A camera is only as good a the person using it. All modern cameras will take the same pictures so "feel" should be a major decision making point. If a camera feels more comfortable, you'll find yourself carrying it and using it more often.

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I do prefer the Nikon's feel as it seems to be better built (at least in my opinion) and look. But prefer a better camera overall. Thanks for the help!

Whether a camera model is entry or mid-range is a marketing term and really has little more to it than reflecting the price/features of a model.

Nikon has a brand mystique that goes back to the 50's when I bought a Nikon rangefinder in '53. But what is really important about SLR history was at the heyday of SLR sales in the 70's when Canon bit the bullet and designed a new, modern, larger lens mount to accommodate their introduction of auto-focus and Nikon chose to favor not offending their user base and kept their old SLR lens mount. I still have a Canon EOS auto-focus 50-200 lens I got with the first Canon EOS when the camera was first introduced at the press conference at Bar Harbor, Maine and it has been used successfully with every Canon EOS SLR body I have had or used since (too many to count), including 35mm film and digital both APS-C and full-frame chip models.

Yes the physical "feel" of a camera is an important issue, but today all SLR designs are quite ergonomic in shape. More important in personal adaptation is the logic of the control layout and menu offerings, which are some of the greatest differences between camera makes and models. Today all of the established brands provide image quality performance little distinguished from any other brand/model with the same megapixel resolution.

However, there may be a reason Canon is #1 in both overall world-wide popularity, and also the by far the leading pick of the top pro shooters in the world.