The Best Digital Cameras Part I

TOP's current favorite digital cameras, Q4 2016.

Camera: The Pentax K-1

Why? Ignites a deathless warm glow in owners' hearts. Pentaxians are nice people, conservative about their cameras, remarkably loyal, and tend to have a higher level of satisfaction with their gear than people who buy other brands. The K-1 is Ricoh's first full-frame camera and it's the Pentax enthusiast's longstanding dream. And it's very competitively priced for the rich list of features it offers. Owners are loving it.

Accepts all the marvelous and fun Pentax lenses from a number of eras. Pentax's lenses are hopeless as a lineup—it's the anti-Fuji in terms of the lineup making internal sense. Yet that's half the fun. So many lenses, so little time.

Photo by iPhone 6+, lighting by iPhone 6. Note reflection of
iPhone screen in the car window.

Camera: The Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Why? Fun times two. I play a lot with my iPhone 6+ camera and enjoy the heck out of it. Although I lose some shots to the tiny sensor's limitations and I couldn't possibly get along with it as an only camera, it's the "visual note-taker" par excellence and especially nice for instant sharing.

The iPhone 7 is also notable as the first mainstream instance of computational photography, which our erstwhile columnist Ctein predicted way back in 2011. It uses two separate camera modules and combines them in inventive if still rather basic ways. Expect that trend to continue. For now, you've essentially got a Minolta Freedom Dual 60 (a long-ago film point-and-shoot which offered only two focal lengths—38mm and 60mm) for the social media age.

 

Camera: The Sony A6500

Why? Because it makes me cry. They actually made exactly what I wanted, which might be the first time that's ever happened. Yet—ah, the pain in my heart—I can't afford it. Especially when I take another switcheroo of lens systems into account. (I'd get the 24mm ZA and the 55mm FE.) And I got along so well with the ex-NEX form-factor, too. Love it.

Other buyers will find it hard to complain about the price, because Sony offers basically the same camera without in-body image stabilization and the touch-screen focus point (the A6300) for hundreds less, and as a price-leading budget economy model (the A6000, which right now costs a thousand dollars less than the A6500). Other makers have not caught on to Sony's idea of offering different tiers of the same camera; they ought to.

Camera: The Olympus Pen-F

Why? What do you mean "why?" Are you kidding?

What photographer—no, what person—could fail to love this little gem? A handy, pocketable picture-taker with gobs of jewel-like object quality and style out the wazoo, it's a camera everyone likes to look at. Owners, SOs, strangers. Starts conversations. Grown men put it on the bedside table so they'll see it first thing when they wake up in the morning. Fashionable women can use it as a fashion accessory. For wise older people it channels the MMM (metal, mechanical, manual) cameras of their exalted youth. To the young it's hip. Your dollars, pounds, euros or yen buy a very up-to-date camera too, as well as lots and lots of pride of ownership. Can't beat the Pen F with a stick.

Camera: The Panasonic GX[x, where x > 8]...

Why? ...First, note that such a camera doesn't exist yet. That's okay, because the GX8 itself (above) is a splendid sleeper of a camera with the mirrorless world's nicest viewfinder, sez moi. Tainted by the "shutter shock" controversy with certain lenses, a rap the GX8 doesn't really deserve; probably down to kinks in the hybrid "Dual IS" image stabilization system that haven't quite been worked out yet. Still and all, Panasonic has developed a better shutter, and put it, for now, into the nifty little GX85, which our friend Kenneth Tanaka loves. Eventually the GX85 shutter will migrate up into the GX8-style body to create the perfect Micro 4/3 workhorse. Until then, Panny's in a cycle of clearing out the production run of the GX8 and you can get great deals on it if you vulch. It doesn't hurt that Panasonic's lenses are marvelous and Micro 4/3 as a whole is the richest field to harvest for people who love lenses.

Watch this space.

 

Camera: The Hasselblad X1D-50c

Why? For now, this is the only camera that most every photographer in the world approves of and covets. There's the giant sensor, small, handy-dandy rangefinderish form-factor, and cost-no-object lenses. But its main advantage is that it's still bathed in the Xanadu glow of vaporware, so it can be postulated in the mind to be perfect; and only about 1 in 300 photographers can even theoretically afford it, which makes it into the green green grass on the far side of the fence. (And four out of five of those are already invested in Leica.) What could possibly be better for GASsy daydreams?

No matter. 2016 became the year of larger-than-full-frame mirrorless when Fuji joined the XD1 in the category (with the announcement of the GFX system). That future shootout is just waiting to happen. Coming soon to an Internet near you.

[TO BE CONTINUED....]

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Terrance Crooker: "Pentaxians loyal? Oh yes. I became a Pentaxian in the late 1960s and have been one ever since. No Nikon or Canon or any other brand has ever tempted to switch. So many lenses, joy, joy!"

RubyT: "Santa can't quite bring me a K-1 to keep this year, but he is going to let me have one to try out for the last two weeks of the year. I'm not sure whether that will make things easier or harder.   :-O  "

Steve Higgins: "Best for what?"

Ernest Theisen: "I am really happy with my Olympus Pen F. I have several lenses for it, including the 45–150mm. I keep the 14–42mm on it most of the time. I love the look of it and the solid heft of it. It is built like a Sherman tank. And in fact it does sit on my bedside table!"

Kent: "Help! I'm Trapped! My stable of Sony E and FE lenses has grown to the point that I can't switch to a different system! Oh wait...my A6500 arrived on Friday and I don't want to switch to a different system. Never mind."

Mike replies: Oh, that's it, gloat. You're cruel, Kent.   :-)

Lynn: "I was wondering if 'to be continued...' might suggest you'll have a 'Best Film Cameras' article. That got me wondering—how many new film cameras are actually available? Excluding instant film and cheap disposables, that is. Can't be all that many."

Mike replies: B&H lists 14 35mm film cameras, half of them Leicas, but several of the 14 are variants of the same camera or different kits with the same body; and then seven medium-format film cameras, all by Horseman or Linhof; and 43 view cameras.

That excludes Lomography cameras like the latest iteration of the old Diana (I saw several of these for sale at the shop in the George Eastman Museum yesterday), and instant-film cameras. It also excludes cameras B&H doesn't carry but that you can still get, including many atelier-built view cameras and a motley of Kickstarter project builds. I actually got word the other day that the old Rollei company is still hanging on, albeit by the most threadbare of threads.

So, actually there are quite a few. Of course, the vast used market puts quite a large dampening effect on the sales of new film cameras. I keep meaning to write an article about great used film cameras, but I never seem to be able to block out enough time to actually write it.

Kenneth Tanaka [Ed. Note: Ken has never shared with me how many cameras he owns, still less how many have passed through his ownership since the dawn of the digital age, but there have been signs over the years that it is...rather a lot. So he offers a perspective informed by better-than-average direct personal experience.]

"I have two thoughts to offer:

"First, having just this week received a long-back-ordered Sony A6500 I have to admit that the Lumix GX85 beats its pants off as a casual, versatile, in-a-pocket (still) camera. I have been an enthusiastic customer of Sony's NEX-style cameras since the NEX 3, having owned the 3, 5N, 7, A6000, A6300 and now the A6500. But aside from its larger and conditionally better image file the Sony A6500's overall usability pales against the same-sized Lumix GX85. That's really hard to admit, given the price difference. But it's true.

"Second, having also recently updated my DSLR to the latest-and-greatest model (for the first time in years) I am truly struck by what an era of near-perfection the DSLR user enjoys today. This has really become the ultimate in powerful, versatile picture-taking devices. Of course since perfection is the arch-enemy of business, the DSLR is gradually being sublimated by other not-so-perfect-yet camera designs. But if you can't make a 'good' picture today, especially with a DSLR, you really should consider other pastimes. This thing has become the analog of evolution's crocodile."

Mike replies: Ken! We're friends. You can't just throw that out there and not give detes. Whaddja get? The DSLR I mean. I won't tell if you don't want me to.

Ken replies: "Mike: I updated to Canon's new 5D Mark IV. But I'm sure if I was a Nikon shooter my revelation would have been the same. I've spent little time with DSLR-style cameras for several years. The level of perfection they've achieved is stunning."

Comments

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

Please stop with the K1 already, you're killing me. :)

[John Krumm]

Well, as a new Pentaxian and K1 owner I have to agree about the lenses. Even today I was scouring Ebay for a 28mm f2 manual and finally bid on one. I know some Sony user will swipe it at the last second. I'm pretty happy with my FA 50 2.8 macro and 31 1.8 limited, but like many I have my fingers crossed that Ricoh doesn't leave this "hobby business" before making several promised modern 2017 primes. The camera is indeed a pleasure. I took this shot hand held with the 50 macro the other day at 1/15. Made me happy.

[Darlene]

My love for medium format and mirroless has me looking forward to the Fuji GFX. If I was not familiar with the quality of Fuji, I might go straight for the Hasselblad, but not this time around.

[Joe B]

Mike,
Forgot to ask if you are within reasonable (whatever that means to you) driving distance to a good camera store in upstate NY. No substitute for handling the cameras before purchase. I know there is always the long, dreaded drive to Manhatten. Always read your blog and enjoy it.
thanks

[Kalli]

I'm not really waiting for a GX>8, but I wouldn't mind if it showed up before I've bought an E-M1 (Mark I) or a G80…

[David Bateman]

I guess I am not a photographer, as I don't approve of the Hasselblad XD1. However what Fuji did I fully approve and would love to sell a kidney to get that medium format system.

[Dave Van de Mark]

I sighed in relief when I read "TO BE CONTINUED" at the bottom of your missive. Cuz old Fuji has gotta be in there somehow! You like yours and I like mine. Two "likes" in this world should be enough to put the brand on top as "Best"!

I agree with your comment regarding the Sony A6000...6300...6500 progression that, "Other makers have not caught on to Sony's idea of offering different tiers of the same camera; they ought to."

But hasn't Fuji (and other makers too, actually) come close to that concept with parallel brother/sister models, like the XT-1 and XT-10? Those two camera have different features just like the 6500 has things the 6300 doesn't. Plus the buyer, in Fuji's case, has two body weight & sizes to choose from too.

[c.d.embrey]

The Olympus Pen-F tries too hard to be a Leica III. The front mounted dial is a great demonstration of form-follows-fashion. Plus it looks like the dial would get in the way of a comfortable hold.

Where did the term rangerfinder-style come from. It's used to describe cameras with no finder, end finder and center finder. Wouldn't NEX style or brick style be more descriptive?? BTW this isn't aimed at you, Mike. I'm sure that rangerfinder-style was coined by some too-cute-by-half writer at a print magazine. Sorta like tranny replacing gearbox or trans in car books. The english language would be in much better shape if Petersen Publications and General Media Inc enthusiast magazines had hired better writers.

[Gordon Cahill]

A list of the best cameras. Not controversial at all :)

I estimate a thousand comments on this one....

Gordon

[Moose]

"Camera: The Olympus Pen-F

Why? What do you mean "why?" Are you kidding?

What photographer—no, what person—could fail to love this little gem? A handy, pocketable picture-taker with gobs of jewel-like object quality and style out the wazoo, it's a camera everyone likes to look at. [snip further praise of looks]"

If you want eye candy, sure. For photographic abilities, the E-M5 II and E-M1 II are clearly superior.

"Can't beat the Pen F with a stick."

Don't need a stick, just focus Stacking/Bracketing and High-Res Mode. Cameras that add the ability to do things that couldn't be done before, and - at least for me - seriously widen what I can capture, trump pretty every time.

Focus Bracketing has solved problems I've fought my whole photographic life. I use High-Res less often, for my photographic proclivities, But there's nothing like it for color accuracy but a Foveon sensor, and nothing like it for moiré free high res short of MF.

Sooo, buy a broken Pen-F to put out as art, and use their real cameras for photography. Me? If I had that need, I'd get a broken real rangefinder for show. (Are there show Leica fakes?)

[Moose]

Camera: The Panasonic GX[x, where x > 8]...

Why? ...First, note that such a camera doesn't exist yet. That's okay, because the GX8 itself (above) is a splendid sleeper of a camera with the mirrorless world's nicest viewfinder, sez moi."

I believe you, but I've always been unusually VF agnostic. The GX7 was more than fine for me.

"Tainted by the "shutter shock" controversy with certain lenses, a rap the GX8 doesn't really deserve."

Agreed. Use the EFC, and all is well.

I used a GX7 in tandem with an E-M5 for a year and a half, 14,000 shots. Lovely camera that I'd still be using, if not for the Focus Bracketing and High-Res Modes of the E-M5 IIs.

The GX8 got fat, and couldn't compete photographically with the above features of the E-M5 II. I'd like to have the IS sync with the PLeica 100-400, although the lens IS or body IS are mighty fine.

[Moose]

"Camera: The Hasselblad X1D-50c

Why? For now, this is the only camera that every photographer in the world approves of and covets."

Wow, I'm really minority.

Until I normalize, and/or that camera becomes real-ware, may I carry my Lytro Illium and pass? (Weird, I told 'ya.)

That Hassy/lens combo really looks like an Illium that lost its visual cool by going square.

"Fuji joined the XD1 in the category" Typo?

[Jeff]

Your X1D pic, and link, is of course to the special edition package, not the 'standard' body. But I guess neither are 'real' at this point.

I hope Hasselblad didn't miss an opportunity to put a high quality EVF on an otherwise state-of-the-art camera; its reported specs are well behind the Leica SL EVF. I hope the Fuji GFX offers better specs with its removable EVF (with rotating option).

The shutter sound of the X1D is also disappointingly loud and clanky on the prototypes I've seen (and on the recent LuLa video interview with Kevin Raber and the Hasselblad Product Manager).

The GFX system offers some distinguishing features, including an articulating screen, more traditional dial and button interface, and an aggressive lens road map, including a wide-mid zoom (25-51 equivalent 35 mm) as an early offer, which Hasselblad (or the Leica SL) does not. We'll see what comes.

[Gordon Cahill]

Hi Moose. you wrote

"Don't need a stick, just focus Stacking/Bracketing and High-Res Mode."

The Pen F has focus bracketing and high res mode, just not stacking which can be done in Photoshop from the focus bracketing shots...

Gordon

[Barry Reid]

Well Sony may offer some options in the same body size but they have never offered what I want - I don't understand the segregation of sensor size and body style.

I really WANT to see an a7000 with a 24mp full frame sensor in an a6000 style body. That with the compact 35/2.8 would be a fabulous walk-around combo.

[Paulo Bizarro]

I think such lists are incomplete without taking into account the lenses. The "best camera"? To me, the best camera today is the one that can use the Zeiss Batis and Loxia lenses:)

The Pentax K1 is alluring, but in the country I live, they don't even have a service centre, so... plus, using older lenses with it does not extract the best from the sensor. And the new lenses for it are f2.8 zooms which are rebadged Tamrons, huge and heavy.

[Mark]

I'd love to have all of your choices but short of acquiring a master's degree in shoplifting from Fagin College it is never going to happen. Besides, my Oly EM5.2 is plenty to be going on with. The real gorgeousness is in the lenses, though, at least for me. So perhaps we'll also have your current loves among those?

[Mô]

Avenue Montaigne,Paris PEN-F Zuiko 17mm.
What else ?

[Richard Tugwell]

@Lynn: Poignantly B&H still lists this..

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/658966-REG/Voigtlander_AA127A_Bessa_III_Rangefinder_Folding.html

... and notes "no longer available". It's almost like those "absent friends" toasts.

(Just as well I already have one)

[Stephen Scharf]

If there's one thing we can draw from the advent of the GFX, it is that Fujifilm is getting SERIOUS about this whole mirrorless thang. I think we, Canon, Nikon, Phase One, and Hasselblad all know what that means.

Reminds me of when the jet aircraft industry's collective response when Honda Motor Company announced in 1997 it was going to start making jet aircraft engines. Effectively, "Oh, sh*t..."

[Tom Bell]

This guy is giving some of us hope to use some of the Zeiss/Contax/Leica lenses on our K1 or sadly in my case K5 s .....

http://www.leitax.com/zeiss-contax-lens-for-pentax-cameras.html

[titus]

The SIGMA sd Quattro series. Why? Because of the "Godfather-Godson and the Holy Ghost", three layered FOVEON sensor and since yesterday with RAW DNG file output. No more excuse!

[Chris]

Your GX85 mention sparks my interest. The micro 4/3 system seems to have some great lens options. I tend to go for the very fast manual focus versions...MF not because my 58yo eyes are great but because that's the only way the lenses I prefer are offered. So, question is...what small M43 body has a viewfinder that comes closest to ground-glass focusing? I don't care to use a back-of-the-camera screen...and 'focus peaking' can [I assume] take you only so far. Any good viewfinder options out there I should know about folks?

[Richard Tugwell]

Ken's comment prompts me to remember that the Canon 5Dn setup was the most competent camera system I ever used by some stretch - and I've used many. It just became too large and cumbersome for me.

I've been using Fuji XT1 as a system camera for a while now, and while the lens line up and image quality are excellent the viewfinder is a real turn-off

[Kivi Shaps]

As a Pany GX8 owner I was told that the newest firmware had a sufficient work around for shutter shock. Anyway never had any in the first place. And oh yes the GX8 is starting to get more use than my Leica's.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

@ Chris: "...what small M43 body has a viewfinder that comes closest to ground-glass focusing? ".

None.

My sincere answer offered constructively is to simply embrace auto-focus as you wade into digital photography, particularly M43. To cling to manual-only focusing with these cameras is foolhardy and short-changes the most important part of photography: the final image. These companies are spending hundreds of millions on advancing AF technologies to the great benefit of photography.

Consider this example, with my Lumix GX85 I can look through the viewfinder while moving and resizing the AF area with my thumb on the touch-sensitive lcd. In real-time. (The Sony A6500 offers similar facility but is much slower and just barely usable in its current incarnation.)

I could write an essay on the values of embracing the engineering concepts of contemporary digital photography, but you get my gist. As someone with a small fortune sunk into wonderful Leica M lenses and cameras I can honestly say the best M43 lenses outperform any comparable M lens on an M43 camera.

My advice: Go with the flow. Learn to select and use AF tech. Your 58 year-old eyes need a break. You get no extra points for manual focus.