What's the difference between a Laurie who shoots with a Nikon and a Laurie who shoots with a Canon again?

NO, not lipstick, silly - just a jerk of a camera thief at the DNC.

I am to cameras what is known in political parlance as a "GDI." (Great, darling Independent, of course.) My first camera as a photography student a few years back was a Canon film SLR, which I still love although I am so pressed for time that my relationship with film has dwindled - temporarily, I hope. Just months later, I scraped together my pennies and bought a Canon Digital Rebel, and somewhere along the way I got a Canon PowerShot point and shoot too. 

Early Canon Rebel buddhas, San Francisco, 2006.

I loved the Rebel deeply and without reservation and used it daily, until it died just a month out of warranty, I was grad-school broke and couldn't even afford the $250 that the company wanted for my joy of sending it to New Jersey for them to just look at. Plus, I was angry. I made do with the PowerShot plus another model that I got, and still consider them among the most solid cameras you can buy.

Moving more into photojournalism and school and in my work, I needed a new DSLR. I was wary of getting another Digital Rebel, even though a couple generations of them had come and gone since my experience. I didn't have many lenses yet, which in the D/SLR world usually determines what brand one sticks with. Plus I knew some excellent shooters who worked with Nikon.

Chevy/Ford? Toyota/Honda? Paper/plastic? These are easy debates compared to this one. 

In the end I decided to switch it up, and see how the other half lived, while maintaining strong allegiance to my PowerShot. So with some help from my student loan, I bought a Nikon D80 this February. 

I thought I'd settled down. I loved that camera. I took a picture of it before it came out of the BAG. I took it everywhere. The kit lens (i.e. the lens the manufacturer sells to you in the initial package) was excellent - a much better bet than the Rebel's. I was off and shooting again. I took it to Vietnam. To New York.  To BlogHer.

At BlogHer I connected with some great women and photographers, many of them Nikon shooters.

New Nikon Buddhas, San Francisco, 2008.

I joined NikonSisters on Flickr, led by Karen Walrond and Stephanie Roberts. I'm hoping I can still be an ally. Shooters particularly striking me in that photostream right now include Kirsten aka iheartnewyork, SewFab Martha (link to her blog plus sewfabmartha on Flickr), and Kristin/aka MaineMomma.

Enter Denver and the DNC a couple of weeks ago. I was looking forward to shooting the whole event for work and for fun, and things got off to a good start - until the D80 was stolen on the second night in a series of events that I will not detail here lest I sob again. 

A few days after I got back from a trip where once again a Canon PowerShot saved my photographic ass, I bought a new Canon - this time a Digital Rebel, after a quick text to Aimee Greeblemonkey, one of my favorite photographers regardless of brand, who responded quickly and helped me nail my decision down. Cost factored into it, with the Rebel a bit cheaper than the D80 and the Canon 40D just beyond my reach. Add a Labor Day deal that threw in a telephoto lens and it was a done deal. I looked forward to the chance to use my film camera again. 

I've used the new camera a few times since I got it, not much yet, but it's served me well on one story assignment and I think it'll work out just fine. It's nicely light, but not flimsy. The image quality is good. I'll get some new lenses. I'll try not to let it out of my sight. 

Because the reality is that if a jerk hadn't stolen my camera (I mean,
really, did that have to happen?) I'd still be shooting with the D80, which tempers the new-camera joy just a bit.
And although I'm getting used to the Rebel XSi, how it feels in my hand
and how the images look on the screen, I'm still really sad that one of the few material goods I really valued and used so regularly was lifted. There are many worse problems to be had, I know, but some things are just disappointing. 

And all of that said, clearly the
brand doesn't so much matter to me as the ability to express myself in
images does. It turns out I really do reach across the aisle. If a rocking Sony or Fuji presented itself I'm sure I'd use that too. 

*******************************************************************

The Nikon/Canon debate doesn't so much rage as simmer elsewhere on the Web: 

Alice Teh at Hello My Name is Alice splits between a Nikon D40 DSLR and a couple of Canon Powershots too. 

Tessa at Conquering Motherhood thought the Canon dslr was too "heavy and long" for her hands so she chose a Nikon D40 as well. 

Canon has over 53,000 (53,000!) groups on Flickr. Nikon almost 51,000.  At least one group has "Canon Girls vs. Nikon Girls," which kind of scares me (and there are many, many more non-gender-specific brand competition groups.) It could get hot in there, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to deal. In my experience there is beautifully photographed room for everyone. 

Laurie White writes at LaurieWrites and will soon be updating a sadly neglected Flickr stream with all manner of Canon power shots.