Mountain Biking - cantilevers to V, is it worth it?

I have been searching past threads on this, and all I seem to find is the levers are not compatible. So my ? is. Is it worth the time and effort to go from cantilever brakes to V brakes. Is there really that big of a difference in stopping power? Just to add, the bike I am thinking about doing the upgrade on is a 96 Fisher with Alivio cantilevers and replace them with newer Tekpro V's or is it just a matter of having good pads?

I would pick up a cheap set of Avid Single Digit's and some Avid FR5 levers. It's a cheap setup if you take your time on ebay and "yes" contrary to the 9 year old thread's prediction...canti's are a thing of the past and Linear Pull brakes are superior. Yes, the pads will make a difference too...buy decent pads.

That said, I have canti's on my Raleigh and they work well enough to keep me from smacking trees.

I would pick up a cheap set of Avid Single Digit's and some Avid FR5 levers. It's a cheap setup if you take your time on ebay and "yes" contrary to the 9 year old thread's prediction...canti's are a thing of the past and Linear Pull brakes are superior. Yes, the pads will make a difference too...buy decent pads.

That said, I have canti's on my Raleigh and they work well enough to keep me from smacking trees.

What he said. Same make and model of brakes, too. Probably about $50-$60 for the parts.

Edit: Although.... does that model have a cable stop on the top tube, or does the cable go into a little noodly thing on the seat tube? If it doesn't have the rear top tube cable stop, you'll need to add a clamp-on one. Tektro makes some, and they're around $10-$15, I think. (I had to do the same thing on my 1996 Trek 850)

ditto on the avids, but you could also run full length housing and ziptie it to the frame (prolly won't save you any money cause the cost of more housing balances the cablestop)

ditto on the avids, but you could also run full length housing and ziptie it to the frame

You will have a noticeable loss in performance if you run full length housing to the rear.

I switched out the cantis on my commuter for cheap v's, mostly because i personally like the feel of v's better and setup/maintenance(pad replacement) I find to be easier/cheaper.(4 bucks for generic v pads, 7-12 bucks for unthreaded canti pads.)

Thanks for the input. Next week I am going to buy a Alivio shifter,brake combo unit. So at that point , I will need to go with the V's regardless. I have a close to brand new set I took of my Fisher bike when I went to disc.