Published: December 3, 2018
Better make room in the trophy case! Sony wins Camera of the Year, Fixed-Lens Camera of the Year and Prime Lens of the Year in the 2018 DPReview Awards!
Camera of the Year: Sony a7 III
Available from B&H Photo | Amazon
“And the winning spot this year is taken by the Sony a7 III. Arguably the best-value full-frame ILC available right now, the a7 III is a superbly versatile camera for both stills and video imaging, at a great price. Other cameras in Sony’s lineup offer higher stills resolution and some nice extras, but the a7 III takes most of the essentials, and packages them inside an attractive, very usable and affordable body. As such, the a7 III is a worthy winner of our most important award – the best product of 2018.” – DPReview
Prime Lens of the Year: Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM
Available from B&H Photo | Amazon
“We’ve seen a lot of small, OK lenses this year, and a lot of very large, very good lenses, but it’s really nice when we see a manufacturer make a small excellent lens. The Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM is exactly that.
“This medium-wide prime lens for Sony’s a7-series and a9 mirrorless cameras (it’s also a useful 36mm equivalent on APS-C) is a great example of the lens-maker’s art. Superbly suited to landscape and astrophotography, the 24mm F1.4 is equally useful for low-light candid photography and portraiture. It’s uncannily sharp edge-to-edge wide open with little to no coma, bokeh is smooth, and longitudinal chromatic aberration – that purple and green fringing we loathe on many fast wide primes – is well controlled. Our decision this year was unanimous – the Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM takes the well-deserved top spot in our award for best prime lens of 2018.” – DPReview
Fixed Lens Camera of the Year: Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI
Available from B&H Photo | Amazon
“Another year, another Sony Cyber-shot RX100-series compact camera. What will it be this time – a faster lens? Better 4K video? Boosted continuous shooting? Well, in fact the RX100 VI offers none of those things compared to its predecessor the RX100 V/A, but instead adds a more versatile 24-200mm zoom to the lineup, which trades brightness (and a built-in ND filter) for extra telephoto reach.
“The RX100 VI doesn’t replace the older RX100 V/A, but it does fill a gap in the established RX100-series lineup for a true ‘travel zoom’ camera, offering advanced video and stills features in a compact package, with a versatile zoom lens. Photographers have been asking Sony for a longer zoom in the RX100-series for a long time, and with the RX100 VI, Sony delivered, without compromising too much of what we love about the series as a whole. As such the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI takes our award for best compact / fixed-lens camera of 2018.” – DPReview
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1 thought on “Sony a7 III named DPReview Camera of the Year 2018”
I agree with DPReview on the A7III for it is always on backorder and Sony’s other cameras had Black Friday deals with lower prices (meaning to me other cameras are slowing down on sales). But I must warn buyers study a well written book on the A7III for all the things you can do in menus and assign to all the buttons. The options for the focus system are so wide, hard to remember everything. I made laminated cards that I attach to my wrist with a rubber band with all the button assignments for the many different shooting times (night/day). And dual cards in a starter camera, just wow!!! Can not wait for spring for inflight bird capture with upto 10 frames second, can not miss with that. I have the A7S, A7RII and have found that clarity is not so much the lens or the 12MP/42MP but in Post Processing. Just check jpegs with in camera processing and all the options selections, you pay for it just check it. For example I shot fireworks with a 35mm with the A7S and had to crop to get a closer look and all captures where so very sharp in crop, it says alot for the sony sensors. I just wish they would let us have the sony apps on the M3 cameras not everyone is a Pro or carry a bag full of filters. And I must say ISO Invariance on M2/3 cameras is so good along with the little mentioned Bright Monitoring for dark areas (astro shooting). Oh Brian thank you so much for all your coverage and updates so hard for all to keep up! Feb 1, 2019 Milky Way season starts all along the east coast with dark skies over the ocean!!!