Choosing a system, the practical and the philosophical

On Sun, 27 Jan 2013 04:33:28 -0900, (Floyd L. Davidson)
wrote:
: me wrote:
: On Sun, 27 Jan 2013 08:12:13 +0000, David Taylor
: wrote:
:
: O
: At the point where I was ready to buy a DSLR, I went into the camera
: store (the now-defunct Jessops, Edinburgh) and held both the Canon and
: Nikon equivalent cameras to see which I preferred. The Nikon won, so
: I've been Nikon ever since. I had no legacy lenses having sold off my
: film SLR stuff while I could still get some money for it. I have not
: been disappointed, and agree with some of the comments about Canon vs.
: Nikon in this thread. I think both companies are in it for the long
: term, although both will face competition from the newer mirrorless
: cameras.
:
: I wholeheartedly agree with the above. I would just also explicitly
: mention besides the look and feel of the outside camera controls, it
: might behoove one to delve into the menu system as well and see if its
: layout makes sense to you.
:
: If you actually use the camera, in six months or less
: the "look and feel" of virtually any DSLR will become
: comfortable. The same is true of the controls, both
: hardware and menu driven.

That's a perfectly valid personal opinion, but it's unsupported by any actual
evidence. And I think it's fair to say that not everyone in this group accepts
that it's true. One supposes that it represents your own experience, but it
would help us understand if you told us what that experience is. How, in fact,
did you choose the camera system you use (Nikon, IIRC), and how, if at all,
did "look and feel" (or any of the criteria you disparage in the following
paragraph) enter into your decision?

: I suspect that most of those who buy cameras based on
: the feel of the camera, the color of the lenses, the
: sound of the shutter, minor price variations, which one
: some other photog uses, what the Walmart salesman says,
: or for that matter what they read in forums such as this
: on the Internet... get what they deserve. That is,
: they'll really admire the camera sitting on the coffee
: table and enjoy the conversations about it.
:
: Other folks that chose their camera based on which one
: does the best job for their style of photography will
: have conversations about their photographs rather than
: about their camera.

And how, exactly, are those other folks supposed to figure out which camera
does the best job for their style of photography? Buy them all and then use
the one they like best? You've told the OP to ignore look and feel, his
observations of other photographers, the advice of salesmen, and our answers
to his questions. So how should he go about making his decision?

Bob