The only advantage in the Canon range is their lens mount which has a wide throat, and a relatively short distance from lens mount to film/sensor plane. This almost uniquely allows the use of ( lens-less) adapters through which you can mount lenses from Nikon, Contax/Yashica and many others whilst maintaining focusing at infinity. ( Chipped adapters will make the in-focus beep to sound when the lens gets into focus.) Other lensed adapters allow the use of Canon’s FD range of lenses and focusing to infinity, but with some loss in quality.
Canon DSLRs are supplied with DPP free of charge, and this is an excellent software application for processing your jpeg & raw files. Nikon’s equivalent carries a charge. Canon’s non-L lenses do not come with a lens hood, and these are quite expensive for a mass produced piece of plastic.
There are differences in the way the two suppliers use knobs and menus for controlling the camera - visit a decent shop and get some hands-on experience.
If you get into bird photography, Canon’s EF 400 F5.6L is relatively lightweight and has a high reputation.
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