Digital Cameras: Top 10 most popular posts of 2010
Hard to believe, but it's that time of year already: 2010 is winding down and everyone is getting nostalgic. Rather than bore you with a chronological year in review ("Canon/Nikon/Olympus/Panasonic/Sony introduces the world's first digital camera with _____!" -- just alternate among the top vendors and fill in the blank), let's take a look back at your favorite posts of the year, based on readership. It won't surprise anyone to find digital SLRs and other interchangeable lens cameras dominating the list, but read on to find a few less predictable chart toppers. I've listed posts in reverse order, ending with the most popular post of 2010.
For more popular digital camera topics, check out Rachel King's top 10 list as well.
10. New Sony Alpha NEX-5 and NEX-3 challenge Olympus E-PL1 and Panasonic DMC-G10
This year’s generation of compact mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, has finally targeted the aspiring consumer rather than a high-end dSLR shooter looking for a second camera. The lower end of the market saw a lot of action in 2010, with significant releases from both Olympus and Panasonic, who have lead the charge in this fast-growing category. But the biggest news for consumers looking to get dSLR-like image quality and lens flexibility in a smaller and lighter package came from Sony in May. Though late to the game, the aggressively priced Sony's Alpha NEX-5 and NEX-3 took the market by storm, giving Olympus and Panasonic a run for their money.
9. Picking the best photo book printing services
Last Christmas, my mad dash to create photo books out of digital snapshots lead me to blindly choose a photo book printing service without having done any research into which software and services were the best. In April, though, I discovered an incredibly detailed photo book roundup by Jason Dunn. A 15-page labor of love reviewing 12 different photo book services, it included 86 informative screenshots and images as well as a video review for each service. Based on the traffic to my post, it seems I'm not the only one who wants to know how photo book printing services stack up.
8. How to recover deleted photos from your SD card
Note to self: It's time to revisit the best file-recovery utilities soon. Considering the steady traffic this 2009 post (and a similar one from 2008) continues to pull in (and the panicked e-mails I continue to receive), people are still seeking out the best answer for prying their precious memories back from oblivion (a.k.a. deleted SD cards).
7. Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Top digital SLR cameras
No surprise here -- our annual Holiday Gift Guide is always a reader favorite and my list of top digital SLRs attracted plenty of gift-idea seekers. The most popular page of the guide was for the Canon EOS Rebel T2i, which is no big surprise either -- Canon's top-of-the-line consumer shooter is a crowd pleaser among reviewers and shoppers alike (see number 5 on this list for further proof).
6.Nikon's new D7000 midrange dSLR--a Canon 60D challenger
It's not just the entry-level dSLRs attracting all the attention. This fall saw back-to-back announcements of important midrange dSLRs from Nikon and Canon. Just a few weeks after Canon announced the EOS 60D, its replacement for the venerable 50D, Nikon came out with a serious challenger in the D7000. It's telling that while the 60D announcement didn't break my top 10 popular posts of the year, the Nikon's did. And the D7000 also landed on my co-blogger Rachel King's most popular post list as well, when the camera got a surprise early unboxing at BestBuy.
5.New Canon EOS Rebel T2i ramps 1080p HD video to 30 fps
Canon's flagship consumer dSLR features prominently in this year's popularity contest. Not only was the announcement my fifth most popular post of the year, but the camera also pulled in the most page views in my Holiday Gift Guide on the top dSLRs (see number 7 of this list). All this attention should come as no surprise, since the T2i is arguably the best dSLR for under $1,000 right now.
As a digital camera blogger, I'm always slightly embarrassed to fess up to how much I depend on my iPhone to snap photos these days. But it's fun, dammit! And it seems you think so to, given how much you read this post on top iPhone photo apps. From Photoshop Mobile to the now-ubiquitous Hipstamatic (pictured above), these 10 apps will keep your iPhone snap-happy.
3. Back to School Guide 2010: Best digital cameras for kids
You know, folks, this is supposed to be a serious business technology site -- what's with all the interest in toy cameras? I tease, of course, but it is interesting that up there with all the fancy dSLRs and interchangeable lens Micro Four Thirds cameras, my Back to School Guide on digital cameras for kids ranks among the most popular posts. In fact, there are still plenty of folks digging up even older round-ups of kids cameras I've done. Which is why I recently added a 2010 Holiday Gift Guide entry on digital camera gifts for kids.
2. Top 10 digital SLR cameras of 2010
Though there have been several new digital SLR announcements since I put together my Top 10 list back in June, most of the cameras on the list are still standouts, notably the aforementioned Canon EOS Rebel T2i as well as the Pentax K-x (pictured above), which though over a year old now, is still one of the best deals out there.
1. Top 10 compact digital cameras of 2010
Though the high-end digital cameras (read dSLRs and the like) often get the lion's share of attention, the heart of the market is still the compact point-and-shoot. Hot new releases like the Canon PowerShot S95 have shown up some of the cameras on my Top 10 list of compact digital cameras from May -- in the fast-paced world of digital cameras, any best-of list is by nature a moving target -- but all of the shooters on the list would still be a solid choice (and are likely lower in price by now).