Recently I was in the market for a new digital camera. I did quite a bit of research during this summer, scanning forums, review sites, questioning friends and family.

You see, buying a camera with interchangeable lenses is not just about the camera. It’s about picking a brand you can stick with. Once you’ve invested in a few good lenses, switching to another brand becomes expensive as your old lenses won’t work with that brand.

I finally settled for a Nikon D50 with a few additional lenses, fully aware of the fact that it’s a model Nikon is replacing with an updated one in the near future (the D80 was just announced and rumors of a D60 was circulating). The price had been cut, so I thought it was a great deal.

View from The Temple of Heaven, shot with my new Nikon D50.

Reading various photography forums, one person quickly emerged as an authority on Nikon gear: Ken Rockwell. Ken has a great site, giving advice on everything from lenses and other equipment, to softer issues such as how to convince your wife an expensive camera is a great investment. What makes his writing different - and I suspect is also the reason for his popularity - is that he’s very direct in his recommendations, and sometimes offers controversial advice on equipment issues (read Color Management is for Wimps for an example of this). You almost never leave his site feeling unsure about what he thinks is the right choice.

Ken Rockwell has been a Nikon loyalist since the 80s. But he’s starting to soften a bit. The reason? Nikon’s ridiculous slowness when it comes to making new gear available. He’s written a lengthy piece on it, comparing Nikon to Canon and listing announcement and delivery dates for a lot of recent Nikon gear. Not a pretty list. Not only that, he’s now started to review Canon gear.

Canon doesn’t seem to have been slow catching this. Ken now seems to be receiving their gear for review, having posted comparison reviews with Nikon cameras. He also writes Canon-only reviews, like this one.

How many times will this be quoted in other forums? How many times will someone write that even Ken Rockwell is giving up on Nikon?

I hope Nikon is paying attention to this. The word-of-mouth warning bells are very much ringing for Nikon.