Steve Spencer
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andrewd01 wrote:
Canon has the feature but it only works with CPU lenses, eg Canon EF lenses and some of the new EF mount MF lenses from Zeiss and Voigltander. It won't work on an adapter mounted lens. Nikon does not need CPU coupling for the feature to work.
With the Canon system people don't generally talk about CPU lenses like they do with Nikon lenses. With a Canon camera (any camera) you can set it up to have the little green dot indicate focus not only with Canon EF lenses and EF mount lenses from Zeiss and Voigtlander, but also with any lens with an adapter or mount conversion. All you have to do is buy an adapter with a focus confirmation chip attached or buy the chip and attach it to any lens that will mount on a Canon Camera. So Canon does not need "CPU coupling" for this feature to work--you just need a chip attached to the lens and these chips are readily available for about $30
To return the the OPs original question, IMO, Canon is still a much more flexible system for using alt glass. As I pointed out above you can use focus confirmation with any lens that will mount on a Canon camera. In addition, Canon has readily available high contrast focus screens for many of their cameras (1D series, 1Ds series, 5D series, 40D, & 50D) that are specifically designed for manually focussing fast lenses. IMO, using these focus screens is a much better (easier to use and more reliable) way to shoot manual focus lenses when using the viewfinder with focus confirmation (the green dot that lights up) on either Nikon or Canon.
Canon also has the advantage of still having more lenses for more manufactures available to convert to the EF mount. Although a clear advantage of the Nikon system is that Nikon manual focus lenses have auto aperture on Nikon bodies and they don't on Canon--although they can easily be made to have focus confirmation.
Nevertheless it is also clear that the differences between Canon and Nikon is getting smaller. The new line of Zeiss manual focus lenses are mostly available for both Canon and Nikon and will be available for both within a few months. Ditto the Voigtlander lenses that are currently being produced by Cosina. So more auto aperture lenses are becoming available for Canon. On the other side Nikon has a whole bunch of lenses that have and are becoming available because of mount conversions available through Leitax. So the advantages of one system over the other are getting smaller. In addition, the new Canon 7D has a viewfinder very similar to the Nikon viewfinders and there isn't a screen available for this camera that is specifically made for manual focus lenses like the previous Canon cameras. Both systems also have great live view features which are wonderful for manual focus on a tripod making viewfinder screens and focus confirm abilities pretty meaningless for this type of shooting.
In fact, I think the advantages of one camera system over the other are getting pretty small and will likely get smaller in the future. As a generalization, however, I do think it is generally accurate to say that Canon has more options for glass available and for focusing aids than Nikon. Nikon, however, has an advantage for using Nikon manual focus lenses and a few other lenses made specifically for Nikon that are no longer in production.
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) as you look through the viewfinder and open up a lens from f/2.8 to f/1.4 there is no change in what you see through a viewfinder (not even the brightness changes) with the standard focus screen (note i've never used a 7D so it is possible canon used a screen designed differently than their previous stock screens to counter this, though i doubt it). this means you can never be certain of the depth of field though you can (with practice) extrapolate what it will actually look like from what you see. i found this to be totally unacceptable for spontaneous shooting of people at f/1.4 on both a nikon D1x (decent viewfinder) and olympus e520 (crappy viewfinder). unfortunately, such shooting is also where the digital rangefinder (nikon) ceases to be useful for me - no time to recompose and looking at the dot is distracting from composing. the digital rangefinder is helpful for landscapes and posed pictures, however it is less needed in those situations. this is actually the biggest negative for me pushing me away from nikon and the canon 7D in considering a new camera.