Trying to find the best camera? New developments have made the decision harder than ever. You no longer need to buy a DSLR to get DSLR-grade pictures, and even compacts can offer serious image quality if you know what you're looking for. Need a few tips? You've come to the right place.
Updated: 21/10/2014
Click one of the links below to jump straight to your perfect camera companion or read on to find out what you need to know about DSLRs, Compact and Bridge cameras before spending and scroll through our list some of the best cameras you can buy right now.
Best Compacts and Bridge Cameras
- Best Enthusiast Compact Camera | Sony RX100 III
- Best Fixed-Focal Compact | Ricoh GR
- Best Bridge Camera | Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000
Best Compact System / Micro Four Thirds Cameras
- Best CSC For Beginners | Sony Alpha A5000
- Best Mid-Range CSC | Sony Alpha A6000
- Best Mid-Range MFT | Panasonic Lumix GX7
- Best Micro Four Thirds Camera | Olympus OM-D E-M1
- Best Compact System Camera | Sony A7R
Best Digital SLRs
- Best Entry-Level DLSR | Canon EOS 100D
- Best Full-Frame DSLR | Nikon D750
- Best Consumer Action Camera | Sony Alpha A77 II
- Best Professional Action Camera | Nikon D4S
Compact, DSLR and Bridge cameras: What's the Difference?
If you are looking for the best cameras for casual use and you don't want to fuss about settings before hitting the shutter button, a compact camera is probably the one for you.
There are still plenty of cheap and cherful compacts out there, but higher-end models also cater for the enthusiast. There are numerous kinds of these too. You'll find chunkier advanced compacts that give you good manual control, and simpler ones that focus on providing a higher-end sensor and lens optics for better image quality and ease of use.
Bridging the gap between compact cameras and DSLRs are Compact System Cameras (CSC). Expect these types of snappers to offer an excellent balance of convenience and image quality, though at the very top-end we're beginning to see CSCs that match or exceed similar DSLRs. Sony's full-frame A7-series is a good example. Within the CSC category, there's a number of different types of sensor used, each giving quite a different experience.
Nikon's CSCs use 1-inch sensors that provide lightning-fast shooting and dinky camera bodies, but not the best low-light performance. Olympus and Panasonic use Micro Four Thirds-size sensors, providing a middle ground. The latest MFT sensors are particularly impressive, seen in some of our favourite CSCs.
The largest sensors you'll find in affordable CSCs are APS-C ones, used in cameras from Samsung and Sony. Of course, Sony has now gone even further, adopting full-frame sensors in the top-end A7 and A7R. These provide the best image quality among CSCs, rivalling top-end DSLRs.
But the big daddies of the camera world remain the DSLRs. The most popular cameras among enthusiasts and professionals, DSLRs offer the greatest detail, the least noise and the fastest focusing. They’re evidence that size does matter sometimes. Larger sensors and larger, higher-quality lens glass is what the DSLR is all about.
Last up are the Bridge Cameras. These cameras are something between a compact camera and a lens system camera. They have permanent, generally very long zoom, lenses and have similar feel to an DSLR. But Bridge Cameras have sensors that are similar size to compact cameras, so produce photos similar in quality.
So now you know the types that are out there, we've rounded up our regularly updated list of the best cameras you can buy right now.