On 11/8/05 7:52 PM, in article , "Sheldon"
wrote:

Just curious: Why buy the Canon when you already had some excellent Nikon
lenses? I don't want to get into the Canon vs. Nikon debate, but many of us
chose a digital body based on what we already had in the way of equipment.


Sheldon:

I really like the camera body and think it is a superbly engineered piece of
equipment. I don't think the lenses match the camera. I had a lot of money
invested on Nikkor lenses but decided to switch to Canon when I realized I
wasn't being able to get a good setup for close-up medical photography using
Nikon equipment. I have used Canon for medical photography and been happy
with their equipment compared to what Nikon offers for the same type of
application. This should show how open minded I am about new equipment and
how unbiased my opinion is in regards to either company. My switch to Canon
was motivated by the fact that while Canon offered two macro flashes
(MR-14EX and MT-24EX) that sync with its digital SLR bodies in auto TTL
mode, Nikon doesn't even offer one (it is about to introduce its first one
now along with the new D200). Also whenever I needed to obtain magnification
superior to 1:1 (as is sometimes necessary when photographing biopsy
samples, for instance) with Nikon equipment I was forced to use a bellows, a
bellows extension, double cable release, an adapter ring, a lens mounted in
reverse at the end of the bellows, compensate for light loss with the
bellows and many other technical issues. It was a mess. All this done
without the benefit of immediate feedback one usually gets from using a
digital camera. Canon solved this problem and simplified this whole process
by introducing one single lens that takes care of all these issues: the MP-E
65mm f/2.8 1x-5x macro lens. This lens achieves the same level of
magnification achieved on the first stage of a clinical laboratory
microscope (5x). This is truly amazing.

I now found myself using a Canon EOS 10D setup mostly for professional
close-up medical photography and using Nikon for my personal shooting.
However, the time came when I needed to move on to something with more
resolution. The advantage of a camera such as the EOS 1Ds Mark II is that
the image displayed on a computer screen can be magnified until it reaches
100% the original number of pixels and the image provides the type of
enlargement that is similar to performing surgery with the aid of a surgical
microscope. This is fantastic for documentation as well as for reviewing
post-operative results. Cropping also allows you to display smaller details
when you wish to prepare material for a lecture, for instance.

Since I invested on a new Canon body and already had the macro flashes and
lenses for my professional photography, I thought I could also purchase a
few lenses and move from my decent but lower resolution Nikon D70 to using
the 1Ds Mk II as an all around camera. The lenses I used the most with my
film cameras were the ones that the D70 rendered useless because of the
typical 1.5x magnification factor - the 17-35mm and the 28mm f/1.4 for night
flash-less photos. This is the reason I chose these two Canon lenses - they
represent the lenses I use the most outside of the macro lenses which I use
everyday for work.

Best regards,

Joseph

---

Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery