikon's about the F-mount and people who want to make photos.
Success in satisfying the D100 segment of the market has been mixed. Some users are thrilled with its performance,while others are troubled to varying degrees by its performance with either in-camera JPEG or tone curve or color--or they are anxious for Nikon to market a camera that competes squarely with the new Canon 10D at $1500, or maybe even a bit less. Some D1x or D1h users are dissatified with some aspects of the D100's feature set,like flash synch speed limitations or color issues or frame rate/buffer,whatever. Comparing the D1-series body to their D100,they somehow find things to fault. Fuji and Canon have made inroads into Nikon's turf,and this bothers a lot of Nikonians I think.
A good portion of all the angst comes from the FF crowd, and also some comes from those who put in orders or eagerly awaited Kodak's 14n. Those who wanted to go digital,with the touted benefits of a FF sensor have been sorely disappointed by the slow,painful "delivery and birth" of the 14n,and by the sky-high Canon 1Ds price,and by the stellar reviews the 1Ds has received. In short, there's a lot of frustration directed toward Nikon for various perceived failures in delivering a new,improved F-mount D-SLR. I myself would like the option of something that images as well as the Fuji S2 or better,only with high-speed flash synch,rugged build and a decent,adjustable metering system,and precise, accurate metering. While the S2 delivers on the image end, its software absolutely,totally sucks, the metering system is very amateurish,and its coarse 1/2 stop controls on ISO,aperture,shutter,comp,and flash comp ALL make it nothing more than a stop-gap camera for me. Great imager the S2, but its rather crude,approximating exposure system,hot tone curves, and exposure controls make me want to simply scream at times.It's not a Nikon,that's for sure.
Canon's advancements and price drops are tempting many away from the fold,to that dark,nasty white-lens side. Canon's prices on 1Ds's subsidize their other bodies and R&D,while the glowing reviews of the 1Ds camera stir envy and jealousy from the working shooters who perceive Nikon as being behind the curve. And the lack of VR high-speed teles and VR in "normal,everyday" zooms,and the lack of AFS lenses where Canon has them, boils the blood of many long-time Nikon shooters.
In short, Nikon has a tough,demanding group of users to satisfy. I for one am confident that their next offerings will be good,and worth waiting for. Some of the gnashing of teeth and grass-is-greener talk,and defections to the dark side (EF mount),well I think those people will soon shut their mouths when Nikon again leads the pack in D-SLR design. It's a long race....Canon is the rabbit,Nikon is the tortoise. My money is on Nikon to win the race,slow and steady. Not "today", but "soon". There will be crying along the way, but I'm not ready to ditch the F-mount,and Kodak and Fuji's direction and offerings in TOTAL-package solutions both look pretty weak for the immediate future.
Nikon's gonna' rescue us all, but we have to wait just a while longer. If you need to jump ship right now, go ahead. Nobody cares. I could care less that Canon has newer offerings,or cheaper cameras-that just means they'll be out of date and behind the curve again in a very short while.
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Happy Shooting!
Derrel
