I had the pleasure today to visit the Canon showroom, again, in satisfying my insatiable appetite for photography insights from the "other camp". But this time round, there is the usual camera parade where one can test run any known model from the maker. Surprised to see though, the Canon 5D Mark II which came out recently was no longer on display. I was told it has malfunctioned during the first week of display. Hmm...not a very positive note on its reliability!
Thankfully, there was still the Canon 50D to familiarize myself with. According to Canon, the Canon 50D is for amateur and I am beginning to see why. Despite the heavy weight and magnesium alloy body, there's no weather sealing. As usual, the appalling placement of the dials and buttons on the body really makes me totally confused. The multi-direction "joystick" has to be used in conjunction with the huge circular dial to activate the various menu item. The on/off of the Canon 50D, 5D, 1D is an obscure small selector switch at the base of the back panel, making me wonder why is it designed this way.
The kit lens that comes with the Canon 50D is the 18-200mm USM IS lens and a few shots were taken out of curiosity. Maybe, its the lens, or maybe its the defective body, but I was shocked to find that shots taken in the showroom were all so washed-out! It became worst when extended to the full 200mm! Is my eyes playing tricks or is it the VGA 3" screen of the Canon 50D? The WB was set at Neutral for both shots with the rest at factory default. The images captured was surprisingly blurry as well, unlike what I always get on the Nikon D90.
Being one who has spent countless hours studying every available brochures from Nikon, I can only say that the quality of pictures on every Canon brochures were so soft and patchy in comparison that I was speechless. Finally, I came to realize that Canon lost over 8% market share in 2007 to Nikon via Google. It seems to all tie in together now...
Updated in April 2008, Canon sold 3.18 million single-lens reflex cameras in 2007 compared with Nikon's 2.98 million, according to a study released by market researcher IDC. That represents a 42.7 percent and 40 percent share, respectively, of the 2007 SLR market. It's a much wider margin for Canon than in 2006, when it had 46.7 percent of the market, compared with Nikon's 33 percent.