As a camera nerd owner of many of the cameras mentioned in the article: Canon F-1, New F-1; Nikon F, F2, and F3, plus some Canon EOS cameras, I can plainly say this article is ill-researched and downright silly in places. It thoroughly ignores a big part of the Canon-Nikon war, which started even before the Nikon F was introduced(1959), and attributes -like a fanboy- inventions like "electronic metering" or "Autofocus" to Nikon, where the truth is that neither Nikon nor Canon were involved in inventing such stuff.

Comparing the F-1 to the Nikon F by comparing pictures of how big the system looks? That's the most idiotic camera comparison i've ever seen!!

The story of Canon vs Nikon is very long, starts in the mid-50s, and in truth is a three-actors story: It is really the story of Asahi Optical (Pentax) vs Nikon vs Canon. For Canon was the direct competition to Nikon in the rangefinder era (1950s-early 1960s), and Nikon was direct competition to the established Pentax in the SLR era. For most of the early 60s, photojournalists either preferred the Nikon F (the "system") or the Pentax (spotmatic and early models).

Basically, Nikon(Nippon Kogaku) was an optical manufacturer and Canon was a small shop which did the big feat of building the first japanese 35mm camera. So this first camera was first sold with Nikon lenses, since Canon(Kwanon) didn't manufacture lenses.

Then, all through the 50s, Nikon brought a series of very sophisticated rangefinder cameras (& lenses) and Canon brought some very high quality rangefinder lenses. The two rangefinder systems were already competing (!)

Canon, in the early 60s, considered rangefinders the better system and didn't think SLR cameras were to be strong competition, that's why in 1959 they released a half-baked effort at a SLR, the Canonflex, just to have something to show off when the Nikon F was released. The Canonflex wasn't even released with a wide angle lens, which shows how little commitment Canon had to SLR cameras.

Meanwhile in the early 60s, Asahi Optical (Pentax) already had very refined SLR cameras and a whole array of SLR lenses. The first japanese wideangle lens for a SLR was released by Asahi, not Canon nor Nikon.

The Nikon F was the first japanese SLR "system" camera and this head-start made them get more customers than any competitor (save Pentax). The 1971 Canon F-1 camera was the culmination of an attempt that started by Canon in the mid-60s to create a SLR that competed frontally with Nikon. This attempt started first by Canon massively increasing the R&D in camera lenses, culminating in a series of many "firsts" in japanese optics (during the 1965-71 period). Part of this long-term strategy was creating lenses of state-of-the-art performance, which often beat the (then current) Nikkor lenses at magazine reviews. An example is the Canon FL 19/3.5R (1965) which was thoroughly superior to the Nikon offering, another example was the FL-F fluorite telephoto lenses (1968). Another example was the FL 55/1.2 aspheric, the first production standard lens with aspheric surfaces. This was obviously a preparation for the release of the F-1 camera.

The F-1 camera was thoroughly superior to the Nikon F and a formidable rival of the (introduced in 1971 as well) Nikon F2. It got accepted and used by professionals, however Nikon had entered that market first. Even today the high value of the F-1 in the used market is an indication of the esteem this camera is held by the collectors.

The New F-1 camera (1981) was the direct competitor of the Nikon F3 as well, but that's another story!!