Nikon or Canon for ease of use?

[Chris71]

Hi,

My flash gun acquisition may have gone a bit tits up. It has raised the possibility of buying a 'house camera' so they don't have to persuade random employees to lend their equipment. If we do, it'll be used specifically whenever there isn't a proper photographer around and potentially by people who've never wielded an SLR before.

I'm a Canon man personally (ahem, well the 400D was the best deal when I was looking...) but I was lent a Nikon SLR for some shots a while back and it seemed to be much stronger on the auto/semi-auto modes. Do you think the Nikon range is more idiot proof? Maybe it was just good lighting or something, but I reckoned I could have spent ages trying to set that shot up on my Canon and failed to reproduce the same results. I'm sure the 400D is every bit as good if you know what you're doing and you can manually configure all the right settings, but for high quality 'point and shoot' is Nikon better?

Chris

[Simpo Two]

I suspect it's entirely personal, but I personally find the Nikon controls make more sense to me - but then they would because that's what I use

If it's to be used by people who haven't used a DSLR before, might it not be better to get a decent P&S instead?

[V8S]

Why not get a bridge camera so you'll have that little bit extra control for those who know and the reach of a fairly good zoom?

[Snapper7]

I switched from Nikon to Canon after about 20 years of Nikon and I have to say that I prefer the Canon. But then it is personal choice.