Welcome to the Digital Photographer Photo Kit Leaderboard! The digital world moves fast and photo kit comes and goes in no time at all. The continuous march of development and progress means there can be a confusing array of potential cameras, lenses, software and accessories to choose from. Some products see yearly updates and replacements while others stick around for longer, a testament to their quality, usefulness, value and popularity.
We review a huge variety of items, but these summaries are often time-specific to the tech generation in which the products were launched. A five-star review might be awarded for ingenuity, marking something that is ahead of its time, but several months later, the competition has caught up. Conversely, as a product’s price drops over time, its value proposition may render it eligible for a bump up in our ratings.
This Leaderboard does not replace our in-depth reviews, instead, it provides a realtime snapshot of the photography industry, helping you decide which gear is right for you, right now. The longer a piece of kit is ranked, the more points it will accrue – and that means the better it performs in our annual Gear of the Year Awards!
KEY SPECS
What features should you expect as standard in acamera today?
IMAGE STABILISATION
In-body Image Stabilisation (IBIS) now commonly offers five to eight stops of compensation for camera shake, when combined with lens-based IS. Note, that maximum compensation is sometimes available with only certain lenses.
ARTICULATED SCREEN
Older cameras offered two or three-way LCD rotation but today, the best camera models have fully articulated main screens for awkward compositions and difficult angles.
BURST RATE
Electronic shutters enable incredible burst rates of up to 120 frames per second but look for at least 12fps when a mechanical shutter is used in High Speed Continuous mode
ISO RANGE
The new arms race focuses on maximum sensitivity instead of resolution. Use a top ISO of 12,800 as a starting point but don’t let unusable values like 102,400 sway your potential buying decisions.
Sony Alpha 9III
Featuring the world’s first full-frame global shutter, the latest Alpha tops the charts
New features always get a lot of hype in the photo industry, but few have as much potential to change cameras forever in the same way as a global shutter. Headlining an all-round excellent specification, this feature opens doors to an incredible top shutter speed of 1/80,000sec and renders flash sync speeds
