Canon envy from a former Canon now Nikon Shooter.

Ray Chen said:

Your statement does not make sense. FTM focus does not even
function on the crippled DR. As soon as you turn the focus ring,
AI Focus will kick into AI Servo on its own, and you are risking
ruin the focus drive train.

Click to expand...

Says who? I use FT-M all the time, both on my 300d, and my old 300. AI focus is smart. If it kicked in all the time it would be called servo wouldn't it?

As for risking ruin of the the focus drive train, well, lets just say that there are more important things to worry about.

Cheers,
Karl P

Ray Chen said:

The 85mm f/1.4 focuses faster and is cheaper. It is like you just
crossbred the EF 85mm f/1.2L with the EF 85mm f/1.8.

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I'm not sure I follow here...? I mean faster AF and cheaper are obviously benefits, but what's this about cross-breeding lenses?? Personally I'd rather have the f/1.2L out of all of them, but the glacial AF and the fly-by-wire MF are less than appealing.

Ray Chen said:

Ray Chen said:

And Canon's 135/2L
is equally renowned, but with AF-S. What is it about the Nikkor
models?

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You can't get f/2 and DC in the same package...

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DC being...?

Ray Chen said:

Ray Chen said:

Both companies have some unique gems. Canon has the 24 TS-E and
f/1.4L, for example.

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Exactly. There are some perks for each system, so it is hard to
say one is better than the other without considering the your own
specific application.

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Right. And if you don't have one specific application, if you're more of a generalist, it turns out that on the whole, they're both very good systems. Imagine that!

I am not sure where your post came from but I am not in the least bit interested in buying a D70. The 1D, 10D, D60 and D30 that I had allowed you to lock the AF into single shot mode and no amount of turning the focus ring on the lens would switch the AF mode. A very nice feature of the long teles is that the AF stop button can be set using custom functions to switch between single shot and Ai-servo.

Greg
--

Forrest41926 said:

DC being...?

Click to expand...

DC means you can control how you want to blur the out of focus areas. I don't know enough about it, as I don't have one. I'm sure someone in Nikon Lens Forum would gladly to tell us more.

"The DC feature actually is a user-controllable over- or undercorrection of residual spherical aberration in the out-of-focus zones. A rotating collar adjacent to the focusing ring allows setting DC to operate in front of, or to the rear of, the plane on which the lens is focused. In conjunction with a nicely rounded aperture opening, this allows the bokeh of the image to be precisely managed. If the DC setting coincides with the selected aperture, nicely glowing highlights and pleasingly smooth images are obtained, but still a biting sharpness is present in the image."

Source:
http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_short.html

--
Ray Chen

It's not about the equipment, but even the best photographer can't make a white wall interesting with a pinhole camera.

Ray Chen said:

DC means you can control how you want to blur the out of focus
areas. I don't know enough about it, as I don't have one. I'm
sure someone in Nikon Lens Forum would gladly to tell us more.

Click to expand...

Gotcha. Soft focus. You're right; in the Canon world you have to give up a stop for this.

Although Photoshop can mimick the effect with reasonable quality ( not quite as well ) and a lot more control. Photoshop can do a great deal, although it's always a personal question what to do in-cam and what to do in post.

I bought your drebel from FM board. Thanks. It is a great camera. This is my comments after having owned D30, D60 and 10D. I like it for the size and weight. I also like its color with my newly acquired silver 24-85mm.

Good luck with Nikon D70. I used to use Nikon film cameras (2 FM2s &F3HP and some Nikkor lenses). I consider them to be the best in their days. You can alway come back by moving up to 10D.

AI servo only kicks in after focus lock
the only time you should use mf is when you cant lock focus
if you want to MF then switch to MF

Ray Chen said:

Chad Gladstone said:

Whilst waiting endlessly for my 300D replacement (the D70) and
aquiring Nikon gear including the canon equivalent to the 550EX
flash, the 70-200 IS and a 50 1.4 to complement my 18-70 kit lens
and body, I really began to resent Nikon's slow to market -
marketing scheme that I fell victim to, and once again yearned for
the Canon market output and for my once beloved DRebel.

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I hope you were smart enough to not to sell you DR until your D70
arrives. If you weren't, you are your own victim for the oversight.

Ray Chen said:

Therefore I will give you a word of caution for all you considering
switching. Apart from wide angle and a select few $1500+ zooms,
Nikon has no lenses that compare to their Canon counterparts.

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That's not true. Nikon has a lot of nice glasses, and some of them
are even better and cheaper than Canon's equivalents.

Ray Chen said:

Only
4 IS lenses two of which are average and one phenomenal and one
costing $5000.

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More are coming, but you are right about their fewer VR capable
lenses currently.

Ray Chen said:

And here is the real kicker...no USM/FT-M focus on
any wide/normal/tele primes. All of the industry standard image
quality lenses areunjustifiably lacking integral technological
advantages issued standard on zooms and taken for granted by Canon
users.

Click to expand...

Your statement does not make sense. FTM focus does not even
function on the crippled DR. As soon as you turn the focus ring,
AI Focus will kick into AI Servo on its own, and you are risking
ruin the focus drive train. Also, I can assure you that there are
currently more than one AF-S primes with FTM focus in Nikon’s
lineup.

Ray Chen said:

So while the D70 may appear irresistable from a price
point/feature set, you will probably end up spending thousands more
on necessary fast zoom lenses because the antiquated Nikon primes,

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Some of Nikon's primes are very good, and Canon does not even have
the same offerings. The two primes I envy are their 85mm f/1.4D
and their 135mm f/2 DC.

Ray Chen said:

while maintaining incredible image quality, continue to sport poor
working preformance that cannot justify the expenditure after being
exposed to Canon USM/FT-M primes. For those who don't have a clue
what I am talking about, perhaps others in my old, endearing forum
can enlighten them.

Click to expand...

I think each system has its advantage, and you won't suddenly
become lost by going into one camp or another. You can also get
another DR if Canon rocks your world.

--
Ray Chen

It's not about the equipment, but even the best photographer can't
make a white wall interesting with a pinhole camera.

Click to expand...

Ray Chen said:

Some of Nikon's primes are very good, and Canon does not even have
the same offerings. The two primes I envy are their 85mm f/1.4D
and their 135mm f/2 DC.

Click to expand...

That can be true, but I believe canon offers the 85mm 1.2L instead and a 135 2.0L too.

Glad you are enjoying it. Just don't tell anyone what a deal you got or they will also have Canon envy. It was a splendid body and I have many spectacular kit lens images. Here is to many years of happy shooting!

Franklin said:

I bought your drebel from FM board. Thanks. It is a great camera.
This is my comments after having owned D30, D60 and 10D. I like it
for the size and weight. I also like its color with my newly
acquired silver 24-85mm.

Good luck with Nikon D70. I used to use Nikon film cameras (2 FM2s
&F3HP and some Nikkor lenses). I consider them to be the best in
their days. You can alway come back by moving up to 10D.

Click to expand...

Ray what are you basing you findings on? If it is according to Castleman's head to head to head 85mm lens review, then the data is a little misleading because for the Nikon 85 1.4, it was tested using an F5 film camera which employs a much faster focusing engine that the D70/D100 cam 900 focusing engine. Therefore, unless you spring for a Nikon Pro body, you should not anticipate focusing speed anywhere near the rate Castleman reported. And in the defense of the 85 1.2L, just image how slow it would focus but for its USM motor.

As for the 135 f/2 DC v. ef 135 f/2 L, the Nikon requires DC for boken to be in the same league as the Canon and is a real dog for focusing speed (lacking USM/AF-S). Take a look at some samples both lenses deliver equally pleasing, spectacular bokeh. But with Nikon is comes at the cost of unacceptable AF delay, especially on a non-pro Nikon body.

It leads me full circle to the beginning of the thread - both Canon and Nikon lenses are optically superb in the luxury model lineup but Nikon primes lack the requisite focusing speed on a non-pro body. Therefore to receive the greatest benefit from Nikon glass, one is compelled to purchase fixed aperture zooms that employ AF-S/USM at a tremendous out of pocket expense and a heavy weight penalty.

Ray Chen said:

Ray Chen said:

What is it about these two Nikkor lenses that has your envy? The
85/1.2L isn't as sharp with both lenses wide-open, although I would
imagine they're each others' equal at f/1.4...

Click to expand...

The 85mm f/1.4 focuses faster and is cheaper. It is like you just
crossbred the EF 85mm f/1.2L with the EF 85mm f/1.8.

Ray Chen said:

And Canon's 135/2L
is equally renowned, but with AF-S. What is it about the Nikkor
models?

Click to expand...

You can't get f/2 and DC in the same package...

Ray Chen said:

Both companies have some unique gems. Canon has the 24 TS-E and
f/1.4L, for example.

Click to expand...

Exactly. There are some perks for each system, so it is hard to
say one is better than the other without considering the your own
specific application.

--
Ray Chen

It's not about the equipment, but even the best photographer can't
make a white wall interesting with a pinhole camera.

Click to expand...