is there an advantage to one over the other?

Here is my situation.

A 1984 Trek 720 steel tour bike. Drop bars, aero brake levers. The bike has cantilevers on but the cable stop just broke and looking to see if I had another I found a set of Tektro Calipers I had in storage.

I checked and the calipers will fit on the bike. So I am wondering if there is any advantage to one over the other?

Thank you for your opinions.

Calipers have a much shorter travel, and the levers made for cantis will likely not work well with a caliper. You can try, but you may be disappointed (or even injured in a crash). Also, you say calipers "will fit". Well, maybe. But will the mount be able to withstand the stress? On a bike that has cantis, the holes at the fork crown and the rear bridge are there only for supporting fenders and racks, and are not designed for brake mounting.

I think Dave's being a bit over-cautious. I suspect but don't know that that fork crown is a standard steel crown, so no problem there.

As to levers, just set 'em up and try it, see if it works to your satisfaction.

Calipers have a much shorter travel, and the levers made for cantis will likely not work well with a caliper. You can try, but you may be disappointed (or even injured in a crash). Also, you say calipers "will fit". Well, maybe. But will the mount be able to withstand the stress? On a bike that has cantis, the holes at the fork crown and the rear bridge are there only for supporting fenders and racks, and are not designed for brake mounting.

I have found that levers for canti brakes work just fine with caliper brakes. In fact, they have more "travel" than road levers so you can run more gap between the brakes and rim if you want.