Best Cameras 2014

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.