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Nov 01, 2024

The 3 Best Mirrorless Cameras of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Phil Ryan Phil Ryan is a writer primarily covering photography gear, printers, and scanners. He has been testing cameras professionally for 19 years. After testing Nikon’s Z 6III we have added it

By Phil Ryan

Phil Ryan is a writer primarily covering photography gear, printers, and scanners. He has been testing cameras professionally for 19 years.

After testing Nikon’s Z 6III we have added it to Other mirrorless cameras worth considering as the best option for the Nikon Z system.

A mirrorless camera can give you better photos than your smartphone can, and it’s the best choice for anyone who wants to learn more about photography.

With this camera’s small size, vast lens selection, built-in stabilization, excellent autofocus, and reliable exposure, you can easily capture great images anywhere.

This retro-styled, weather-sealed camera is the best APS-C mirrorless camera you can buy, with ample customizable controls, great autofocus, excellent video, built-in stabilization, and outstanding images even in very low light.

If you want to step up to a full-frame camera, this model offers the best image quality you can get, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual memory-card slots, and cutting-edge autofocus.

While DSLRs used to be the go-to option for improved image quality, mirrorless cameras have taken over thanks to their increased portability and reduced mechanical complexity.

After more than 220 hours of research and testing over the past seven years, we recommend the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV—a versatile, high-performing mirrorless camera that’s available at a great price.

Its advanced features help it capture reliably great-looking images in all kinds of conditions, and its small size means you’re more likely to carry it with you everywhere.

With this camera’s small size, vast lens selection, built-in stabilization, excellent autofocus, and reliable exposure, you can easily capture great images anywhere.

Although the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV doesn’t offer the absolute best image quality, it captures great-looking images and is a joy to use. But it really stands out from the mirrorless competition thanks to its compact, lightweight design and its low price.

It’s compatible with more lenses than any of our other picks, and all of them work with its impressive built-in image stabilization. The autofocus system locks on to subjects quickly and accurately, and the lock-on remains accurate even in dimly lit situations. Its smartphone app, which enables remote shooting and image transfer, is better than those of most rivals, too.

Because the OM-D E-M10 IV is so small, you’re more likely to bring this camera with you everywhere you go. But despite its small stature, it has a comfy grip, plenty of tactile controls, and a tilting touchscreen, which together make it one of the better-handling cameras in its class.

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This retro-styled, weather-sealed camera is the best APS-C mirrorless camera you can buy, with ample customizable controls, great autofocus, excellent video, built-in stabilization, and outstanding images even in very low light.

If you’re serious enough to spend over $2,000 for a camera and lens bundle, the Fujifilm X-T5 is the best choice to bring your photography to a higher level.

The sensor puts out surprisingly clean, detailed, color-accurate images even when you shoot in especially dim lighting. And Fujifilm’s film simulations evoke nostalgic memories through clever application of color and tones, if you opt to use them.

The camera is rugged and weather sealed, has dedicated dials for all of your most-used settings, sports a large electronic viewfinder that gives you a great view of what you’ll get, and captures beautiful 4K video. Plus, its tilting screen and built-in image stabilization make shooting in challenging situations even more manageable than with our top pick.

If you want to step up to a full-frame camera, this model offers the best image quality you can get, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual memory-card slots, and cutting-edge autofocus.

The full-frame Sony ɑ7 IV delivers the sharpest, cleanest images of any mirrorless camera in its price range, and with its tilting touchscreen, comfortable grip, and easy-to-use controls, it’s a joy to use.

Its excellent battery life and dual memory-card slots are meaningful improvements over what we’ve seen on any other full-frame mirrorless camera under $2,700.

Add its weather sealing, its fast burst shooting, and its AI-powered eye-tracking autofocus system, and the α7 IV is definitely the best full-frame mirrorless camera for your money—if you’re willing to spend this much. Most people don’t need to.

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I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering photography, printers, and scanners. I’ve been testing cameras and lenses for about 20 years.

In my previous job as the technical editor of Popular Photography and in my time as a senior editor at CNET, I reported on this category from its inception. In my capacity at Popular Photography I was responsible for all camera and lens testing and personally field tested all the cameras that were reviewed by that publication during my time there.

I maintain a wide range of Wirecutter guides, including mirrorless cameras, Sony lenses, and portable scanners. I also cover other photo-related topics.

For this guide:

If you want to move beyond the constraints of smartphone photography or are interested in learning what terms like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO mean (and even if you already know), buying a mirrorless camera probably makes sense for you.

Compared with DSLRs, mirrorless cameras are smaller and lighter. And instead of providing an optical viewfinder, which uses a mirror to bounce light that travels through the lens up to your eyeball, mirrorless cameras offer an electronic viewfinder (EVF), which shows a live feed from the sensor. That means you see exactly what you’ll get in the finished photo.

Combined, these factors make mirrorless cameras easier to carry around and less fussy to use than DSLRs, yet mirrorless cameras provide equal or better image quality. And as a bonus, you can easily adapt any film- or DSLR-era lens to any mirrorless camera body, giving new life to vintage equipment.

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All else being equal, a larger sensor size generally equates to better image quality.

The sensors in the cameras we recommend here are much larger than those in smartphones. Sensor sizes in mirrorless cameras, in ascending size order, include Four Thirds (as found in our top pick), APS-C (as found in our upgrade pick), full-frame (as found in our also-great pick), and even medium format (which is far too expensive for us to recommend, at least for now).

At equal pixel counts, larger sensors have larger pixels, which gather more light; that reduces image noise (tiny unwanted speckles) and increases detail. They can also produce shallower depth of field, which helps to create dreamier out-of-focus backgrounds but also makes getting your subject correctly in focus more difficult.

Mirrorless cameras were created to be more portable than digital single-lens reflex cameras. Because camera makers don’t have to incorporate the SLR mirror or other parts associated with moving that mirror up and down, they can design a smaller camera.

Although some newer mirrorless cameras include large grips that make them quite chunky, they’re still smaller and lighter overall (and especially thinner) than equivalent DSLRs.

Unlike DSLRs, mirrorless cameras come in lots of different designs, from DSLR-shaped to rangefinder-styled. As a result, anyone can find a model that suits their style of shooting, and you have plenty of options that are small enough that you won’t think twice about bringing your camera with you wherever you go.

With small camera bodies come smaller batteries, which means fewer photos captured per charge.

Camera makers are starting to get better about this—but especially in models aimed at beginners, manufacturers are still sacrificing some battery life in favor of a smaller camera.

For every round of testing, we look at all the mirrorless cameras currently available and take into account not only the needs of the average photographer but also those of people coming from smartphones and experienced photographers seeking to take their hobby to the next level.

We look for the best balance of price and features that are more important to people who are getting serious about learning photography as a hobby:

We take the cameras out into the streets and parks of New York City and use them with their kit lenses in a wide variety of situations, noting how they function in full auto mode as well as in other shooting modes.

We pay attention to the autofocus system, noting how easily we can choose where to focus and how well the camera can lock focus and track subjects.

We check out the menu systems to see how easily we can find the settings that you might want to adjust (though all mirrorless menu systems are somewhat overwhelming).

We pair each camera with our smartphone to make sure that the connection process is simple, to see how much control over the camera we have when operating it remotely, and to determine whether transferring images to a phone is uncomplicated.

Of course, we also pay close attention to image quality, though all of these cameras can capture beautiful images.

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With this camera’s small size, vast lens selection, built-in stabilization, excellent autofocus, and reliable exposure, you can easily capture great images anywhere.

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV is the camera we recommend for people seeking the best bang for their buck from a mirrorless camera with semi-professional features.

It’s feature-packed. The E-M10 IV has a fast autofocus system, a high-resolution electronic viewfinder and a movable touchscreen, and the ability to shoot five photos per second until the SD card fills up (if you use a UHS-II card).

The E-M10 IV’s built-in image stabilization can work with any lens you use with it. We also like the camera’s ample physical controls, which let you customize multiple buttons and dials so that the settings you adjust most are just a touch away.

It produces images with plenty of detail and pleasingly vibrant colors. As a Micro Four Thirds camera with a slightly smaller sensor, the E-M10 IV can’t quite match the image quality of larger-sensor competitors such as our upgrade pick and full-frame pick, but it comes close enough that most people wouldn’t be able to see a difference in most photos.

In our tests, images we shot in good light closely matched what we could do with most similarly priced competitors, though the E-M10 IV showed a little more image noise when shooting at higher ISOs.

It’s compatible with a huge array of lenses. As part of the Micro Four Thirds camera system, the E-M10 IV is compatible with more than 100 native lenses—ranging from a 16mm-equivalent fisheye to an 800mm-equivalent zoom—from Olympus, Panasonic, and third-party lens makers such as Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina. That’s far more of a selection than you can find for any of our other picks.

And like other mirrorless cameras, it can use a huge range of vintage lenses via simple mechanical adapters.

Its image stabilization is very effective. The E-M10 IV can move its sensor to reduce the blur caused by shaky hands. In practice, this means you can take sharper photos in dimly lit conditions or when you’re using a lot of zoom.

With the E-M10 IV, we consistently got usably sharp images shooting handheld at shutter speeds that would inevitably produce irretrievably blurred images without stabilization—as slow as ⅓ second when we used a 50mm lens with the E-M10 IV.

It offers excellent ergonomics. After shooting with the E-M10 IV around New York City over the course of a few weeks, we can say that the camera is comfortable to use.

The grip offers an amazing balance of functionality and size, as it’s compact yet prominent enough for you to let the camera dangle securely from your fingers when you’re walking to your next shooting location (even with Olympus’s relatively large 40–150mm f/2.8 Pro lens attached).

The control dials are readily accessible, even when you’re using the viewfinder. Although the camera has only two physical customizable buttons, Olympus gives you plenty of options as to what to assign to them. Plus, you can customize the control panel on the tilting touchscreen to feature just the settings you change most often.

Its smartphone app is better than most. The E-M10 IV’s built-in Wi-Fi support lets you use your iOS or Android smartphone to transfer images and control the camera remotely to a greater degree than you can with cameras from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, or Sony.

Beyond setting focus and adjusting exposure settings, you can switch shooting modes, control the zoom on electronically zooming Olympus lenses, and tap your phone screen to set the focus point. You can also adjust burst or timer modes, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation.

Its autofocus is quick and accurate. The E-M10 IV’s AF is as fast and accurate as you can expect from any current camera.

In good light, it reliably finds focus almost instantly. As with any AF system, the focus speed slows down in dimmer light, but no more so than on most competitors. In the course of our testing, we never saw any blurry shots resulting from an autofocus error.

Its EVF and its tilting screen make framing shots easy. The E-M10 IV sports a high-resolution OLED viewfinder that lets you hold the camera up to your face—a more stable and immersive way to shoot—while framing your image. It isn’t the best EVF we’ve used (the panels on the high-end Fujifilm X-T5 and Sony ɑ7 IV are better), but it ranks near the top of the class for cameras in this price range.

The 3-inch tilting touchscreen lets you move the autofocus point by touching the screen or even tap to shoot, as you would on a smartphone camera. You can also use the touchscreen as a trackpad for adjusting focus while looking through the viewfinder.

This retro-styled, weather-sealed camera is the best APS-C mirrorless camera you can buy, with ample customizable controls, great autofocus, excellent video, built-in stabilization, and outstanding images even in very low light.

The Fujifilm X-T5 feels like a classic camera living its best life in today’s digital world. Behind its stunning retro looks, you’ll find a plethora of buttons and dials augmented by deep customization and cutting-edge technology. The result is a tool worthy of serious photographers who want to capture professional-looking photos or video in any situation.

The images it produces are stunning. The X-T5’s 40-megapixel sensor—the highest resolution in its class—captures images that you can print at very large sizes, even if you crop them down first. You can make prints of uncropped images up to 32 by 21 inches (at 240 dpi), which is larger than the prints that many professional photographers can make at home.

The film-simulation modes in Fujifilm’s digital cameras look great, and they’re one of the most fun aspects of these image-making machines. They’re designed to mimic the results of the company’s vintage film stock (even some types that have been discontinued), and they often do a better job of creating that classic film look than most of the filter apps that people pay for.

And in addition to the built-in film simulations, you can find dozens of “recipes” that you can add to the camera’s custom shooting menu for even more personalized JPEG looks.

The classic controls leave room for customization. The functions you use the most—shutter speed, ISO (sensitivity), and exposure compensation—are available on dials on the top of the camera. Similarly, you can adjust the aperture settings on Fujifilm’s lenses via a clicky ring, though you can opt to let the camera control it instead, or use one of the customizable command wheels on the camera body.

Changing settings while looking through the viewfinder is fast and easy, and thanks to the dials you can adjust the most important settings before turning the camera on. Controlling the autofocus point is simple, too, thanks to a well-positioned joystick.

The 3-inch touchscreen allows you to tap to focus and shoot and to customize other functions. The screen tilts up and down, as well as to the right for portrait shooting. It doesn’t flip out to the side like the one on its predecessor, the X-T4, or on the Sony ɑ7 IV, so you’re likely to have a tough time vlogging or shooting selfies with the X-T5; if you want to check the framing while you’re in front of the camera, you have to connect your phone.

Superior stabilization makes for sharper photos. By moving the sensor to compensate for hand shakiness, the X-T5 helps you get sharp photos when you’re zooming far or shooting in dim conditions at slow shutter speeds.

Fujifilm claims that the X-T5 can provide up to seven stops of stabilization, and in our testing it reliably gave us six stops. That resulted in sharp photos when we were shooting with an 80mm lens (a 120mm-equivalent field of view) at 1/2 second. Without stabilization, we would want a shutter speed of 1/125 second to get a usable photo when using a lens like that.

Compared with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV, the Fujifilm X-T5 gave us one stop more of stabilization. That’s also one stop more than we saw in its predecessor, the X-T4.

The battery can last a whole day. With a rating of 580 shots per charge, the X-T5’s battery lasts longer than those of any of our other picks. Most days we were able to get through the whole day without the battery running out.

The battery indicator hit the dreaded red zone after some of our three-and-a-half-hour bird-photography sessions, however. These sessions were especially taxing for the camera, since we kept it in performance boost mode—an optional setting that enhances the autofocus capabilities and raises the EVF’s refresh rate to better capture fast motion.

As always, just to be safe, we suggest carrying at least one extra battery, because everyone forgets to charge sometimes. Another option is to use a portable power bank, since the battery charges via USB-C anyway. (Like many contemporary cameras, the X-T5 doesn’t come with a battery charger in the box, just a wall adapter and a USB-C cable.)

Its smartphone app is useful. After we installed Fujifilm’s Camera Remote app, connecting the camera to a mobile device was simple. Once you register the app with a device, it remembers that camera and reconnects quickly through a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

We easily shot stills and video, changed all of the core camera settings, transferred images, and shared them with friends via the app. We also updated the camera’s firmware through the app without any issues.

Weather sealing can give you peace of mind. Fujifilm touts the X-T5’s 56 weather-sealed points on its website, and we had no problems when we used the camera in the rain. Whereas our top pick, the E-M10 IV, can withstand a light shower, we would trust the X-T5 to shrug off a downpour that would thoroughly drench our clothes.

If you do plan to brave the weather, remember to pair this camera with a weather-resistant lens. Fujifilm puts “WR” in the name of its lenses that are weather-sealed, and most third-party manufacturers note whether their lenses can withstand precipitation and dust storms.

The tilting touchscreen helps at odd angles. Though the touchscreen on the X-T5 doesn’t flip to the side and rotate all the way forward like the X-T4’s did, it can tilt up, down, and toward the right side of the camera.

We think that Fujifilm should’ve stuck with what it had in the X-T4, but unless you’re a vlogger who doesn’t want to use a smartphone to see where you are in the frame before you start and stop recording through the app (which is what we’d do anyway), the limited screen flexibility shouldn’t be a problem.

The EVF looks great. At 3.69 million dots, the X-T5’s 0.5-inch, 0.8x-magnification electronic viewfinder basically matches what you get in Sony’s ɑ7 IV, which is to say that it looks great. We enjoyed using it to frame photos and to zoom in to ensure that our manual focus was correct when we used our Leica-mount manual lenses through an adapter.

Video looks amazing. The 4K footage we shot looked beautiful, and the image stabilization kept it impressively smooth when we shot handheld, even at long focal lengths.

Because this Fujifilm camera is equipped with a sensor that’s larger than the one in our top pick from Olympus, you can expect it to capture video with less noise in darker settings, though the results won’t be quite as clean as with our full-frame pick from Sony. Plus, the 6.2K-resolution option gives you room to spare during editing to crop down to 4K.

If you want to send an HDMI signal to an external recorder, such as an Atomos or Blackmagic device, you can record at up to 6.2K and 30 fps in 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW format or Blackmagic RAW for the most amount of leeway with color grading or other fancy editing tactics. We did not have a compatible recorder on hand to test this function. In-camera, you’re limited to 10-bit (4:2:2) color at 6.2K, which in our experience looked every bit as stunning as the 4K footage we made.

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If you want to step up to a full-frame camera, this model offers the best image quality you can get, along with a tilting touchscreen, dual memory-card slots, and cutting-edge autofocus.

Generally, we don’t think most people need a full-frame camera, but if you want one for its superior image quality and its ability to shoot in very low light, the Sony ɑ7 IV is the best option.

Its image quality is best in class. The ɑ7 IV’s 33-megapixel sensor captures more than enough fine detail to make very large prints, even at high ISO settings that would produce overly noisy images on other full-frame cameras.

The images have more pixels than those of our top pick, but not as many as images from our upgrade pick. However, its images are cleaner than either of theirs thanks to its full-frame sensor.

It has plenty of customizable physical controls. More so than on any of our other picks, the ɑ7 IV’s controls let you quickly and seamlessly access everything you need to reach when you’re shooting.

Included are an autofocus-point control joystick, three customizable dials, a function button that brings you to a quick menu where you can change all of the most important settings, and five customizable buttons for fast access to your most-changed options.

Although the total number of customizable buttons on the ɑ7 IV is comparable to what rivals offer, the breadth of functions you can assign helps the ɑ7 IV stand out.

Its touchscreen display can move into nearly any position. The touchscreen flips out to the side, tilts up and down, and can face the same direction as the lens for selfies.

Even if you prefer to shoot with the viewfinder, you can use the touchscreen as a trackpad and slide your thumb across the screen to move the autofocus point. If you prefer to focus on your subject by touching the screen as you would on your smartphone, you can do that, too, or you can set the camera to also take the picture when you tap your subject.

Its battery lasts longer than most rivals’. One of the biggest drawbacks of mirrorless cameras is their anemic battery life, but the ɑ7 IV offers 520 shots per charge, about 60 shy of our upgrade pick but still impressive considering the larger size of its sensor.

You should still pick up an extra battery, but with a full charge you’ll be able to get through, say, a child’s field hockey game without running out of juice (unless you lean on burst mode more than anyone really should).

Dual card slots ensure that you never lose a shot. The ɑ7 IV’s two SD card slots let you write a backup of everything you capture to a second card—a convenient feature if you’re worried about one of those cards failing and costing you once-in-a-lifetime shots (or paid work).

Alternatively, you can set the camera to move from one card to the next once the first card is full, save video to one and stills to the other, or save JPEGs to one and raw images to the other.

Its autofocus is blazing fast and sticks like glue. The ɑ7 IV’s autofocus is the best of any of the cameras we recommend, and it’s one of the best AF systems we’ve ever encountered in our tests.

It uses AI to help determine what to focus on when it’s set to full auto, zone focusing, or one of its tracking modes. In particular, its face- and animal-tracking modes are likely to astound anyone who hasn’t used a camera with an AI-based AF system: It finds an eye and keeps tracking as long as that eye remains in the frame, even if the subject looks away from the camera as they move around.

In our tests, with the ɑ7 IV in bird-tracking mode, the camera did a similarly impressive job of tracking the eyes of birds even while they were in flight or hopping from branch to branch.

Its burst mode is more than fast enough for most people. The ɑ7 IV’s top burst speed of 10 frames per second (in the Hi+ burst mode) is plenty to capture fast action, including any amateur sports.

The speed dips a bit if you shoot in raw (unless you use a CFexpress card), but even at the slower 6 to 8 fps you get when shooting raw on a SD card, we’ve concluded that these restrictions aren’t onerous for anyone but sports-photography pros.

It can produce clean-looking images in very dim light. People who frequently shoot indoors, or in the evening or early morning, will appreciate that the ɑ7 IV’s ISO range extends all the way to 204,800.

Though that max setting produces lots of noise when you view images at 100% magnification, even picky shooters are likely to agree that the ɑ7 IV can produce extremely nice images up to ISO 25,600. But if your plan is to share images on social media and view them on smartphones, or at a size that doesn’t take up the whole screen, you can feel free to use the entire ISO range.

Video looks great, too. The ɑ7 IV captures extremely good-looking video that’s similar in quality to footage from other full-frame mirrorless cameras.

Topping out at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, it uses the full width of the sensor to capture video, which it then scales down to 4K footage with a dazzling amount of detail. It can capture HD footage at up to 120 fps, and it can also do 5x slow motion that still looks great on a good home television.

If you want a full-frame camera that uses Nikon’s Z-mount lenses: We think that Nikon’s Z 6III is the best choice for anyone looking for a camera in that system. It’s good enough that ts higher price is one of the few things that kept us from unseating the Sony ɑ7 IV as our full-frame pick.

Its 24.5-megapixel images show plenty of detail, even if they don’t have the sheer resolution of photos from the 33-megapixel Sony. These pictures have realistic color, pleasing contrast, and are well-exposed when using Nikon’s automatic settings.

The Z 6III’s autofocus system showed all the sophistication of the ɑ7 IV’s—it’s more than fast and accurate enough, even for the most picky photographers. The subject tracking options lack a dedicated bird mode, but the camera does a good job of seeing and tracking birds in the more general “animal” mode. With dogs and cats, the camera identified the animals nearly instantly and focused on their eyes. When we disabled the mechanical shutter and turned off the camera’s sounds, we got some beautiful shots of cats without alarming them at all.

Video is one area where the Z 6III can outdo the ɑ7 IV. The camera can record up to 6K raw video at 60 fps internally onto a CF Express type B card, and footage we shot in the streets of NYC with the Z 6 III looked great. The ɑ7 IV, meanwhile, tops out at 4K 60 fps. The Z 6III’s 4K recording extends to 120 fps, while non-raw full-HD video tops out at 240 fps for up to 10x slow motion, if your plan is to use the footage at 24 fps after editing.

Some Z 6III owners have pointed out a slight flickering in the black levels of 6K N-RAW footage. While we were able to replicate this issue when recording between ISO 3200 and 5000, it is barely noticeable in the real-world footage we captured and can be further minimized in post-processing. We reached out to Nikon and they had no comment, but we think most people using the Z 6III won’t have a problem with the video it produces.

One downside we think most shutterbugs will notice—especially compared to the ɑ7 IV—is the Z 6III’s shorter battery life. At 380 shots per charge when shooting with the electronic viewfinder (with power save mode enabled), it’s significantly shorter than the 520 shots you’ll get from the Sony. But if you carry an extra battery, that’ll sting a little less.

If you want a camera that uses L-mount lenses: Panasonic’s Lumix S5 II is the best option for the L-mount system, which also includes cameras and lenses from Leica and Sigma.

Together, these companies have assembled a growing array of lenses that cover a wide range of needs and budgets.

The S5 II can’t match the autofocus performance of our full-frame pick and upgrade pick. Both of those cameras do a better job of identifying an animal in a scene and tracking along with it, though the S5 II performs pretty well in that regard.

The S5 II has a 24-megapixel full-frame sensor, which might seem a tad low resolution in comparison with the Sony ɑ7 IV’s 33-megapixel sensor and the Fujifilm X-T5’s 40-megapixel sensor, but that’s still enough pixels to make a 25-by-17-inch print as long as you’re not cropping the image.

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We plan to update this guide to offer recommendations within each major camera system, and will soon be testing Canon’s EOS R6 Mark II and EOS R7 as we prepare for that.

Canon’s EOS R10 and EOS R7 are solid APS-C cameras that make nice photos and videos. They’re light and relatively small, and if you think you’ll only ever want the kit lens and a cheap telephoto zoom to go with it, these cameras might serve your needs well. But at this writing, the Canon system lacks a lot of other common lens options, and you’d likely be just as happy with our top pick, which costs less than either Canon model.

The EOS R8 creates high-quality images and has fast autofocus that can track a wide variety of moving subjects. Plus, its 4K 60 fps video recording is impressive for a camera that you can often find for under $1,500 with a kit lens. But the R8’s battery is only rated to give you 150 shots when shooting with the viewfinder (220 if you use power saving mode), there’s no joystick for changing your AF settings, and there’s only one memory card slot.

We haven’t tried the newer Canon EOS R50, an APS-C camera that is priced closer to our top pick than the R10, but we think that the larger range of lenses available for the Olympus system makes it a more attractive option.

We ruled out Canon’s EOS R6 Mark II largely because it consistently costs at least $200 more than our full-frame pick, the Sony ɑ7 IV. In addition, Canon’s EOS-R lens lineup is not nearly as extensive as Sony’s EF mount ecosystem, and third-party lens makers have not yet stepped in to help fill the gap.

Canon’s EOS RP was the company’s smallest and lightest full-frame camera when it was introduced in 2019, and it makes great-looking images. But its autofocus system has since been eclipsed by the features in newer cameras, and as we mentioned above, the selection of native lenses isn’t extensive enough. At the EOS RP’s current price, it isn’t a bad option as a smallish basic full-frame camera body if you’d like to use older Canon lenses via an adapter.

Fujifilm’s X-T50 has the same sensor as our upgrade pick, the X-T5, and can make similarly beautiful images, but its body is smaller in every dimension (especially depth). The extra portability is nice, but it comes at the expense of any kind of front grip, which makes it less comfortable to use. We tried SmallRig’s accessory grip and it helped with some lenses (such as Fuji’s 33mm f/1.4) but didn’t leave enough room for our fingers between the lens and grip with girthier lenses (like the 55-200mm zoom). Its smaller battery is also rated to just 304 shots compared to the X-T5’s 580 shots per charge.

We like the X-T50’s dedicated film simulation dial, which made it easier to change and compare film sims, but ultimately the X-T5’s better ergonomics and other advantages—including a 15 fps burst compared to the X-T50’s 8 fps—make it a better pick overall.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II has a very similar design to the X-T50, which means it shares all of the same drawbacks. It also lacks that camera’s film simulation dial and in-body image stabilization, and uses a lower-resolution 26-megapixel sensor. We think that the lower-priced OM-D E-M10 IV likely still makes more sense to most entry-level buyers, especially due to its built-in image stabilization.

Nikon’s Z f gives the innards of the Z 6II a snazzy-looking shell that evokes classic Nikon film cameras, and may also call to mind the look of Fujifilm’s excellent X-series bodies. While it’s undeniably beautiful, and the tactile dials—which click even more satisfyingly than the X-T5’s—provide an enjoyably old-school interface, we found ourselves dearly missing the Z 6II’s grip.

Even compared to the similarly styled X-T5, the Z f is bigger and weighs significantly more, yet provides even less purchase around front. On a recent trip, we were able to extensively test the add-on grip that Nikon offers in conjunction with accessory maker SmallRig, and it went a long way to solving the Z f’s handling issues. But even so, this is a large, heavy mirrorless camera. Those with larger hands and a taste for the angular designs of yesteryear may appreciate that heft, but it seems likely that more will find it tiring over a long day of shooting.

The Nikon Z 50 offers great ergonomics and produces beautiful photos, though it’s a tad expensive for an APS-C mirrorless camera. Like the Canon EOS R lineup, Nikon’s Z-mount lens system is still fairly barebones, especially for its APS-C cameras (though at least you have third-party options to choose from). Ultimately, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV represents a better overall value for most people.

Nikon’s Z 7II, Z 8 and Z 9 all seem like fabulous cameras, but are more powerful than most people need. The Z 9 is a camera specifically made for professional photographers, and at $5,500 without a lens, it’s well beyond the price range of most people who can’t write it off as a business expense. The similar but smaller Z 8 goes for about $5,000 with its kit lens. And the Z 7II costs more than $3,000 when paired with a lens, which is beyond the scope of what we currently test.

We have yet to test the Olympus OM-1 because although it seems like a very capable and robust camera, we’ve concluded that if you’re planning to spend more than $2,000 for a camera body alone, you should look beyond the inherent limitations—especially in terms of low-light performance—of the relatively small Four Thirds sensor. The same can be said for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III.

With a DSLR-style design, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 isn’t as compact as the Olympus OM-D E-M10 IV. It also costs more. But it’s better for capturing video and for snagging broadcast-quality 4K footage that you can pull stills from, and it has a fully articulated touchscreen and an external-mic input. It’s worth considering for video enthusiasts, but most people will be better served by our top pick.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 is another good option for video-first shooters, offering smooth-looking 4K footage. But its photo quality isn’t quite as good as that of other cameras in its price range, especially in low light. Its battery doesn’t last as long, either, and it doesn’t have a flippable screen for selfies.

Anyone interested in Panasonic’s Lumix S5 would be better served going with the S5 II, because that model’s hybrid autofocus system is a noticeable improvement over the S5’s sometimes-wobbly, contrast-only AF.

We were impressed with the full-frame Panasonic Lumix S9’s compact design, and enjoyed the ability to create and apply custom visual styles (using lookup tables, or LUTs) via the Lumix Lab app. We liked the S9’s video quality, and also appreciated the versatility of Panasonic’s open gate setting, which records the video output of the entire sensor so you can use whatever aspect ratio you want. It also allows you to create multiple versions of a video with different aspect ratios after the footage has been captured.

But due to its unusually small size, the S9 doesn’t feel very well balanced with Panasonic’s current lenses. (The company says that it plans to add more compact lenses to its lineup eventually.) The camera is also missing a hot shoe, flash, and viewfinder—with no way to add any of them.

The Sony α7C II uses the same sensor as the Sony α7 IV, but has a smaller body reminiscent of the company’s APS-C cameras. It also has lower-resolution EVF and LCD screens, a single SD card slot, and no joystick to move the AF point or navigate through menus. It’s geared toward video capture, with a dedicated recording button and a shape that lends itself to use with a video rig.

We liked its video quality (despite some rolling shutter issues on faster pans) and were impressed with its AF tracking capabilities, but we ultimately feel that the α7 IV is a more well-rounded camera.

The Sony α7 III remains a wonderful mirrorless camera, with a plenty-adequate 24-megapixel sensor and fast burst shooting. It also has much better battery life than the α7 IV. But we’ve concluded that the newer camera’s improvements make it worth the extra money for people who are ready to spend on a full-frame body.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

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Phil Ryan

I’m based in New York City, and I spend most of my time testing and writing about cameras and lenses and all of the equipment that goes along with making photos. If I’m not up at dawn searching for birds, I might be wandering the streets of the city looking for the perfect sample image or capturing video that might trip up the encoding algorithms of these amazing machines.

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