Buying a camera isn’t a soccer match

The web seems to be full of comparison tests of the latest Nikon versus the latest Canon camera, almost like it’s a soccer game and we need to know who wins this year’s championship. For a small number of photographers, those who spend more time debating the superiority of their brand in the camera forums of Dpreview than being out in the field making pictures, this contest may be interesting, but for most photographers it’s not. Let’s take all those Nikon D800 versus Canon EOS 5D Mark III tests for example. I would think that more than 95% of all potential Nikon D800 or Canon EOS 5D Mark III buyers already own several Nikon or Canon lenses, so for them there isn’t really a choice between Canon and Nikon. They already made that choice quite some time ago. I’m puzzled why all those camera testers don’t understand that the “Should I upgrade?” question is far more relevant than the “Is this Nikon camera better than that Canon camera or is this Canon camera better than that Nikon camera?” question. Test the D800 against the D700 and test the EOS 5D Mark III against the EOS 5D Mark II if you really want to give your readers information that is relevant for them.