What makes Canon cameras different from other brands?

Question

Why do people prefer Canon over, say, Nikon or Sony? What's their edge?

Answer 1

Photo quality. I have a Nikon Coolpix L1, it's awesome.

A friend of mine absolutely loves his Canon(s).

I used to own an Olympus, but it broke. It's photo quality was totally awesome. But since it broke, I decided to try the Nikon. (my old film camera is a Nikon... I am now thinking of selling it, while it still has some value.)

Answer 2

Canon has a very good reputation, based on decades of making excellent cameras. They made great film cameras long before digital cameras. They also make excellent, very expensive cameras for professionals. Canon is considered a "REAL" camera company for all those reasons.

Sony sells the most digital cameras today and also has a very good reputation. I don't think Sony was ever in the film camera business, but their camcorders are rated close to the best, and they transferred some of that technology to digital cameras.

Other long term companies (Kodak, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji etc) also make very good cameras. And new cameras from Panasonic and others are getting great reviews.

So now there is a great selection of excellent cameras for us to chose from. No camera is perfect (not even Canons). When you get down to the fine details of using a camera, you will find some things that you like and some that you don't about every camera.

I bought a Sony H1 over a Canon S2 largely because the screen was 2.5 inches instead of 1.8 inches. Both take great pictures, so the choice was decided on a convenience feature.

Answer 3

Canon and Nikon have been around for many years and both offer fine glass in the lenses, and dependable bodies, I have owned both brands and at present the only difference I can see is in the models and prices, and that is a matter of your choice. Support in the US might be a factor as some foreign cameras have better support than others.

Answer 4

for the slr's canon is well known to produce low light pictures that are noticibly better then the rest

they also have many image stabilizer lens's to choice from, the high end ones have awsome auto focus, wide variety of lenses that fill the needs for pro's and amatures

they produce their own things (nikon uses sony sensor)so products are sometimes cheaper

Answer 5

A lot of the camera brand preference debate really is similar to the debates over cars ( "Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge vs. Toyota vs. (your favorite vehicle brand here)" ). It depends on your tastes in features, your budget, and at the higher price ranges, how much "prestige" you can get by showing it off.

Ultimately "you get what you pay for," the higher priced cameras have better lenses, more megapixels, more features you can use under critical lighting conditions, etc.

It's up to you to decide what features you want, and what you're willing to pay for.