Are We In The Minority?

Glevum Owl

Glevum Owl

Senior Member
Are Nikon owners in a minority, generally?

I only ask as over the Summer, when we've been out and about, I've made a mental note to see what make of DSLR other people carry. I deliberately ignored bridge and mirrorless cameras and a couple of obvious pros. The overwhelming majority of DSLRs were Canon. In fact, of the 30+ I've seen only two were not Canon: one Fuji and one Nikon.

I realise that this is not exactly a scientific survey but I'd be curious to know if others think / see the same.
 
Fred Kingston_RIP

Fred Kingston_RIP

Senior Member
I'm scheduled to take a series of college photog courses later this month. Only criteria was a 35mm camera. I'll take a survey and see what the mix is...

there was other criteria, but regarding the camera, it says 35mm that can be set to full manual mode.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
In my neck o' the woods, it's about 50/50. We've got a photography LifeGroup at church, and each person that comes in, we ask! (along with some good natured ribbing, LOL) It's split pretty much down the middle, but the cool thing is EVERYONE is more interested in the photography than the camera, so we all have a blast!
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Glevum Owl said:
Are Nikon owners in a minority, generally?
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Globally speaking, yes. Canon has a significantly larger share of the DSLR market than Nikon.

Edti: To clarify I should state that traditionally, and by that I mean over many years, Canon has maintained [what I would consider] a significantly larger market share than Nikon, somewhere in the 20% greater range (and I do mean "range") as determined by total sales volume as reported by industry insiders (eg. Bloomberg). That being said, I have not seen figures more recent than about 2011 or thereabouts, so it's possible that trend is changing without my being aware of it.

....
 
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Krs_2007

Senior Member
When shooting sports, I have only ran into one other Nikon user and all the rest was Canon. Even when on client shoots in public areas there is always more Canon than Nikon. Which doesn't bother me at all, we all produce different results. I even ran into a Pro down south that was staying in my hotel and we got to talking about it and he said he went to Canon years ago because of offering differences and just never looked at Nikon. Now he is starting to see more Nikons on the sidelines but Canon still dominates for the most part.
 
R

RON_RIP

Senior Member
I was never one to follow the herd, and have always considered Nikon the best of 35 mm cameras. What really sold me years ago and holds my attention still today is the ability to use almost all of Nikon's lenses on any Nikon body I choose.
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
My first nikon was when if you moved from the Pentax spotmatic it was to Leica or Nikon,i chose Nikon since then i have had a short affair with the Olympus OM2 and its ground breaking multi TTL flash (at the time) but never lost the bug.
 
J

JackStalk

Senior Member
I see about Canon 60% Nikon 40% here in the tristate area. A lot of new people are getting into photography now since the equipment is becoming quite inexpensive to start. The D3x00 series has much better stats on paper than the rebel Tx, so a lot of newer photographers are going with the higher megapixel 3x00 because more megapixels must mean a better camera. Overall though, the D3200 is a better piece of equipment than the T3i and the reason why I'm here in the first place 8)

It came down to me testing the feel of both cameras, and I couldn't stand the grip and thumb placement of the Rebel, it feels like there's too much negative space on the right side of the LCD and it looks weird. The D3200 felt most natural so I ended up going with it (also because I like being the equipment minority).
 
Nero

Nero

Senior Member
Canon for the commoners. :p Nikon for the select few. lol

But in all seriousness, I've actually seen more Nikon's than Canon's around my area and even when I was at Fan Expo I mostly saw Nikon's.

Maybe my city is located in the Twilight Zone?
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
Yes, I would say we are in the minority. Just guessing, I would think Canon has done more to market to the masses than Nikon. I think they've built a better brand name identity. Let's face it they're both stellar cameras so it's not about cream rising to the top per se, but really about going with a name that you know or have heard of (for first timers).

I'd love to see a study that looks into brand loyalty wars. What conditions are necessary for them to come about and grow. Chevy vs. Ford, Apple vs. Windows, Canon vs. Nikon.
 
Glevum Owl

Glevum Owl

Senior Member
Thanks for the quick responses. I love this forum.:D

I guess my head is still stuck in 1977 when I bought my first SLR (Canon FTb). Then Nikon was the professional, serious camera and Canon the pretender.

When coming back to DSLR's (from Micro 4/3), I tried the low end Canons and disliked the grip and layout. Picked up a D3300 and it felt so right. No regrets, other than I can't afford new glass for a while. So I'm happy to add to the Nikon minority.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
I have a good friend who keep seeing my photos and decided he wanted to get into photography. He had others evil friends that talked him into buying a Canon. He bought a lower level Canon and kept comparing them to mine and losing. He traded up to a more expensive Canon and still could not match my photos (According to him and not me) HE then bought another Canon trying to bridge the gap between his and my photography. I finally told him that it is not his camera as much as it is his post processing. I really don't think there is really that much difference in like level Canon and Nikon cameras. The feel is different and it really is whatever you get used to. The real difference in photos in located a few inches behind the viewfinder.
 
S

Silven

Senior Member
Krs_2007 said:
When shooting sports, I have only ran into one other Nikon user and all the rest was Canon. Even when on client shoots in public areas there is always more Canon than Nikon. Which doesn't bother me at all, we all produce different results. I even ran into a Pro down south that was staying in my hotel and we got to talking about it and he said he went to Canon years ago because of offering differences and just never looked at Nikon. Now he is starting to see more Nikons on the sidelines but Canon still dominates for the most part.
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It's kinda of funny but i watch out for this sort of thing at major sporting events all the time. This last World Cup of Soccer is when i noticed for the first time that the tide is starting to change back to Nikon. Usually all you see are giant L series lenses at the sideline but lately I've seen the black and gold of very large and equally expensive N series Nikon glass. Nikon's stuff is just better but if you're pot committed with a lot of L glass and your shots get shrunk to 1000 pixels length wise anyway for a newspaper spot, what difference would it make when printed at low resolution on grainy newsprint right?
 
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