2008 Pop Photo Camera of the Year

[Leaf Fan]

Well, just got my December 2008 Popular Photography Magazine today and flipped through.

They've announced 7 finalists for this year's Camera of the Year 2008:
Canon Eos 5D Mark II
Nikon D90
Panasonic Lumix G1
Sony Alpha 900
Casio Exlim Pro Ex-F1
Olympus E-420
Pentax K20D

This is the order they appear in the two page spread but it doesn't say that this is any particular order at this point.

As a Pentaxian I'd hope that Pentax has a good shot, but looking at the competition, it's pretty stiff.

One thing I see though, is that the Canon and the Sony are around $3000 body only cameras, so it's not really a fair competition, but it sure does show that today's photographer can have a really good camera for around $1000 (Nikon D90, Lumix G1, Casio Exlim, Olympus E-420 and the K20D.

Should be interesting to see the results, not only of the winner but why and why the others didn't win.

[rburgoss]

Pop Photo, as well as the deceased Modern Photography (sister publication from Hachette Filipachi) are all about PR (public relations). They will nominate as "item of the year" anything from any regular advertiser.

Its been looooooooooonnnnnng since I paid attention to those articles.

[rfortson]

Check out Wired Magazine's gear list for 2008. The Pentax Optio was the best rugged P&S, and Pentax and Samsung both were highly rated as dSLRs (the GX20 and the K200D). I think these types of ratings in Wired will do more to expand Pentax's name to the general public. Pop Photo readers are mainly there to validate their decisions (and yes, I read Pop Photo).

[Wheatfield]

Originally Posted by rburgoss

Pop Photo, as well as the deceased Modern Photography (sister publication from Hachette Filipachi) are all about PR (public relations). They will nominate as "item of the year" anything from any regular advertiser.

Its been looooooooooonnnnnng since I paid attention to those articles.

Modern had the occasional good article. Or else I was much younger then. I never have had any use for Pop Photo.

[Livewireshock]

I guess it might go to the company who supplies the best 'long' lunch?

[Damn Brit]

They get a lot of revenue from Sony.

[mickey]

I'm not familiar with the magazine, but is there any way to view the results online?
Or have to wait til the results?

[Damn Brit]

Originally Posted by mickey

I'm not familiar with the magazine, but is there any way to view the results online?
Or have to wait til the results?

Just go to popphoto.com

[GEli]

Well, given that their "Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World" list includes all US photographers, I wouldn't put too much stock in any of those top-10 lists they love to build.

[dylansalt]

A lot of these magazines (and websites) don't judge these camera's purely on their photographic image producing prowess - because if they did purely based on IQ there would be really nothing to judge on.

Today they will include innovation, technology, whizzbang etc etc in their judging

With regards to that the Oly, Pentax, Panasonic are out of their depth to the others, so most likely won't feature, unless they really take the 20D's OIS, screen calibration and lens focus adjustments as real world useful features.

On another note Pentax DSLR does not even feature in "Daves Picks" at Image Resource.

Just my 2c

[Shaloot!]

Well lets take a stab at what we think poopphoto will place as their pick! I think they will choose the d90 because it has the HD video which they feel is just so brilliant...

[nixcamic]

Originally Posted by rburgoss

Pop Photo, as well as the deceased Modern Photography (sister publication from Hachette Filipachi) are all about PR (public relations). They will nominate as "item of the year" anything from any regular advertiser.

Its been looooooooooonnnnnng since I paid attention to those articles.

Wasn't Pop Photos camera of the year the K10D last year? Or did it just get best value or most rugged or some such. I just remember reading a rather positive review of it in their camera awards, and that it won something.

[fabledviper]

Originally Posted by nixcamic

Wasn't Pop Photos camera of the year the K10D last year? Or did it just get best value or most rugged or some such. I just remember reading a rather positive review of it in their camera awards, and that it won something.

That was the Ni*&n D300.

[kerrowdown]

If we did the list here, would it include any other makes............................................. .....................are there any?

[magnum1]

Casio Exlim Pro Ex-F1 They should stick to calculators.