The answer goes back even further than my time in photography, which was over ten years ago at the transition from film to digital and DSLR video. Before digita

The answer goes back even further than my time in photography, which was over ten years ago at the transition from film to digital and DSLR video. Before digital, part of the answer was sports photographers all switching to Canon for autofocus. Before that, it was more of an even playing field with cameras (read: marketing). Back then however, Nikon had a semiconductor manufacturing machine business that supplemented their camera division. Incidentally, Canon stumbled, in a fashion, onto DSLR video. They apparently only added video after years of suggestions from media photographers. And then at first they got the frame rate wrong. A year or so later, the deigned to fix the bug and of course the rest is history: jillions of their lenses, and DSLR bodies, sold to established and aspiring video/film shooters alike. Meanwhile, Nikon clung to their roots trying to sell cameras to photographers and never overcame the Canon sports hegemony and video windfall. They had awful software and were even less responsive to the changing market than Canon was. Most of this is dredged up from memory. For details, and data, go back ten or 20 years on https://bythom.com/ https://bythom.com/