"Nature's Best" contest and film vs digital

Eight years ago or so a friend and I were disagreeing about how many
top nature photographers used Nikon vs Canon and how many used Fuji
film (especially Velvia) compared to Kodak. I thought Canon was close
to Nikon but Fuji was preferred over Kodak by a wide margin, say
70-80%.

So we dug out copies of the BBC/Mobil Gas Wildlife Photographer of the
Year book and "Nature's Best" magazine's annual fall contest issue and
categorized the winning entries. (I was wrong about Canon, Nikon was
ahead by about 60-40 ... he was wrong about Kodak since typically
75-90% of the winners were shot on Fuji film back then, almost all on
Velvia). Five years ago in 2000 "Nature's Best" winners preferred
Nikon over Canon by 56% to 39% (32 - 22, Oly, Pentax and Minolta each
had one winning entry) and Fuji beat Kodak by 77% - 21% (31 or 50% used
Velvia, next most popular film was Sensia with 10 users).

Now that digital is making deep inroads into film's popularity I found
it interesting to check the numbers again, using "Nature's Best" (the
2005 Fall issue with the winning entries is on newsstands now). I
wanted to see how quickly digital is "catching on" among the better
amateur and pro nature photographers who win these contests.

2004 was the first time I saw a lot of digital winners in NB. There
were 28 digital winners, 17 using Canon (10D with 10 was most popular,
including one by regular NG contributor Roger Clark), 10 from Nikon
(six with the D100), one with a Kodak. In 2004 film still ruled, with
94 winning entries. Nikon was most popular (45 winners), then Canon
(33), with the rest of the film winners using 4x5" view cameras, medium
format or the slower selling 35 mm brands (one each for Minolta and
Pentax for example). So digital had 23% of the winning entries in
2004.

Fuji was still whipping Kodak's butt in 2004, 73-20 (the numbers for
film type and cameras don't always add up because some people don't
report the film type) or 78% - 22%. Velvia was still the most widely
used film with 33 winners but the good 100 speed films were chipping
away, with Provia 100F (18), Sensia (14) and even Kodak's E-100 VS (10)
doing well.

In the 2005 "Nature's Best" contest digital almost caught 35 mm film
for the first time. No surprise there I guess, but how it was done was
surprising, to me at least. Film was used by 59 winners, 49 using 35
mm, four using medium format (2 Pentax 6x7, two using Pentax 645), six
using Toyo 4x5" view cameras. Digital was used by 46 winners, so
comparing just 35 mm to digital it was pretty close, 49 - 46 in favor
of film. Fuji was still the most popular film brand by 77% - 23% (41 -
12 with several not reporting). Velvia was used by 57% of the winners
(30 users), Kodak E-100 VS was next with 7, Provia 100F next with 6.
Why Sensia dropped so fast is a good question (only 3 users this year).

For 35 mm film Nikon increased its lead over Canon, used by 36 of the
49 winners using 35 mm (Canon had 12, Pentax 1). So Nikon is now
winning the 35 mm film battle by 3-1 over Canon. Who knew?

But with digital it's flipped ... Canon was used by 32 winners (70% of
all digital winning entries), Nikon by just 6 (why the drop from
2004?), then Fuji S2 with 3 (uses Nikon lenses though), and one each
for the Oly 4/3 (E-20), Minolta, Sony, Kodak and a Hasselblad with an
Imacon back.

The most popular digital bodies were the Canon 1D Mark II and Canon 10D
(8 entries each), then the $8,000 (initially) Canon 1Ds and $995 Canon
Rebel (five each), then the D60 (3) and 20D (2). So the most popular
class of digital bodies is the Canon 6 Mpixel (17) ... entries had to
be submitted by March 2005 so newer bodies like the 20D and 1Ds M II
and D2x take a while to show up in numbers.

The most popular Nikons were the D100 and D2h with 2 entries each
(unless you count the Fuji S2 as Nikon since it uses a Nikon mount ...
3 people used it). The D2x is a camera I'm seeing in the field a LOT
right now but it came out a bit late to make the 2005 entry date and
only one entry used it.

Basically Nikon is doing great with 35 mm film (or Canon users are
abandoning it faster than Nikon users but Canon is doing a lot
better than I expected with digital entries. I'm surprised at this a
bit since the Nikon D70 is competitive with the Canon 6 Mpixel bodies
(no D70 entries won, for some reason). Velvia still rules the film
realm by a wide margin, but Fuji has discontinued it this year so it
will be interesting to see if the replacement Velvia 100 becomes as
popular.

Some predictions ... digital will pass film in number of winning
entries next year and by 2010 digital will "win" by say 80-20 or a bit
more ... Nikon will do better in digital next year because of the D2x
.... I predict the most popular models next year will be the Canon 1D
Mark II (I see dozens of these at the places I shoot), Canon 20D and
Nikon D2x. But I could be wrong

Bill

Bill Hilton wrote:
Eight years ago or so a friend and I were disagreeing about how many
top nature photographers used Nikon vs Canon and how many used Fuji
film (especially Velvia) compared to Kodak. I thought Canon was close
to Nikon but Fuji was preferred over Kodak by a wide margin, say
70-80%.

So we dug out copies of the BBC/Mobil Gas Wildlife Photographer of the
Year book and "Nature's Best" magazine's annual fall contest issue and
categorized the winning entries. (I was wrong about Canon, Nikon was
ahead by about 60-40 ... he was wrong about Kodak since typically
75-90% of the winners were shot on Fuji film back then, almost all on
Velvia). Five years ago in 2000 "Nature's Best" winners preferred
Nikon over Canon by 56% to 39% (32 - 22, Oly, Pentax and Minolta each
had one winning entry) and Fuji beat Kodak by 77% - 21% (31 or 50% used
Velvia, next most popular film was Sensia with 10 users).

Now that digital is making deep inroads into film's popularity I found
it interesting to check the numbers again, using "Nature's Best" (the
2005 Fall issue with the winning entries is on newsstands now). I
wanted to see how quickly digital is "catching on" among the better
amateur and pro nature photographers who win these contests.

2004 was the first time I saw a lot of digital winners in NB. There
were 28 digital winners, 17 using Canon (10D with 10 was most popular,
including one by regular NG contributor Roger Clark), 10 from Nikon
(six with the D100), one with a Kodak. In 2004 film still ruled, with
94 winning entries. Nikon was most popular (45 winners), then Canon
(33), with the rest of the film winners using 4x5" view cameras, medium
format or the slower selling 35 mm brands (one each for Minolta and
Pentax for example). So digital had 23% of the winning entries in
2004.

Fuji was still whipping Kodak's butt in 2004, 73-20 (the numbers for
film type and cameras don't always add up because some people don't
report the film type) or 78% - 22%. Velvia was still the most widely
used film with 33 winners but the good 100 speed films were chipping
away, with Provia 100F (18), Sensia (14) and even Kodak's E-100 VS (10)
doing well.

In the 2005 "Nature's Best" contest digital almost caught 35 mm film
for the first time. No surprise there I guess, but how it was done was
surprising, to me at least. Film was used by 59 winners, 49 using 35
mm, four using medium format (2 Pentax 6x7, two using Pentax 645), six
using Toyo 4x5" view cameras. Digital was used by 46 winners, so
comparing just 35 mm to digital it was pretty close, 49 - 46 in favor
of film. Fuji was still the most popular film brand by 77% - 23% (41 -
12 with several not reporting). Velvia was used by 57% of the winners
(30 users), Kodak E-100 VS was next with 7, Provia 100F next with 6.
Why Sensia dropped so fast is a good question (only 3 users this year).

For 35 mm film Nikon increased its lead over Canon, used by 36 of the
49 winners using 35 mm (Canon had 12, Pentax 1). So Nikon is now
winning the 35 mm film battle by 3-1 over Canon. Who knew?

But with digital it's flipped ... Canon was used by 32 winners (70% of
all digital winning entries), Nikon by just 6 (why the drop from
2004?), then Fuji S2 with 3 (uses Nikon lenses though), and one each
for the Oly 4/3 (E-20), Minolta, Sony, Kodak and a Hasselblad with an
Imacon back.

The most popular digital bodies were the Canon 1D Mark II and Canon 10D
(8 entries each), then the $8,000 (initially) Canon 1Ds and $995 Canon
Rebel (five each), then the D60 (3) and 20D (2). So the most popular
class of digital bodies is the Canon 6 Mpixel (17) ... entries had to
be submitted by March 2005 so newer bodies like the 20D and 1Ds M II
and D2x take a while to show up in numbers.

The most popular Nikons were the D100 and D2h with 2 entries each
(unless you count the Fuji S2 as Nikon since it uses a Nikon mount ...
3 people used it). The D2x is a camera I'm seeing in the field a LOT
right now but it came out a bit late to make the 2005 entry date and
only one entry used it.

Basically Nikon is doing great with 35 mm film (or Canon users are
abandoning it faster than Nikon users but Canon is doing a lot
better than I expected with digital entries. I'm surprised at this a
bit since the Nikon D70 is competitive with the Canon 6 Mpixel bodies
(no D70 entries won, for some reason). Velvia still rules the film
realm by a wide margin, but Fuji has discontinued it this year so it
will be interesting to see if the replacement Velvia 100 becomes as
popular.

Some predictions ... digital will pass film in number of winning
entries next year and by 2010 digital will "win" by say 80-20 or a bit
more ... Nikon will do better in digital next year because of the D2x
... I predict the most popular models next year will be the Canon 1D
Mark II (I see dozens of these at the places I shoot), Canon 20D and
Nikon D2x. But I could be wrong

Bill

Bill,
Nice study, thanks for all the hard work.

A couple of notes:

Velvia 100: I've compared it to velvia 50 this fall and i really like
the new 100 (for readers new to velvia--there is also a 100F which
I do not like and is not at all like old velvia). I like the colors
better on the new velvia 100 (e.g. better blue skies, better yellows
in aspens). I am only doing film in 4x5.

My 2004 NB entry was on a D60, not a 10D. (And none of my 1D Mark II
entries won in 2005--bummer).

Roger

On the subject of camera types in use, this morning at Bosque Del Apache,
National Wildlife Refuge, sunrise, the camera count was: 47 digital
cameras, 4 film (the 4 film was with 3 people, one person had two).
I didn't count the total people, but many people had two high-end
digital cameras. Everyone was photographing sandhill cranes
at the pond I was at.

Roger

Interesting info Bill
I'm sure I will make the switch, not sure when but with the price of film
and processing its pretty easy to figure. the biggest plus I think will be
seeing what you just shot while your still there. I bought Nikon because all
the lenses work on all the bodies, I can upgrade bodies and keep my lenses,
just too much tied up in Nikon to change now. does Cannon still change
mounts ?
laters
Gary



"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote in
message ...
On the subject of camera types in use, this morning at Bosque Del Apache,
National Wildlife Refuge, sunrise, the camera count was: 47 digital
cameras, 4 film (the 4 film was with 3 people, one person had two).
I didn't count the total people, but many people had two high-end
digital cameras. Everyone was photographing sandhill cranes
at the pond I was at.

Roger

Gary wrote ...

I bought Nikon because all the lenses work on all the bodies, I can
upgrade bodies and keep my lenses, just too much tied up in Nikon
to change now. does Cannon still change mounts ?

Hi Gary,

Canon changed from FD to the EF (EOS body) mounts in, I think, 1987 and
hasn't changed anything since. The only semi-exception is a couple of
EF-S lenses that mount on certain digital cameras but not the rest of
their line. Otherwise all the lenses and accessories work fine on both
digital and film bodies.

Nikon has definitely done a better job with backward compatibility, but
I still see a number of high end pros switching from Nikon to Canon,
especially guys into digital or long telephotos, and I don't know any
big name nature photographers who switched from Canon to Nikon the past
10 years or so. Canon has a broader digital line with five dSLR
flavors, including three professional-class, and having IS in the 400
f/2.8, 500 f/4 and 600 f/4 lenses gives them a big advantage over
Nikon, which hasn't migrated the VR technology up to those focal
lengths yet. A few big names who've switched from Nikon to Canon in
recent years are Art Wolfe, Jim Brandenburg, Leonard Lee Rue, Joe and
Mary Ann McDonald, Tom Vezo (bird photographer), Erwin and Peggy Bauer,
Ralph Hopkins, Linde Waidhofer etc ...

I'm sure I will make the switch, not sure when

If I were shooting Nikon I'd get the D2x, which is expensive right now
but for wildlife it's a very nice camera with the high pixel count and
the built-in 1.5x crop due to the small sensor. As soon as they
migrate this sensor down to the $1,500 bodies they'll have a real
winner for the masses but right now the D2x is pretty pricey.

the biggest plus I think will be seeing what you just shot while your
still there

This is a big plus, also the ability to increase the ISO as needed and
the lower noise of high ISO digital compared to the grain in films 2
stops slower. I just had to print 32 images for a hospital display,
some film and some digital, and I firmly believe we get better prints
from 8 and 11 Mpixel digital than we do from scanned 35 mm film. The
biggest negative of digital is the higher inital cost but if you shoot
a lot you break even sooner or later since there are no film costs.

Bill

Roger Clark writes ...

this morning at Bosque Del Apache, National Wildlife Refuge,
sunrise, the camera count was: 47 digital cameras, 4 film

You did an actual survey? Must have been a bit slow or did you get
Dick to do it Seriously, this 9-1 ratio is about what I see at
Denali or Katmai or Bosque as well.

Everyone was photographing sandhill cranes at the pond I was at.

This is what it was like at Bosque 10 days ago when I was standing at
(most likely) the same pond trying to shoot them in the cold ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5606.jpg
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5633.jpg

Bill

Well 1987 or there abouts is when I got into this, Me and a hunting buddy
shingled houses on the side and I bought a Nikon FA he bought Minolta, glad
I don't have to shingle for my toys these days ! great shots from Bosque ,
still gotta get there.
thanks
Gary


"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
oups.com...
Gary wrote ...

I bought Nikon because all the lenses work on all the bodies, I can
upgrade bodies and keep my lenses, just too much tied up in Nikon
to change now. does Cannon still change mounts ?

Hi Gary,

Canon changed from FD to the EF (EOS body) mounts in, I think, 1987 and
hasn't changed anything since. The only semi-exception is a couple of
EF-S lenses that mount on certain digital cameras but not the rest of
their line. Otherwise all the lenses and accessories work fine on both
digital and film bodies.

Nikon has definitely done a better job with backward compatibility, but
I still see a number of high end pros switching from Nikon to Canon,
especially guys into digital or long telephotos, and I don't know any
big name nature photographers who switched from Canon to Nikon the past
10 years or so. Canon has a broader digital line with five dSLR
flavors, including three professional-class, and having IS in the 400
f/2.8, 500 f/4 and 600 f/4 lenses gives them a big advantage over
Nikon, which hasn't migrated the VR technology up to those focal
lengths yet. A few big names who've switched from Nikon to Canon in
recent years are Art Wolfe, Jim Brandenburg, Leonard Lee Rue, Joe and
Mary Ann McDonald, Tom Vezo (bird photographer), Erwin and Peggy Bauer,
Ralph Hopkins, Linde Waidhofer etc ...

I'm sure I will make the switch, not sure when

If I were shooting Nikon I'd get the D2x, which is expensive right now
but for wildlife it's a very nice camera with the high pixel count and
the built-in 1.5x crop due to the small sensor. As soon as they
migrate this sensor down to the $1,500 bodies they'll have a real
winner for the masses but right now the D2x is pretty pricey.

the biggest plus I think will be seeing what you just shot while your
still there

This is a big plus, also the ability to increase the ISO as needed and
the lower noise of high ISO digital compared to the grain in films 2
stops slower. I just had to print 32 images for a hospital display,
some film and some digital, and I firmly believe we get better prints
from 8 and 11 Mpixel digital than we do from scanned 35 mm film. The
biggest negative of digital is the higher inital cost but if you shoot
a lot you break even sooner or later since there are no film costs.

Bill

Bill Hilton wrote:
Roger Clark writes ...

this morning at Bosque Del Apache, National Wildlife Refuge,
sunrise, the camera count was: 47 digital cameras, 4 film


You did an actual survey? Must have been a bit slow or did you get
Dick to do it Seriously, this 9-1 ratio is about what I see at
Denali or Katmai or Bosque as well.

Hi Bill,
I did it before sunrise; before good light. Yes, it was at the
crane pond.


This is what it was like at Bosque 10 days ago when I was standing at
(most likely) the same pond trying to shoot them in the cold ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5606.jpg
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5633.jpg

Very nice. Looks similar to what I got the last couple of days.
I got a nice fight between 2 sandhills yesterday morning. The only
problem was I had too much focal length (500+1.4; 500 alone would
have been perfect but no time to change).

By the way, I did a battery count: 1 got 1230 images, raw+jpeg, on one
battery charge, plus a bunch of wav audio clips, all on the 1D Mark II
and 500mm. I was shooting with 80x 4GB lexar cards.

Roger

Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:
Bill Hilton wrote:
Roger Clark writes ...

this morning at Bosque Del Apache, National Wildlife Refuge,
sunrise, the camera count was: 47 digital cameras, 4 film


You did an actual survey? Must have been a bit slow or did you get
Dick to do it Seriously, this 9-1 ratio is about what I see at
Denali or Katmai or Bosque as well.

Hi Bill,
I did it before sunrise; before good light. Yes, it was at the
crane pond.


This is what it was like at Bosque 10 days ago when I was standing at
(most likely) the same pond trying to shoot them in the cold ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5606.jpg
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bo...rane_T5633.jpg

Very nice. Looks similar to what I got the last couple of days.
I got a nice fight between 2 sandhills yesterday morning. The only
problem was I had too much focal length (500+1.4; 500 alone would
have been perfect but no time to change).


too _much_ focal length... interesting.

i can't decide between nikon's 500mm and the 200-400mm zoom. which
would you prefer for general wildlife photography?

Interesting study. Are the changes statistically significant? I suggest
Chi Square. Or Multiple Regression over years to see the trend.

I had noticed in the 6/05 Outdoor Photographer that 18 of 20 photos in Top
Landscape Tips from "veteran scenic masters" were film. I wonder how the
digital/film selection differs depending on level of experience. And how
does it differ for landscape vs wildlife shooters?

For example, in deciding if I want to go digital for Canon, I might be happy
with the 16.7 MPix 1Ds MII for scenics, but it only shoots 4 fps, so would
not work well for wildlife. In going to a higher frame rate camera, one
loses MPix. (My 1V is 10 fps, and even with just a desk scanner (4k dpi) I
get 24 MPix.)

--
- Alan Justice

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
oups.com...
Eight years ago or so a friend and I were disagreeing about how many
top nature photographers used Nikon vs Canon and how many used Fuji
film (especially Velvia) compared to Kodak. I thought Canon was close
to Nikon but Fuji was preferred over Kodak by a wide margin, say
70-80%.

So we dug out copies of the BBC/Mobil Gas Wildlife Photographer of the
Year book and "Nature's Best" magazine's annual fall contest issue and
categorized the winning entries. (I was wrong about Canon, Nikon was
ahead by about 60-40 ... he was wrong about Kodak since typically
75-90% of the winners were shot on Fuji film back then, almost all on
Velvia). Five years ago in 2000 "Nature's Best" winners preferred
Nikon over Canon by 56% to 39% (32 - 22, Oly, Pentax and Minolta each
had one winning entry) and Fuji beat Kodak by 77% - 21% (31 or 50% used
Velvia, next most popular film was Sensia with 10 users).

Now that digital is making deep inroads into film's popularity I found
it interesting to check the numbers again, using "Nature's Best" (the
2005 Fall issue with the winning entries is on newsstands now). I
wanted to see how quickly digital is "catching on" among the better
amateur and pro nature photographers who win these contests.

2004 was the first time I saw a lot of digital winners in NB. There
were 28 digital winners, 17 using Canon (10D with 10 was most popular,
including one by regular NG contributor Roger Clark), 10 from Nikon
(six with the D100), one with a Kodak. In 2004 film still ruled, with
94 winning entries. Nikon was most popular (45 winners), then Canon
(33), with the rest of the film winners using 4x5" view cameras, medium
format or the slower selling 35 mm brands (one each for Minolta and
Pentax for example). So digital had 23% of the winning entries in
2004.

Fuji was still whipping Kodak's butt in 2004, 73-20 (the numbers for
film type and cameras don't always add up because some people don't
report the film type) or 78% - 22%. Velvia was still the most widely
used film with 33 winners but the good 100 speed films were chipping
away, with Provia 100F (18), Sensia (14) and even Kodak's E-100 VS (10)
doing well.

In the 2005 "Nature's Best" contest digital almost caught 35 mm film
for the first time. No surprise there I guess, but how it was done was
surprising, to me at least. Film was used by 59 winners, 49 using 35
mm, four using medium format (2 Pentax 6x7, two using Pentax 645), six
using Toyo 4x5" view cameras. Digital was used by 46 winners, so
comparing just 35 mm to digital it was pretty close, 49 - 46 in favor
of film. Fuji was still the most popular film brand by 77% - 23% (41 -
12 with several not reporting). Velvia was used by 57% of the winners
(30 users), Kodak E-100 VS was next with 7, Provia 100F next with 6.
Why Sensia dropped so fast is a good question (only 3 users this year).

For 35 mm film Nikon increased its lead over Canon, used by 36 of the
49 winners using 35 mm (Canon had 12, Pentax 1). So Nikon is now
winning the 35 mm film battle by 3-1 over Canon. Who knew?

But with digital it's flipped ... Canon was used by 32 winners (70% of
all digital winning entries), Nikon by just 6 (why the drop from
2004?), then Fuji S2 with 3 (uses Nikon lenses though), and one each
for the Oly 4/3 (E-20), Minolta, Sony, Kodak and a Hasselblad with an
Imacon back.

The most popular digital bodies were the Canon 1D Mark II and Canon 10D
(8 entries each), then the $8,000 (initially) Canon 1Ds and $995 Canon
Rebel (five each), then the D60 (3) and 20D (2). So the most popular
class of digital bodies is the Canon 6 Mpixel (17) ... entries had to
be submitted by March 2005 so newer bodies like the 20D and 1Ds M II
and D2x take a while to show up in numbers.

The most popular Nikons were the D100 and D2h with 2 entries each
(unless you count the Fuji S2 as Nikon since it uses a Nikon mount ...
3 people used it). The D2x is a camera I'm seeing in the field a LOT
right now but it came out a bit late to make the 2005 entry date and
only one entry used it.

Basically Nikon is doing great with 35 mm film (or Canon users are
abandoning it faster than Nikon users but Canon is doing a lot
better than I expected with digital entries. I'm surprised at this a
bit since the Nikon D70 is competitive with the Canon 6 Mpixel bodies
(no D70 entries won, for some reason). Velvia still rules the film
realm by a wide margin, but Fuji has discontinued it this year so it
will be interesting to see if the replacement Velvia 100 becomes as
popular.

Some predictions ... digital will pass film in number of winning
entries next year and by 2010 digital will "win" by say 80-20 or a bit
more ... Nikon will do better in digital next year because of the D2x
... I predict the most popular models next year will be the Canon 1D
Mark II (I see dozens of these at the places I shoot), Canon 20D and
Nikon D2x. But I could be wrong

Bill