Originally posted by IchabodCrane Fair enough. I'll add that Camera of the Year and Best Camera are not the same thing for no other reason that there's really no such thing as "best camera". People have many different needs and wants and it's impossible for any camera to meet all those various needs and wants better than anything else. So in that respect I concede that the E-M5 won something of a popularity contest but I also have to think it's popular because it's quite a good camera.
You just stated one of the problems we have in our society creating an ordered meritocracy (deciding what is "the best").
There must be a logical progression to the order, such that there is a
- Standard, then a
- Comparative, then THE
- Superlative
In common parlance we refer to this progression as
- Good leads to
- Better leads to
- Best
Unfortunately unless all participants agree on the Standard we can never rank the members of the Class against each other fairly. We can't create an ordered meritocracy.
Until we agree on what is Good we can never agree on what is Best.
This problem exists in virtually every argument in our modern society - and the problem all stems from a Logic Innovation that swept Law Schools in the sixties - Critical Thinking.
The central tenet of Critical Thinking is that your preconceived assumptions are incorrect. You must examine them, question them, identify their faults and replace your assumptions with the correct assumptions (which we will teach you). Then , using these new, correct assumptions, using this new notion of what is Good, you will create a proper ordering of things. You will find a new Best.
So we can't agree on whether FF or APSc or m4/3 or 1/2" or Medium Format is the Standard against which everything else shall be measured.
There is no "Best" camera. There is no "Best" anything.
Because there is no Good.