Best Camera of the Year
/There have been so many camera release over the past year, that it’s pretty overwhelming. Whether it’s Canon and Nikon’s first full frame mirrorless releases, Sony’s continued quest to dominate the prosumer market, or even Blackmagic announcing a 6K camera with an EF mount, how can you possibly determine which camera is objectively the best?
Well, I’ll cut right to the chase. I’ve put together a scientifically sound method of selection, and the objective best camera of the year is…
…pretty much any camera released in the past two years or so.
Ok, I know that’s a little click-baity, but hear me out, because I’m actually serious about this. I absolutely love cameras and camera gear, and I’ve been obsessed with it for pretty much my entire life. And as much as I love talking about gear, and as much as we can debate the finer points of specific cameras all day long, sometimes we need to take a step back and get a little perspective.
It seems like every new camera release is met with mixed reviews. Some people are blown away and think that it’s going to doom all other manufacturers, while others act like a company is committing a crime against humanity by omitting a certain feature.
But I am someone who grew up using an 8mm Sony Handycam from 1989, and I cannot tell you how magical that thing was. The picture quality is terrible, the audio is unpleasant at best, and the battery life is so bad, you pretty much need to stay near an outlet at all times.
But that’s the camera that hooked me. You could record something, and then relive it later that very same day! And once I learned that you could do “tricks” depending on how you started and stopped recording, or even make entire stop motion animations one frame at a time- forget it. That was the best camera in the world.
Finally, when I started high school, my mom worked hard to save up money and got me a gift- which was an upgraded 8mm Sony Handycam. One that had better picture quality, more features, and…a flip out screen!
(See…it is actually possible for Sony to make a flip out screen…)
And I used that camera to make countless videos all the way up until college when I moved to digital still photography with the Canon XTi (before DSLR’s could shoot video).
My point is, when my friends and I were spending ALL of our free time filming movies with those analog 8mm cameras, the gap between what we were making and what we were seeing in theaters couldn’t have been wider. We even went so far as to put strips of electrical tape on the top and bottom of the lens as mock “letterboxing” (it didn’t work at all, by the way).
Even when we practiced and tried our best to match camera angles and movement, use creative lighting and editing (and don’t get me started on editing— this was way before editing on computers— we would edit tape to tape with a VCR), it was pretty much impossible to get footage that wasn’t so blurry and grainy you could hardly tell what was happening on screen.
Now jump ahead the last decade, when video features started appearing in DSLR cameras with big sensors and interchangeable lenses, and computers were now able to read and edit footage easily (sometimes even using free software)— everything changed.
The barrier was gone, and now with a bit of time and technique, ANYONE can create something that looks like it’s straight out of Hollywood.
So when I say the best camera of the year is any camera from the past few years, I really mean it. There’s pretty much no such thing as a “bad camera” anymore. What you’re able to create depends a lot more on your ideas than the equipment.
In reality, a big part of what’s “best” boils down to individual needs. Some people might need incredible low light performance or high frame rates while others prefer a flip out screen for versatility or a lens lineup from a specific manufacturer.
So whether you have a Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Fuji, Blackmagic, or…whatever camera. I encourage you to take a step back and just appreciate what’s available to us in today’s world. Whatever you have is awesome.
I can’t tell you how much I would LOVE to see the reaction of my 12 year old self to something like the EOS R or a Sony RX100. As fun as it is to talk about gear, it’s more important to focus on the fact that we’re all united by something we’re passionate about. And that goes way beyond a corporate logo or list of technical specs.