The hottest camera of the year on the Visual Science Lab lust-o-graphic measuring instruments is, without a doubt, the drool inducing Nikon D800. Even Michael Johnston, reasonable and restrained reviewer that he is, couldn't withstand the lure of the magic number: 36 million pixels. And to all who know they seem to be really, really good pixels. But that should come as no surprise since there were crafted by Sony (yes, wink, wink, nod, nod....according to a Nikon design).
My friend, Chris, has one and he's shown me some files that are amazingly detailed. If you are a Nikon head and you've already got the lenses and the wherewithal chances are you already have one. This is the first of what I think will be a string of medium format digital camera killers. Just wait and see. If you want the most detailed camera in all of the 35mm sensor kingdom you have no other choice. And it really seems to deliver the goods.....if you have the lenses to resolve the detail...and a good tripod to keep the pixels all lined up
My friend, Chris, has one and he's shown me some files that are amazingly detailed. If you are a Nikon head and you've already got the lenses and the wherewithal chances are you already have one. This is the first of what I think will be a string of medium format digital camera killers. Just wait and see. If you want the most detailed camera in all of the 35mm sensor kingdom you have no other choice. And it really seems to deliver the goods.....if you have the lenses to resolve the detail...and a good tripod to keep the pixels all lined up
(and just in time for the holidays the price dropped a couple hundred dollars.)
Pocket Champion.
This is the camera that's always on the edge of my radar and always on the shopping list for me but I've never actually snapped and energized the transactional transporter that would ionize money from my bank about and leave me with the Pocket Champion. Why? It's kind of a religious thing. I can't stand the idea of a camera whose only mode of operation is the stinky baby diaper hold. The camera is called the Sony RX100 and nearly everyone of my professional photographer friends has one and gushes about it like a guy who just got air conditioning in his car for the first time. "Revolutionary." That's what they like to say. You won't see me with one (unless they drop under the magic < $500 price point because I need to wear reading glasses to see the screen properly and, as I've said, it's pretty much against my religion. But the one inch, 20 meg sensor is, according to Digital Rev: Better than the APS-C sensor in a current Canon Rebel. It's actually pocketable (another religious stumbling block for me) and it's got a lot of the current, cool Sony operational features. Couldn't they just get rid of that screen on the back and replace it with a cool EVF? You may like operating your camera in a novel new fashion. You may crave a well designed camera that fits in your drawers. If so, the consensus is that this one.....rocks.
So many of my pro friends have one I might have to pass on it just so I can be different...
2012 Compact Camera of the Year. Smell the Zeiss all over it.
M43 MYSTERIOSO. THE STEADIEST CAMERA IN THE WORLD.
Would my year have been different if the Olympus OMD EM-5 had come on to the market in time? Would I have stayed with the Olympus family instead of fickly turning to Sony for my working cameras? It's possible that my back wouldn't hurt as frequently but it's equally possible that, given all the cool lenses you can buy and implement into this system I would still be carrying too much. At any rate I think the OMD stunned the camera making world in two ways. First Olympus was able to pack in more performance (burst rate, file quality, high ISO performance, incredible image stabilization and great EVF) into one small and, for the most part, well designed package at a reasonable price. The second thing that stunned the world is just how quickly it was accepted. Not just by amateurs and "advanced" hobbyists but by working professionals who wanted all the performance they'd gotten used to but without all the unnecessary baggage that camera along with legacy based cameras.
And Olympus has followed through with some stunningly good lenses (as has Leica and Panasonic). The force is strong with this system. Probably because it combines great engineering with common sense. My friends love them. Frank loves his. And I can see why, the photographs are as nice as you'd want------and you end up hauling around half to a third of the weight and cubic space you would if you buy a commensurate system from some other makers (excepting, of course, the Sony Nex's). This must be the fastest selling interchangeable lens mirror-less professional camera in history. Tiny. Potent. Fun.
My Personal Favorite Camera of the Year. Maybe.... (below)
I've played with a lot of cameras this year. I even bought a few. While the Sony a99 might be the highest quality file generator I have ever used it doesn't make the grade as my favorite. To do that camera must be more than proficient and durable and reliable. It must be affable and intriguing. That honor was going to go to the Sony Nex 7---- it was until I became acquainted with the younger sister, the Sony Nex 6. I can't say that many of my friends have rushed out and bought one. Most of my friends are far too practical and had already settled earlier in the year on this or that small camera as their second camera or their carry around camera. Some went with the Olympus and some went with little Leicas or even Sigma DP2 Merrills. But for me it was a slow warm up with the Nex 7 and then a quick romance with the Nex 6. Look, it has almost everything I want. It's sleek and black and beautifully designed. If fits me like a glove. The 16 megapixel sensor is a perfect compromise between resolution, performance, high ISO chops and less processing time than the Nex 7.
The more lenses I buy for it the better it serves me. Why you should get a Nex 6: You know you want to stop carrying the "back crusher" cameras for your own orthopedic health. You know your photography will always be better with an view finder as a opposed to a matchbox screen hanging out in the ambient light, soaking up passing color casts like a loose tart. You know you want the best 16 megabyte sensor on the planet and you know you want to be able to use a huge selection of lenses from lots of different makers. I use Olympus Pen lenses on mine because it gives me magic focus peaking so I can really focus those rascals. It's also simple to double check focus with the quick magnification button. The color is great and the low noise is competitive with any APS-C chip camera on the market. Take the lens off and it'll fit in your pocket. (But I will judge you....). Once I mastered the menu I fell in love. I won't live without one.
THE CAMERA EVERY STREET SHOOTER WHO IS OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THE MYSTICAL FEEL OF AN M SERIES LEICA IN THEIR HANDS WANTS. ULTI-RANGEFINDERESQUE-MAGICMETAL-NOSTALGIOTASTIC.
The final camera in my list is one that every single one of my friends has mentioned owning but none are brave enough to pull the trigger on until they see one in person, touch it and play with it. Even then they'll be tortured by its appeal and equally by its breathtaking cost.
The camera is the Sony RX1. A fixed lens, 35mm full frame camera that carries a price tag suggesting that the entire camera is made out unobtainium by a crew trained at NASA who also did their internships at the Bentley motor works. I am sure the lens will be scary good and very well matched to one of the best sensors in the world. I would only buy one if it was configured with the EVF, which heaps ruinous amounts of money on top of its basic selling price. Altogether it is an almost infinite supply of Lattes, in my internaitonal currency coffee scheme. But if I had the budget and my child was already through college I'd have one in my hand right now. But I would add one thing to the inventory to go along with it......many batteries. Because I wouldn't want to stop shooting. This is the camera for poets and the kinds of people who write with fountain pens in little Moleskine notebooks in cranky coffee shops. People who do art with a capital "A". But I'd buy it anyway because the whole idea of it is so darn cool.
coveted beyond reasonable belief. Yes, I want one.
LET THERE BE LIGHT.
I had intended to write only about the cameras that had gotten maximum buzz in my circle of friends this years and I tried to hold myself to those. My friends who upgraded from Canon 5D mk2's to mk3's didn't seem to do it with much passion or fanfare. It was more like, "Well, geez, I've got all these Canon shift lenses and L lenses and my current camera has over 100,000 actuations on it, maybe I should upgrade before it craters..." That's not the passion I was looking for. You still have people trying to make the Pentax KR-5 into a cult camera but that's not really going to happen because there's not much there to differentiate it from everything else out there.
The Sony a99 makes me smile because it makes work easier and the files are great but it doesn't holistically take my breath away and spike my punch with adrenaline. But all of the above camera bust through the clutter in one way or another and do something cool.
So, I'm sitting here writing this and thinking about cameras when there's a knock on my studio door and my post man, Victor, delivers yet another brown, cardboard box to me. It's from Fotodiox. It's yet another 312AS LED panel. And then it dawned on me that no matter how much money I spent on all the cameras and lenses nothing brought as big a smile to my face this year as my little Fotodiox 312AS LED panels. Pound for pound some of the best money I spent this year. Why? Because they cost around $150 and I've used them on most of the shoots I've done this year. Many time as exclusive lighting on sets and on location. They are fun, reliable and workable. At this point they are the little lighting fixtures I most want to keep in the bag. I wish I had access to them when I was putting together the first LED Lighting Book in the world. They would have made the perfect touch.
I'm thinking just one or two more and I'll have as many as I ever needed. For now.
Fotodiox 312AS. Here's what they come with.
And here's what the back looks like...
I think it's stunning that Sony has three of the four products that get my friends juiced up this year. They are certainly innovating circles around Nikon and Canon. It's an amazing evolution from a once very stodgy camera maker into a new taste maker. And so quickly too.
Chime in and tell me what camera made you smile this year.
