Nikon and Canon Tie in May Photo Mag Contests

Nikon and Canon came to their second tie of the year in May’s reader photo contests in the two largest U.S. photography magazines, each claiming four winning photos in the combined tallies. But in a rare occurrence, other brands combined to outnumber winning photos taken by either Nikon or Canon.

Canon was the winner in Popular Photography and Imaging’s “Your Best Shot” contest, taking two of the winning photos compared with one for Nikon. (That’s right, only three total photos published in the Pop contest this month.)

The margin was also tight in Shutterbug’s “Picture This!” feature, where Nikon won with three to Canon’s two. But Shutterbug published a total of 10 winning photos, and five were taken by other brands: Fuji, Sony and Konica-Minolta.

That marks the first time since NikonvsCanon began keeping count that other brands have equaled or exceeded the number of photos shot with Nikon or the number shot with Canon. It’s also the first time that “other brand” photos published in either magazine equaled the number of Nikon and Canon shots combined. (Five “others” compared with five Nikon/Canon split as three Nikon and two Canon.)

But don’t worry: the strong showing by “other” in Shutterbug doesn’t appear to be any threat to the dominance of Nikon and Canon. Two of the photos were made with Nikon lenses on Fuji S2 DSLR cameras, which are actually Nikon bodies modified with Fuji electronics and could arguably be counted as Nikon. Two were shot with Konica-Minolta Dimage models and one with an unspecified Sony Cybershot. There were no “other brand” photos in Pop this month.

Other brands aside, that adds up to a 4-4 Nikon-Canon tie, the second this year following February’s 6-6 draw. Nikon still leads Canon 31-27 for the year. The “other” windfall in Shutterbug brings the year to a total of 14 photos shot with other brands. Even with that, Nikon and Canon photos combined still outnumber all other brands combined more than four-to-one.

Canon won 2006 89-83 with all other brands combined accounting for only 43 photos.

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 2007