Which Camera Company is better?
I wanted to know which Camera Company is better. Is it Nikon, or Canon?
Kodak
Nikon
Canon is lot better than Nikon
Canon
Leitz virtually invented 35mm Photography - Canon copied them.
Zeiss built the Contax to compete with the Leica - Nikon copied bits of theirs and bits of the Leica.
Ihagee built the Exacta - the first 35mm SLR.
Contax -Dresden (Later Praktica ) built the first pentaprism SLR and invented the 42mm Pentax screw.
Asahi Optical (Later Pentax) built the first Japanese SLR, introduced a reliable instant-return mirror and pioneered TTL metering.
Fujica (now Fujifilm) put the first LED into a viewfinder.
Konica (now part of Sony) produced the first shutter priority SLR
Olympus invented TTL flash metering.
Minolta (now Sony) produced the first multimode SLR and the first reliable AF SLR.
KMZ have produced more precision cameras (rangefinder and SLR) than both combined.
A Hasselblad will blow either out of the water - if you can afford the price.
Sony. Trust me! I've had a canon and a nikon before and they were both really expensive and low quality. However, the sony cameras are more affordable and they have much better quality, and they are hardier.
Canon users will shout "Canon" and Nikon fans will yell out "Nikon".
Personally, I've used Nikon for several decades as system has grown with my skills and needs. Virtually every Nikon F-mount lens ever made can be used my my current Nikon DSLR. Canon has an excellent system by they abandoned their classic FD mount lenses when then went to autofocus, making many classic lenses orphans.
Canon has outstanding, fast-focusing lenses that are eye-catching because of their white paint. Nikon had better performance in low-light and higher sensor ratings.
At the top Pro level (beyond the wallet and skills of the vast majority of people who are entering photography) you'll find both brands used by the best of the best. I see Canon holding an edge in the sports photography world, while most of the photojournalists I work with use Nikon. Wedding photographers are split, as are "soccer moms" and birthday party shooters who use the excellent Canon Rebel XS-t3 or Nikon D3100.
And other users? How about NASA using Nikons on the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle.
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/06/25/astronaut-don-pettit-floating-with-his-huge-camera-collection-on-the-iss/
The Olympics tend to be a battle between the two big companies for visibility and product placement.
http://www.karikuukka.com/peking2008/100m/
Which is better? Might as well ask who makes the best running shoe or best car. The best one is the one that suits YOU best.
For DSLR's it's a very close competition. For compact cameras, I think Canon has tended to be better. Unfortunately, this year Canon has been cramming in excessive megapixels into most of its compacts, degrading quality. No worse than Nikon, but sacrificing the advantage it had last year when Canon had more 12 MP compacts.