What advice do you have on choosing between Canon 60D and Nikon D7000?

Question

I'm about to buy a camera but before you dismiss this question as argumentative read it first.

I used to take photos years ago on Canon EOS 500N (yes film camera) with default lens that came with it which I like at wide angles mostly, because going to 80mm colours were washed out etc. You know its problems. Then some years afterwards I used P&S Sony pocket camera.

But I've borrowed Nikon D80 few weeks ago and tested it with a Sigma 17-50/f2.8 lens. Actually I liked all those buttons it had left of LCD. Accessible, fast settings changes etc. Very nice camera that made me want to buy SLR again.

Anyway. I'm still leaning toward Canon. 60D to be exact. Why? Because I know Canon's line of lenses (even though it's not always easy to pick the correct one) and since I don't know anything about Nikkor lenses whatsoever. But the fact that Nikon D7000 is similarly priced to Canon's 60D it makes me wonder... Because I generally think that this particular camera is superior to 60D. I consider Nikon's D7000 more in line with Canon 7D than 60D. I know that 60D has swivel LCD which I actually missed when testing D80, because taking images of my dog required me to get really low on the ground. This feature alone would probably become very useful. But is not the main factor, because I probably won't shoot that much video. Actually my coming baby will be the main subject.

Anyway. I know this question can be argumentative so let me ask a question that will end up in votable answers so I'll be able to accept the best one.

Is there a sharpness difference when D7000 has 1.5 crop and canon 1.6 with different resolutions? Because full frame bodies tend to be sharper due to bigger pixels. Same can be assumed here or?

But the main thing is I need advice what features/things/facts should I be thinking of when considering either 60D or D7000. Which things would you be considering? They do have different resolution but both of them use considerably high one so it's already over the optimum margin on both. I haven't tested Canon 60D yet to see the user-friendlyness of its buttons and settings. So this is something I am interested in. So what advice can you give me when considering 60D and D7000 and what would your choice be today if you'd have to buy one of these?

Please avoid answers as because Nikon is the best. Try to provide factual data that can actually help me decide.

Answer

Put your hands on a 60D before you do anything else. Canon has some very nice lenses to be sure. So does Nikon, and there are some darned good third-party lenses that are available in both mounts. If you have no existing stock of lenses you'd like to use (if you're starting afresh) then you can find happiness in either mount. In practice, the D7000 performs better at very high ISO levels, but the 60D is arguably somewhat sharper at the low ISO end. Both, as you've stated, have an adequate number of pixels for most purposes. Back to the coin toss.

I went Nikon for one reason and one reason only -- I have a physical disability that makes the Canon's rear control wheel difficult to reach and manipulate. I noticed that in the early EOS film days, but then it was only a slight disagreement between my mental model of a good electronic control design and what Canon had implemented. In the digital era, the wheel seems to have dropped lower on the camera body (likely so a single wheel can be used both with the standard button set and the vertical controls, either in a grip or built into the EOS 1 series), and I can no longer force my thumb that low. In other words, it came down to a purely ergonomic choice for me. Price was the only real consideration when choosing between Nikon and Pentax (whose ergonomics also agree with my hands).

Let your fingers and thumbs do the walking and the talking -- there's not enough difference between them to let anything but comfort and ease of use guide your decision.

As an aside I'd much prefer to see a DSLR with the control layout of the Fujifilm Finepix X100, with a proper shutter speed dial and an aperture ring where the damned aperture ring belongs (even if it's a part of the camera face rather than the lens). Maybe that's just old-fogey talk, but I miss cameras that work like cameras.

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