4 Reasons Why We Chose Nikon DSLRs for Video

“Ohhh, you’re shooting Nikon???” is the comment we get most often when showing up to a wedding or another video project with Nikon DSLRs. “Everyone else shoots Canon DSLRs for Video.” We know. We know we’re in the minority. Frankly, we kind of like it. Shooting video with Nikons isn’t more difficult than with Canon, nor is the quality diminished. It’s just that Nikon got a little later start with adding great video features to their cameras, so anyone already in the DSLR video business was already using Canon by default. When we started our DSLR video business we had the option of Nikon or Canon, and we chose Nikon – and here are 5 reasons why:

1) Nikon Familiarity. I was already familiar with Nikon entry-level cameras and had 1-2 lenses. My first DSLR was a Nikon D60 which didn’t have video recording. It was a great first camera to learn the basics of photography on. Then, I saw Nikon was coming out with the D7000. It had video capability of 24fps and 1080p and after seeing the examples of videos online, I had to have one.

2) Still Photo Ability. Even though I was excited about the D7000’s video recording ability, I was still using it primarily for still-photos. I took a few videos here and there, but never really took the time to edit or make anything of them. To this day, I still love taking still photos as a hobby – and I prefer the lenses and bodies to Canon, probably because of #1. (That which we are familiar with is more comfortable)

3) Nikon Lenses. Once I got a couple more lenses for photography purposes (like the 24-70 and 70-200), it would have been a foolish business decision to sell those at a loss, and purchase new Canon gear (that I would have been unfamiliar with) in order to shoot videos that looked similar to what was being filmed by Canon users. This is further reinforced every time I purchase a new Nikon lens.

4) Few Others Use Nikon for Video. At least professionally, from what we’ve seen, Canon is still the primary choice – probably for the very same reasons mentioned above. In the world of wedding videography or photography – the idea isn’t to have a style that is a carbon copy of someone else’s work, the idea is to have a unique style. Sure, you can have influences and get shot ideas – but if you’re just copying the style of someone else, it will be much harder to break into the market. Our goal was to make videos people like with the equipment we had, and we succeeded.

You’ll notice that these reasons are all very subjective. Both Canon and Nikon have great video ability, and the differences are so minimal that the greatest influence on the final product is the person using the camera.