I switched because of problems with the bodies and having to calibrate each lens set to each Canon body. There were several Canon lenses that were excellent performers: the 35 1.4, 85 1.2 and the 135 f/2 are all fantastic lenses. It was never the focusing screens but the Canon bodies themselves that needed adjustment or the lenses calibrated to work with those bodies. I spoke with CPS several times about the problem and their response was to send all of my bodies to them for tuning along with the lenses at the costs of over two-thousand dollars. (I owned quite a few lenses plus three bodies)

For my work, I have always used the cross-lined screens. Not sure what the number or identifier is for them in Nikon or Canon. There are several outside companies that make custom screens for the Canon and Nikon cameras. I have pretty much switched to Autofocus on the Nikon system. Since switching back to Nikon, I have not had a single frame that the focus was not where I placed it. The tolerances with the Nikon lenses (older and new) seem tighter to me than the Canons. A rep at CPS told me that Canon allows up to five percent “looseness” in the lenses. I don’t know if that is true or not. I do know that I no longer have the nagging worry about back-focus that I did when I shot with the 1Ds II and 1Ds III.

I think Canon makes some amazing cameras. The little 5D Mark II has become the wonder boy of the film industry and they make some incredible glass.

I started with Nikon and Leica and that is what feels comfortable to me. I no longer think about the camera when I am using it.