We have started with some well defined parameters. We're talking about 35mm photography ...
You might have noticed there's a general principle running through all photography; the larger the format, the higher the quality.
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Ray,
since Nikon does not make 35mm format DSLR's, I dispute your first statement. We are talking about DSLR photography, and two companies that offer a total of four different formats of DSLR.
As to the "bigger is better" idea: surely, in choice of an SLR brand, bigger format size
alone is not the decisive factor; there are many other factors beside format size. After all
1. If format size alone were decisive, neither Canon nor Nikon would be in the race, but only Hasselblad, Mamiya and maybe the new Rollei based systems.
2. Offering a choice of 35mm, 645 and 6x7 format in the film era did not make Pentax the first choice of professionals.
3. You at one point chose Canon DSLR's with 15.1x22.6mm sensors over Nikon DSLR's with somewhat larger sensors, and before I believe the announcement of Canon's first 35mm format DSLR.
You will probably be quick and correct to point to compensating advantages of the smaller format options from Canon (and perhaps even Nikon) over those larger format options in areas such as cost, lens selection, frame rate, shutter lag, portability and in particular telephoto reach, but a lot of those same factors also often weigh against 35mm format in favor of smaller DSLR formats.
P. S. Perhaps I should take it back about the telephoto reach disadvantage of DMF: current DMF backs with 6.8 micron pitch Kodak sensors offer higher resolution in l/mm than any Canon 35mm for 1.3x format DSLR, and new Dalsa sensors at least match Canon's, so DMF cameras can probably match or slightly outperform those Canon models for resolution by using the same focal length and cropping. But any of the D2Xs, 40D, D40x, D80, D200 or 30D is ahead on telephoto reach with a given focal length. (Not to mention the current DSLR l/mm resolution leader, the Olympus E-410.)