Best Cameras of 2021

The cameras of 2021, ranked by critic grade. It is a short list: three reviews cover the year, two graded A and one graded B, and nothing earned an S. What defines it is the gap between the camera most people should buy and a professional body with no shutter at all, with a pocket compact third.

The Sony a7 IV leads, graded A, as the camera most people should buy, priced like Sony knows it. Its 33 megapixels split the difference between resolution and speed, and 4K60 arrives with a crop the spec sheet does not advertise. The Nikon Z9 follows, also graded A: a 45.7 megapixel stacked sensor with no mechanical shutter, twenty frames a second in raw, internal 8K video and a price that undercut its direct rival. Our critic calls it the first professional camera with no shutter at all, and the first to get away with it.

The Ricoh GR IIIx is the one B, an APS-C sensor behind a fixed 40mm-equivalent lens in a body under 300 grams, with snap focus for street work and video that exists only technically. The grade reflects the list of compromises its owners recite fondly, not the sensor, which genuinely fits in a front pocket. Between the two A grades, the choice is a body for most people at 2498 dollars or a flagship at 5499 for people who will use twenty frames a second.