Will The Complaints Ever Go Away?

Short answer: no. Oh, wait, you want to know what complaints I'm talking about!

For years now one of the primary type of emails I get has been "when will Nikon catch up to the 5D [5DII]?" These days there's even a new variant: "can the rumored D800 catch up with the expected 5DIII?" Implicit within such questions is a lot of ill-considered brand envy. While Nikon users complain about "no 5DII," "no 1.3x," "no high-end video," and a host of other things they perceive to be good about Canon, Canon users meanwhile are complaining about "no D3s," "no D700-type body," "no Nikon-level matrix metering," and a host of other things. The grass is always greener on the other side.

These days things are complicated by the fact that people are evaluating products as (1) a stills-only camera, (2) a videos-only camera, or (3) a stills-and-video camera. Personally, I'm not seeing much indication that Nikon understands video needs. The overemphasis on 24 fps is ultimately disastrous for true video use, but there are plenty of other missed specs in Nikon's video implementations, too. Thus, I can pretty much say with conviction that no matter what Nikon's next few cameras are like, they're going to fail to satisfy as #2 or #3 when compared to the offerings of other companies. Nikon has a lot of catching up to do, and remains several steps behind where they'd need to be if #2 or #3 are truly important.

On the flip side, no one's come close to matching Nikon on #1 lately. You see it in the DxO Mark sensor score ratings, for instance. Take out the PhaseOne medium format backs and the top four cameras are: D3x, D3s, D3, D700. Drop down to APS/DX sensors and the top two cameras are the D90 and D5000 (with the D300s in fourth). Based upon what I've seen so far with the D3100, it's going to top that list, and we all have high hopes for the D7000, as well.

If you're a still photographer using Nikon DSLRs, especially high-end Nikons, I'm not sure what more you'd really want (yes, I know, a lower cost D3x ;~). But complaining because a camera doesn't match each and every specification of every possible competitor is nonsense. If you're a Nikon still photographer, you should be pretty happy these days. If you're a Nikon videographer, you should be using a Canon 5DII with a Nikon mount adapter. Simple as that. And I don't think either thing is going to change any time soon.

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