Kari Post who was our featured photographer couple of months ago has switched from Nikon digital camera equipment to Canon gear. After months of careful consideration, Kari decided to switch from Nikon digital camera and gear to Canon.This grabbed our attention and we asked her for an interview about switching from Nikon to Canon. Kari Post is a professional bird, nature and wildlife photographer with academic background. visit Kari's site for more information.

Angel Wings

Forster's Tern, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, USA, May 2007
Camera: Canon 1D Mark II N, Lens: Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS USM with Canon 2x Mark II Extender. Settings: 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 400, RAW capture, 88% of full frame, handheld, natural light, processed with Canon DPP and Adobe Photoshop CS3 software.
Knowing your subject is the key to finding good photo opportunities. For example, most species of birds prefer to fly into the wind, so in general the best time to photograph birds in flight is when the wind and sun come from the same direction. Terns hunt for fish by hovering high over the surface of the water and then dive bombing into the water, and they prefer to hunt in areas where fish are close to the surface, such as areas where the water is made rough by an incoming water source. Chris and I spent a whole week at Chincoteague early this summer and one afternoon we noticed several terns consistently hovering in one spot where water was draining out of a culvert. The terns were very close to the bank, and the light and wind were on our side, so I managed to capture hundreds of frames of these terns hunting for fish. I really love the symmetry of the wings and high key look of this shot, making it one of my favorites of the afternoon.

Read through 12 comprehensive questions and answers. See how Kari replies to our questions. What Nikon digital camera is lacking and how Canon covers for that.

1) We believe that your area of specialty is wildlife photography and specially birds. You used to be a Nikon user but we observed that you have switched to Canon. What made you switch to Canon digital camera instead of Nikon? What were your objectives? Please name every factor that counts for you.

I had considered switching from Nikon to Canon in the past, when I first decided to focus on nature photography, because Canon super telephoto lenses have Image Stabilization technology, which allows you to shoot sharper images at slower shutter speeds. They are also less expensive than Nikon super teles, which don’t have a stabilization feature, but I already had quite a bit invested in Nikon gear so I decided against it at the time.

A lot of people like Canon for the IS, but what really pushed me to switch was high ISO noise performance. I do a lot of photography with my boyfriend, Chris, who is also a nature photographer and he uses Canon gear. Many times we would be shooting together during the late evening when the sun grew faint and I would have to stop photographing long before he did because using a Nikon D200, I couldn’t shoot over ISO 400 without often losing a considerable amount of valuable detail in my images. Last December, we spent a day at Barnegat Light, an area off the coast of New Jersey that is particularly well known for Harlequin Ducks in the winter. I shot most of my images at ISO 250 because we had plenty of light and above ISO 250 the image quality of the D200 started to degrade to what I consider unacceptable at past ISO 400-640, depending on the subject and conditions. I had thought shutter speeds 1/500-1/1000th of a second would be enough to get a sharp image, but I underestimated how rough the water was and ended up with only a few sharp shots, none of which I really liked. Chris had been shooting his 20D at ISO 400 and ISO 800, and not only were his shots sharp, but they looked cleaner than my ISO 250 images.

Nature photography often involves shooting in low light and less than perfect conditions. For me, the Nikon lineup just wasn’t cutting it. Canon always seemed to be on the edge of new technology, while Nikon dragged behind. Canon had a 16.7MP full-frame sensor camera and another 8.5 frames per second pro body, while Nikon’s D2X was a 1.5x crop body with only 12.4MP and shot 5fps unless you were willing to crop the image to six megapixels. Canon had Image Stabilization (IS) on all of their super-teles and had had it there for years; Nikon didn’t have its equivalent Vibration Reduction (VR) on a lens longer than 400mm (they still don’t) and somehow the Nikon super teles still cost over $1000 more. And with Canon I could regularly get usable images above ISO 800 while 90% of my ISO 400 shots from my D200 ended up in my trash bin.

I am completely satisfied with my switch to Canon. I shoot at high ISO without hesitation now and don’t miss shots because of low light while my companions shoot beside me. When I get my super tele it will have the most important technological advancement in modern photography history – Image Stabilization. I spent an hour sitting down with the manual of my 1D Mark II N when I first got it, and I have no problem operating the camera, even though I was previously used to Nikon controls and found Canon camera layouts foreign. Now, it’s very easy and natural for me. Before recently purchasing my 1.4x extender I borrowed Chris’s a couple of times; we couldn’t share gear when shooting with different systems. Most importantly I now have full confidence in my gear and I don’t feel that my gear holds me back or gets in the way of being able to get a shot. Switching camera brands is scary and can be costly, and certainly isn’t a solution for everyone, but for me, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.