Canon Chooses Finalists in Football Photography Contest

Canon has posted the finalists in its annual “Why Do You Love Football?” photo contest and is inviting the public to vote on the first-place winners and grand prize winner.

The deadline for entries was November 27, and Canon’s panel of judges has selected seven finalists in each of two categories: action and feature. The Action category focuses on any image that captures football action during game play, while the Feature category comprises any football imagery outside of game action on the field. Click here to see the results. Canon doesn’t say how long voting will go on, but plans to announce the winners in early January, so vote soon.

Co-sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the nationwide amateurs-only contest is in its second year.

Judges included Sports Illustrated photographer Peter Read Miller, Associated Press photographer Mark Duncan, U.S. Presswire photographer Craig Melvin, Cleveland Browns team photographer John Reid III, freelancer Tony Tomsic and former NFL quarterback Archie Manning.

Each first place winner will receive a Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera, while the grand prize winner will be awarded a trip for four to attend Super Bowl XLI in Florida and will have his or her photo displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Additionally, the winner will receive a trip for four to the 2007 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Celebration in August 2007.Details and rules are at www.usa.canon.com/nfl. The web site also features a great Day in the Life video showing how Miller shoots a game, and another video offers tips on how to shoot football.

Copyright 2006

Nikon Beats Canon 3-1 in December Photo Mag Contests But Canon Wins Year 89-83

Nikon beat Canon 3-1 in December’s monthly reader photo contests in the two largest U.S. photography magazines, but Canon turned out to be the winner for the year, beating Nikon 89-83.

Three of the winning photos in Popular Photography and Imaging’s “Your Best Shot” contest this month were made with Nikon cameras compared with one for Canon. One photo was shot with another brand.

Shutterbug’s “Picture This!” feature temporarily abandoned its contest format this month, instead asking readers to submit old family album photos, so there were no Shutterbug numbers to tally this time around. (For the nostalgia-minded, four of the family album photos were shot with Kodak Brownies, one with a Rolleiflex, one with a Speed Graphic and five with unidentified cameras.)

The winning month was the second in a row for Nikon, and meant that Nikon won six months in 2006 compared with five for Canon. (March was a tie.) But it wasn’t enough to win the year: Canon outscored Nikon 89-83 for the total number of winning pictures. All other brands combined totaled 43 for the year.

Consistent with the trend seen throughout the year, the year-end numbers show that the number of winning photos shot with either Nikon or Canon outnumbered winning photos shot with all other brands combined 4:1.

Popular Photography and Imaging and Shutterbug run photo contests for readers each month. The majority of winning photos are shot with either Nikon or Canon cameras, and www.NikonvsCanon.com tracks the winners as a means of keeping score in the perennial argument among photographers of which brand is better.

The analysis by www.NikonvsCanon.com is not intended to take sides or to indicate that either magazine favors either camera brand. In fact, the winning brand fluctuates frequently from month to month in both magazines.

Copyright 2006