Hi, Asher.
Well, truth told, I really don't do film much anymore. An old Nikon F3, when the mood strikes me or when someone's got really nice film on sale for cheap (g'bye Kodak!), but I've been a PhotoShop guy since the mid-1990's, so I find MUCH more processing flexibility with digital than I do film. Plus, no more stinky chemicals around for the kids to knock over....
I do photography professionally (weddings, portraits, events, sports, nature). Got my first "opportunity to excel" back when I was doing some Internet-server programming for an ad agency and their lead photog walked out on them in the middle of a shoot about ten years ago. Having miraculously passed muster on that, I decided to stick with it, and eventually went full-time photography when we moved to South Dakota in August 2004. The programming gig as a freelancer was getting more and more "can you fix our crappy code", anyway. I actually started shooting back in the mid-1980's as part of my responsibilities for a forward-area reconaissance team in the US Army.
All of which makes for a relative non-conformist who occasionally responds acerbically (but with all due respect) on public forums....
I think we (Nikon shooters) sneak by with stealth, bypassing the jealous eyes of the Canonites because everyone wants our glass. And if my 18mpx DSLR only looked "about as" resolute as a 12mpx Nikon DSLR, I'd sure hate for some Nikonian to be rubbing it in all the time. ;-)
Darn, I said that out loud. Sorry. :-D I won't mention that all my old Nikkor lenses work just fine with my digitals, either.....
Okay, okay, sometimes I have to tweak the files a bit.
Sorta.
Actually, I think we're all slightly embarrassed, in this bizarre political climate of the past few years, with how much money goes to Japan on our behalf. And I don't know that on the professional level, Nikon will ever equate to latter portion of "capable and economical". Still, I have no desire to dump over a decade's worth of Nikkor lens-snatching and start all over again.
Literally everything I've learned has been by trial-and-error, so if I can be of any assistance to anyone, do let me know. As a rule of thumb, I roll over the number-sequencing on each new camera before I ever use one for a client. I seriously hope to learn here as well. Most of my other forum participation is on the programming and software-development side of the house. Browsing through here over the past couple of evenings, I'm pleased to see what a nice group of non-flame-baiting people you all are. Please don't take my little Canon digs as well....canonical. To be perfectly honest, I originally went Nikon DSLR instead of Canon largely because of how they fit in my hand.