From the Comments: Nikon to Canon 5D Mark II

Since I’m realizing a lot of us might be in the same boat, this comment from Matt serves as a public service announcement, with nice advice on lenses and such for us Nikon converts:

I had been a loyal Nikon user for many years, and I had been eagerly awaiting the release of the new line of Nikon cameras to replace my D200. I still shoot medium and large format film fairly often, because I sometimes make very large prints (40″x60″), and a 10MP digital image looks terrible at that size. I had been hoping Nikon’s new cameras would be full frame, and comparable to Canon’s 1Ds Mark III for resolution. I wanted a digital SLR that could replace my large format film cameras. I was very disappointed with the release of the D3 and D700. Lower noise at high ISOs is not important to me, as I work mostly at low ISO with studio lights. So, when Canon announced the 5D Mark II, I decided to switch. I am very happy with my 5D Mark II and the L-series lenses I bought for it. I sold all my Nikon gear, as well as some film camera equipment, and bought several Canon lenses–mostly primes. I will say that the 50mm f1.4 (not an L-series lens) does not resolve enough detail for the 5D mark II sensor. The 85mm f1.2 certainly does, as does the 17-40mm f4L and the 135mm f2 prime. I am shocked at how much faster some of these Canon lenses autofocus compared to Nikon AF-S lenses. (The 70-200F4 and 17-40mm f4L both autofocus faster and are sharper than the Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S and 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR, which I owned previously.) The Nikon 105 AF-S VR (macro) does respond more quickly than the Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro USM. The Canon 100mm macro is also a little soft for the 5D mk 2–it doesn’t resolve enough detail for this sensor. I hope Canon updates some of these lenses soon. In general, though, I’m very happy to have made the switch. If I’d stuck with Nikon, I’d probably be looking at buying the $8000 D3x to get resolution comparable to the 5D2, which seems like a real bargain at $2700.

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