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"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 |
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"Nature's Best" contest and film vs digital
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 I would more or less agree with you predictions, but add the Canon 5D to the mix. Scott |
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