CT said:
it would be a sad day indeed if either marque went under. I don't really see it happening, but it had better be Nikon with my current commitment to Canon gear.
When Canon supply all the world's Law Enforcement and Military, then they may stay afloat.
My department alone spent nearly 6 million this year on new cameras and lenses, just upgrading from previous models. That's for 27 photographers.
The Royal Navy re-equipped all it photographers with D2x cameras to replace the Hasselblads they use for groups and portraits and the RAF will re-equip all thier PR photographers (over 100 of them) with D2x bodies to replace the D1H's they've been using for the past three years.
I was speaking to the US Army Combat Camera Team leader ( a 'full' or 'Bird' Colonel) about the new equipment we've just bought and he was saying that he was pushing through the budget requirement to re-equip
all US military photographers (Army, USAF, Navy and USMC) with the D2x by the end of this year. It's unheard of for the US military to all 'sing off the same songsheet', and until now the USMC have used Canon.
Even the
Iraqi Army photographer I bumped into in Baghdad was using a D100.
Canon may make a superior product (I've only handled one briefly, so I don't know) but until they offer the same after-marked professional backup as Nikon, they're on the back-foot.
I can take my kit into Nikon in Richmond, hand it all over the counter of the service department, go downstairs for a coffee and an hour or two later, the service manager comes down to tell me all my kit's been cleaned and serviced and ready to go.
When my D1x went a bit Pete Tong after its firmware upgrade, Nikon just loaned me another one until it was sorted.
When I needed a macro lens for some medical stuff I was doing, they just lent me all the kit I needed, no questions asked. No fee required.
I still have my 'old' F5 and although I'll probably never use it again in anger, I'll never sell it, whereas my Leica may well go to finance a set of alloys for the car...