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Hmm, good question! For me, at least, my mom (an artist) gave me a set of Prismacolors while I was in college. Since I had the set, I just added to it. I love the blending and layering abilities of Prismacolors, but in all fairness, I haven't tried the Faber Castells. Looking forward to seeing other people's replies.
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For me the Prismacolors are more readily available. They are sold in open stock in all the stores locally so if I need just one pencil I can just walk in and get it. I would love to try other brands but I don't want to buy a whole set. The Prismas seem to do pretty good for me. They seem to blend well which is something I like.
Maybe just availability? I have a mixture of "artist grade" pencils - Prismacolor, Lyra and Derwent Coloursoft. Prismacolor are not readily available here in the UK but I bought some cheaply from the US, Derwent Coloursoft are readily available as singles but are much more expensive that the Prismas I bought so I just fill in with odd colours if I'm short. I got the Lyra Skintone set because I was never that happy with the Prisma skin options and somebody here recommended the Lyras. They're excellent - great for nature images and trees etc as well as skin tones from all ethnicities.
I confess I usually just shorthand to "Prismacolor pencils" in my descriptions though if I used a mix of pencils - it just gets longwinded otherwise!
My art teacher from high school gave me a whole set of Spectracolor that I still have. I don't think they are made any more, but they are from Faber Castell, plus I got Derwent pencils from my brother years and years ago, but I rarely use them since I got Prismacolor pencils. I've been accumulating Prismas for a long time, then my DBF got me the complete set a couple of Christmas's ago. They are just a really good pencil. Excellent blendability IMO. I haven't tried some of the other brands available today, because they're just not as readily available as Prismas.
Oh, and I have the Koh-i-noor pencils too, but they just don't have enough colors. I wish they did, because they are awesome pencils too.
I too haven't tried other brands but for me it is also availability. I can go to the art store and pick up the one or two colors I feel that I need to work on a project.
Prisma versus Faber Castell
