2011 Camera of the Year

This is the first year that I have passed out honors for a Camera of the Year, and I sure picked a year full of solid cameras to do this one.  There have been some truly great cameras released this year that meet all sorts of photographers’ needs, including the Canon Rebel T3i, Canon 1D X, Nikon D5100, Sony NEX-5N, NEX-7 and NEX-C3, Sony A77 and A65, Olympus E-PM1, E-PL3 and E-P3, among plenty of others.
However, only one camera gets the honor, and that camera is the Fuji X100.  Read on for the why.
Fuji came out of the box with a camera that was different than what anyone else was doing and nailed it with the X100.  It’s a photographer’s camera with a simple 35mm-equivalent fixed lens at f/2 and a wicked-fast sync speed thanks to the leaf shutter.
Eat up the low light?  Check.
Kill the sun on the brightest day? Check.
While the Fuji X100 is not a camera for everyone, it does so many things right and then manages to keep it all simple.  Factor in the slick retro styling of the X100 and it’s hard to say no to it.
Finally, someone made a camera that looks cool and also performs well.  It has competent autofocus, a nice and fast lens, insane flash sync speeds and overall solid image quality.
There were lots of great cameras released this year, but the Fuji X100 is the hands-down winner in my book.
Check out my full review of the Fuji X100 for more on what makes this camera so great.