We are almost done with 2012!
Before the end of the world comes (Maya) I want to know what is the camera that excited you most! Is it the [shoplink 14165]A99[/shoplink]? The first professional stills and video hybrid camera. Or the excellent [shoplink 14158]A57[/shoplink] which packs a lot of features for the relatively low price. Than we have the [shoplink 14167]NEX-6[/shoplink], the cheaper [shoplink 8454]NEX-7[/shoplink] that has some nice features the NEX-7 has not. The Sony [shoplink 15824]RX1[/shoplink]? An innovative and super small Full Frame camera. Or the [shoplink 13014]RX100[/shoplink] that fears no competitor in his class?
You choose! Please take time before you vote. And let us know in the comments why you picked up the camera you voted! Thanks!
[poll id=”130″]
43 Responses
for sony user , A99 of cause , but for non-sony user (ME…) , I am more excited in NEX-6~
the RX-1 is mentioned twice im the list. I guess one of the 2 should be RX-100.
Fixed!
Andrea, you have shown the RX1 twice
Why no RX100?
Sorry! added!
i love RX1
I bought A57 because at €500 (with cash-back option) now a real alternative to EOS650D and D5100. But I still regret the non existence of the A600 with OVF !
The bright 100% coverage EVF on the A57 is FAR superior to the dark tiny OVF you get on the 650D/D5100.
a57 is definitely MY camera of the year because it came out during the time when my a330 was just about to “past away”… and most important, i can afford to buy one, and feel happy to use it!
A57 is an excellent camera, no doubt. dPreview Gold award, amazing performance, and so many features that you barely could push anything additional into it 😉 I just wish it’d use OLED viewfinder – then I could honestly recommend it to everyone.
it’s a huge upgrade for me, from a330 to a57. the image, the low light capability, the ergonomics, the excellent features… i rarely care about what time and where i am, after i started using it~
Agree, the A57 was the best product for 2012 due to its great performance and features using an established A-mount lens system. It has been reliable and the controls are quite logical.
RX100. Except for the RX1 all other camera’s are just evolutions of what came before. The RX1 and RX100 are not evolutions, but revolutions. Between those two the RX100 deserves the highest praise, because it is a revolution with immediate appeal for the masses and it’s the most versatile.
Agree with you about RX100 & RX1, they are revolutionary! If I can have 2 votes, one each. But the fact is I can only vote once, it is RX100. I have both of them. RX100 I’ve been using for 5 months, RX1 I’ve been using for 1 day(just got it yesterday). Both of them are superb from image quality to camera build quality. But since I’m already so convinced by RX100 in past 5 months, I voted for RX100
A99 for me – full frame, interchangable lenses and an evf. Unique!
That said, there are a lot of great and cameras in that list. Imagine a similar list built from this year’s canon releases – it would be nowhere near as interesting 🙂
In this year Sony NEX-6 is the most worth buying.
Next year, we want Sony put a turn switch on the A-mount SLT camera:
The mode-A, working with the SLT manner and a traditional PD-AF sensor.
But the mode-B, can switch the translucent mirror to be locked up, and on-image-sensor method to perform the CD-AF and PD-AF. ( That makes the SLT camera can also be switched to work with a large mirrorless camera manner. Just is like the newest NEX-6 manner is capable with on-image-sensor PD-AF and CD-AF).
Maybe a technical problem is here,
When locked the translucent mirror upward, what a way makes curtained off the backside of the translucent mirror, that prevents the stray light in the translucent mirror.
+1. Would be very good for landscape photography (especially with EVF). Fun fact here: Original patent for what was to become SLT cameras included a mirror lock-up mode.
Canon and Nikon have already filed patents about a hybrid eye-level viewfinder to be capable switchable between optical view and electronic view.
So, after next several years, maybe people will see a hybrid eye-level viewfinder’s SLR camera. in Live-View mode you also get an eye-level view way.
Sony ought to caught the time and chance.
In near years, sometimes you still need using traditional manner’s PD-AF, like a SLR or a SLT. On image sensor the built-in PD-AF is still a little slower speed compared to a traditional manner’s PD-AF sensor, and yet not in the low lighting good working, like Nikon mirrorless camera is automatic to switch between PD-AF and CD-AF. Thus the SLT translucent mirror or the SLR mirror and sub-mirror to be switched and lockup to be still needed in the future several years.
For the long-term future, in A-mount camera the translucent mirror or in SLR camera the sub-mirror and a traditional PD-AF sensor will be disappeared away, once on image sensor the built-in PD-AF matured up.
The RX1 off Course !
This is the only revolution of camera this year !
the others products, despite their quality, are savorless product
The A99 of course. The RX1 is too limited with a fixed lens and no stabilisation. Very innovative camera and ok for well heeled people who can afford a pocket camera for taking snaps.
That’s a broad generalization. I am not well heeled, but the RX1 is the perfect camera for me to go full frame. I currently use the NEX-5n and Zeiss 24 for nearly all of my shots. I’ll get the RX1 and sell the Zeiss but keep my 5n for other focal lengths when I need them (rarely). I get full frame and terrific quality for the cost of the A99 w/o a lens.
Sony: Just imagine what a RX-1 with a built EVF, built in shutter and an interchangeable mount would have done for you! Even without all, the Cybershot has made the list.
Markets will decide if it is a success as is or not. 🙂
If I was after a Sony the most likely thing I would buy right NOW is the RX100, so I voted for that.
RX1 because that is what is closest to a leica M.
For me, RX1 must maintain a scalable viewfinder (to be improved if necessary), must improve its focus system (for manual or auto). It must be tropicalized if it’s not.
The most “exciting” is RX1.
But the most exciting may not be the one you buy eventually.
A Ferrari is most exciting, but maybe you end up buying a Ford Focus.
The camera I might end up buying will be either NEX-6 or RX100.
this year sony real won the overall camera show.. by a mile.
give everything for everyone!!!
from the all affordable all wonder a57 with new body to the FF rising bar new bad ass a99
then come with the nex5r that just added to a good 5n the new wifi/apps, a little in the shadow because the super cheap super capable nex6, the most camera most will buy most hurry because the great price-capable perfect combination
they even came up with an action cam, a really good one
and keep looking the high zoom, waterproof, handycams, etc market by the rear window, if not by complete market share domination, at least no other camera its overall better than a sony, period.
the rx1 was huge, surely make everybody salibate for a nexx ff, that dont gonna happend for a while, but the rx1 was a good preview.
but from all this great cameras, the one thats is top in my list
its the rx100, it just came up from nowhere and amazed everyone, just by showing up, make all point and shot cameras look like ancient film cameras, even push the nikon 1 toy to oblivion (at least in my universe, as i sold my 6 month regreat buying j1, when i was thinking in the new nikon 1.8, the rx100 show and give me more than i ever dreamed from nikon 1, and the rx1000 its truly compact WITH LENS, no need to dismantle to carry around a quality compact)
with the rx100 and rx1, its no shame to have a cybershot again, maybe sony should upgrade the sensor in all cybershots, if not 1 inch, at leats the new sony 1/1.7 sensor, or a 2/3, sony big card its electronics and sensors, canikon dont had either, sony shloud take his strengths and hammer their weakness, sony had the upper hand in sensor and electronics, if not for lenses canikon would be tiny players, thats why dslr its a uphill battle for sony, but should hammer down the point and shot, handycams, high zoom, water proof, action, etc not just making barely better cameras, should up the ante big (with sensors) so that image quality had a big gap between sony and competitors, people will notice it, when everyone think in cameras, they will think sony make the best, as when people with tablets and apple, so they do then brand recognition will be like 30 years ago, second to none.
Too long winded, shorten it up so I read what you have to say next time. 😉
I’ve owned the a55, then upgraded to the a77, and recently the a99. The a99 is incredible!!! I’m thrilled with every aspect of it! It IS truly superior in so many ways over the a77 which is an incredible camera in its own right. I also have the RX100 as my “always with me camera”. I voted for it!! Why? Pocketable and yet very very high photo quality! Also shooting video with natural light indoors at f/1.8 is spectacular!! I take it with me wherever I go and especially when hauling a big DSLT is not practical. [on bicycle rides, skiing, business trips]. It’s most exciting while on a 50-100 mile bicycle ride on country backroads where you’ll see things that you’d never see zooming along in a car or on a motorcycle due to the high speed of driving.
For me, A99. It could be even more attractive with one of those 200-400 holiday instant rebates.
for me it was the A57 bang for the buck and soon i hope to have one to upgrade from my A330. while the nex6 looks great im not sure its for me. im just a hobiest/ take soem product shots of my knives i make so i have no need for the A99 but boy does it look nice
i can see it now A57 that i hope to buy shortly will be replaced by A58 mirrorless Oled EVF (thats how my timing works )
RX1 is like a queen on a throne, all the others look like peasants in comparison.. The RX1 is what digital photography has been waiting for..
The Nex 6, great technology, built in WiFi and array of lenses to choose from that are inexpensive, albeit that they require a convertor. It is ground breaking in every way, every one of my mates who owns a D7000 wants to swap for the Nex 6, that is the proof that Sony have an highly spec’d camera that everyone can access and use and you can take it with you anywhere.
RX1 being number one?! I hope the results are not fabricated. I am curious who thinks RX1 is exciting. I admit if it was lens interchangeable, it would have been a revolutionary exciting camera but with a fixed lens, it is boring and expensive.
I suppose: Everyone who want portable, reliable camera with no worries about sensor, dust & fingerprints on it, or lenses.
Or those who want digital Leica with 35 f/2 for less than half a price and way better image quality at high ISOs.
There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about RX1. 😉
What most excites me is the prospect of a NEX 7 upgrade next year. If I had to name something for this year I suppose the NEX 6, but only to the extent it foreshadows a new 7.
Here’s the problem folks…
Too many products, lines & crossover models from year to year without enough lens support.
Kill the Alpha line, expand the sensor market through other manufacturers, run with the NEX line & stay out of the Leica rip-off game.
These things have all been done by Canon and Nikon, duh.
Voted the NEX 6 primarily because it maintains the quality of the 7 with less MPs and is better layed out than the Sony NEX flagship. Like others i’m hoping for a still better NEX 7 in 2013.
There is only one problem: LENSES!!! The 10-18 and 16-50 look promising from the reviews. Now we are waiting for serious zoom in good quality.
So Sony, start taking the lens business serious. A camera is as good as the lens allows.
And… Isn’t it a shame that best quality on a Sony product must be achieved through adapters allowing Leica and Canon lenses….?
i dont want to try to hold my 70-200 2.8 on a nex but i like the 6 (putting the 16-80z on it needs adapter anyhow so i might as well stick with A mount )
I voted for the Alpha 99, as it brings SLT technology to full frame.
I would have gone with the RX1, but it has just one fixed prime lens. If it either had a good zoom lens (like the RX100) or interchangeable lenses (like a NEX camera), then I probably would have voted for that.
Anyway, myself, I’m more interested in the Alpha 99, because it has lots of buttons on the camera to easily change settings.
And actually, I’m waiting until the successor to the Alpha 77 before getting into Sony. Believe it or not, I’ve been a fan of Sony SLTs since the Alpha 55 more than 2 years ago, but I still don’t have any Alpha (or NEX or Cybershot) camera! Next year will be the year for me, I’m pretty sure!
Really tough call this year, which is a true testament to what a great year sony had with new camera bodies. For me it’s a tie between the RX1, RX100 and the NEX6. In my opinion those 3 cameras are the very top of each of their respective categories.
You forgot the NEX FS700… THAT was the most exciting camera of the year… !!!!
A “poor man’s” Phantom HD for less than 1/15 the price of a Phantom HD. And with fully functional auto-focus + image stabilized lenses.
Cheap? No. But for the money, impossible to beat – this year anyway!!!
A99 and RX1 – if I could have voted twice those were my top choices.
Got the A77 the day it came out (love it) and same thing with the A99. But the A99 ROCKS!!!! I can’t say it enough. The IQ and DR on that camera paired with my 24-70mm and 135mm Zeiss’ are ridiculous. I understand people’s complaints about the price, but if you get a chance to try one out you will not be disappointed. Can’t wait for that 50mm Zeiss this spring – ANDREA, any update for that lens – price? release date?
RX1 – really slick. At this point, part of it’s excitement is tied to the fact that I haven’t seen it/held it in person. But the idea of having a portable A99 with the same IQ ,DR, and ISO range – Drool!
@Mno – you are so right, this list of cameras is really exciting compared to the other brands. It does make me optimistic about Sony’s future even if they are changing their ‘roadmap’.