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I was wondering what, if any, are the technical differences between the two mounting systems. Does one auto focus faster? Can one hold more weight? Things along those lines that make them different.

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The Nikon mount is far older than the Canon one. Nikon have updated their old (OLD!) manual focus lens mount continously, adding new mechanical and electronic connections to it over the years to support new features. Canon started with a blank sheet of paper on their EOS mount in the late eighties and did not even try to maintain backwards compatibility. The main difference is that the EOS mount is all-electronic, there is no mechanical linkage whatsoever between camera body and lens. The Nikon mount has a mechanical stopdown linkage and a mechanical autofocus linkage to let an in-camera AF motor drive the AF mechanism in the lens, plus a full set of electronic linkages á la Canon. The consequence is that an old Canon manual-focus lens is now a useless paperweight while any old Nikon manual focus lens can, in principle (there are some gotchas), be mounted and used on the latest and greatest Nikon DSLR.

Also, the Canon mount has a shorter flange distance and a wider opening. The short flange means that there is room for an adapter to fit lenses with other mounts, the wide opening means that making ultra-large aperture lenses like 50mm f/1 and 85mm f/1.2 is possible. Nikon only goes to 50/1.2 and 85/1.4... whether this difference means much in practice is debatable :)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Oh, and for weight... past a certain point, you mount the camera to the lens and not the other way around. If the physical strength of the mount becomes an issue you are doing something very, very wrong. \$\endgroup\$
    – Staale S
    Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 15:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ Another difference is that Canon's EF-S (cropped-mount) lenses are not all compatible with EF (full frame) mounts because the mirror can hit the lens's rear element. (This isn't a huge deal since you probably won't want to use cropped-frame lenses on a full-frame body, but with Nikon you do have that flexibility.) \$\endgroup\$
    – podperson
    Commented Sep 19, 2015 at 21:52
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I suppose one of them is screwed clockwise, as usual, and ther other is screwed the other way, counter clockwise. But I don't know for sure, because I use Pentax K-mount...

Seriously, though... they have different flange focal distances:

  • Canon EF-S mount, 44.00 mm
  • Pentax K mount, 45.46 mm
  • Nikon F-mount, 46.50 mm

It means, that through adapters you are can put a Nikon lens on a camera with smaller FFD, but not the other way (with Pentax or Canon lens for Nikon body you cannot focus to the infinity, or you have to use an adapter with corrective optics).

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I've heard that Nikon's mount is a bit too narrow to accommodate a really fast autofocus 50mm lens, like the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2. This is due to the fact that the lens contacts get in the way of the large exit pupil needed.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Nikon have an F-mount 50mm f/1.2 lens, (though it is non AF) - Perhaps you mean 50mm f/1.0 \$\endgroup\$
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 20:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ Actually I meant a hypothetical 50/1.2 AF-S. The problem isn't the exit pupil per se, it's the lack of space for a contact block with the pins used for lens-body communication. The Canon 50/1.0 isn't current anymore, anyway ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – gerikson
    Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 21:47
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There is hardly any difference. Till 1948 both were manufacturing together under the name of Canon. Earlier Nikon used to supply just the lens for Canon Cameras.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree that in the big picture the differences are inessential. But don't you think that there's been some meaningful divergence since 65 years ago? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 11:25
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As far as i know they are different just because they were developed at different times, by different companies - other than that both mount do the same job.

Earlier i created question about maximum weight - and we found no clear data about it for both Nikon and Canon. I suspect it depends more on body construction, than on mount itself. As for auto-focus - it depends on lens and camera AF system, not the mount.

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