News

The editors of Popular Photography has voted the Sony A55 their Camera of the Year for 2010.  For the underwater photographer interested in the A55, Ikelite released their housing for this camera last month, listed at $1500.   

Runners up included Canon’s EOS Rebel T2i, Nikon’s D3 and the Panasonic LUMIX G2.

Press Release

POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS SONY ALPHA 55 “CAMERA OF THE YEAR”  

New York, N.Y., December 7, 2010—Bonnier Corp.’s Popular Photography, the world’s largest photo magazine, today announced that the Sony Alpha 55 has been awarded the most coveted prize in the camera industry—Popular Photography’s 2010 “Camera of the Year.” The camera will be featured in the magazine’s January issue on newsstands and in the iTunes app store on December 14. Please go to PopPhoto.com for additional details.

“The decision among our editors to select the Sony A55 was unanimous,” says Miriam Leuchter, editor of Popular Photography. “Photographers have come to expect laser precision and speed with digital SLR autofocus, but that ability didn’t extend to the camera’s video mode until now. Camera of the Year is the highest honor our magazine can offer, and the Sony A55’s use of innovative technology certainly deserves the award.”

The A55, Sony’s first DSLR camera to capture video as well as still photos, corrects the vexing problem of autofocus with DSLR video. A tidy innovation from Sony allows users to track moving subjects and focus automatically when shooting video footage—an option that was previously unavailable or unreliable in DSLRs. The changes also allow the camera to focus and shoot still images much faster than any other camera in its class. The Sony A55, priced at $750, or $850 including an 18mm f/3.5–5.5 lens, drew rave reviews from every member of the Popular Photography staff who used it. Besides the A55’s unique approach to DSLR tech design, furiously fast autofocus in both stills and video, and super-speedy burst rate, the magazine cited its extremely high image quality, sharp fine-grained electronic viewfinder, and fully articulating LCD monitor.

According to Leuchter, for Camera of the Year honors the editors were looking for the camera that best refined or redefined photography in 2010. Runners-up included: the Canon EOS Rebel T2i, Nikon D3s, and Panasonic Lumix G2. 

For the complete story on Popular Photography’s 2010 Camera of the Year, please see the January issue of the magazine on newsstands and the iTunes app store on December 14, or visit PopPhoto.com.