I think I feel another exclamation mark coming on.

Ah, the eternal conflict. vi and emacs. nVidia and ATI. Linux and absolutely everyone else. Currently I’m faced with a more evenly-balanced choice (or so I thought) than the above – we all know ATI, vi and Linux are rubbish – and that choice is, of course, Nikon or Canon.

For, you see, my humble Panasonic FZ-5 has died a horrible, mechanical death, and when I inquired at Jessops about the feasibility of a repair, I was assured the cost would far exceed the value of the camera – i.e a hundred quid. Jumping on the DSLR wagon basically boils down to two options: the Nikon D40x and Canon 400D. Since the marketing machines of both companies know this, they are engaged in the kind of feature / metric war that gave us clock-speeds the same frequency as gamma radiation and CPU cores that dissipate more heat than an oven. As a result, both cameras are pretty impressive, both are about the same price, both come with a £50 rebate at the moment, both come with an 18-55mm kit lens, etc, etc.

The warning alarms went off when I inquired with DSLR-owning friends on the above basis, and almost all of them gave a decidedly vehement response in favour of Nikon or Canon. Not the device, so much – more just the company / philosophy / scared truth. Notably, for what I can only assume to be comedy effect, the, err, pimply-faced-youth at the shop (I was in Jessops, not Currys/Dixons, honest) first decried in no uncertain terms that the Nikon is made from the carcasses of dead puppies, but then summoned over a colleague who impressed upon me that the Canons steal a piece of your soul every time you press the shutter. I think, to give Jessops some credit, overall they were a bit more helpful than that, and the result is I’m currently leaning Canon-wards, mostly due to wider lens compatibility, and alleged easier access to ISO and exposure settings via physical buttons.

Hence this post – please wade in, via the comments, and offer whatever enlightenment you feel able to impart.