Thank you Sabyasachi, Abhishek and Bibhav for the informative participation in the discussion

I have heard from a few friends too that nikon bodies and lenses allow more rugged use. Also, I have been seeing more and more serious photographers jumping into the nikon bandwagon off late, but I am not sure why. While it is almost clear that canon has a wider range of lenses and better service in India, I have been hearing from nikon users that the company's service has significantly improved and is fast catching up with canon. Similarly, the availability of nikon telephoto lenses is fairly easy these days, I gather. In fact, acquiring a nikon tele/super telephoto seems to be easier than getting a canon, thanks to canon officially discontinuing production of their 1st gen telephoto lenses and not being able to start full fledged production of the new lenses. For the first time ever, nikon equipment is cheaper (significantly) as well!! As for the 1.5x vs 1.6x crop factor, when looking at 800mm on a canon body and 750mm on a nikon body, wouldn't the difference (approx. 6.5% field of view) be almost negligibe?

These are things that make me inclined to move to nikon and buy a 500 f4 AF-S ED VR, but I'd love to hear from you again on whether it would be a wise move or not.

Regards