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HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Editor's Choice - Part 1

By Team HardwareZone - 29 Feb 2012

Best Value DSLR Camera

Best Value DSLR Camera

DSLR cameras today, even entry-level models, deliver stunning image quality at an affordable price and small body. It's hard to pick a winner from the impressive candidates we had, but pick we did. Just to recap, according to our guidelines, we could only qualify candidates that were launched between December 2010 and November 2011. And for this segment, we singled out the best possible candidates that were under the S$1500 price range. Here then are the nominees:-

Nominees:

  • Canon EOS 600D
  • Nikon D5100
  • Sony Alpha A65

And the Winner Is...

The Sony Alpha A65 takes our Editor's Choice Award as the Best Value DSLR model.

What really lifts the A65 above the other two are what it can do that they cannot. Continuous shooting at 24MP up to 10 frames per second (the Canon 600D does 3.7fps, the Nikon D5100 does 4fps). AF in Live View which actually works (the AF in Canon & Nikon's Live Views are both slower to focus). An OLED EVF, which means you can not only see shooting information displayed through the viewfinder, but also change menu settings and see live previews - none of which are possible on the Canon and Nikon's optical viewfinders. It even has built-in GPS!

If there are any slights, it's that the A65 makes it difficult to get to manual AF point selection, the swivel LCD is swinging from the bottom instead of the side which means you can't do certain angles well (especially when mounted on a tripod), and that it's S$200 more. Also, how to change the single control dial's functions in Manual mode isn't obvious, you have to press and hold down the AV button while turning the dial. In terms of ISO performance, the noise levels on the A65 are slightly more destructive than the Canon 600D and Nikon D5100. Still, this is evident only when drilling down to 100% magnification, and at ISO settings up to ISO1600 we doubt that most casual users will notice.

To be honest, the Canon 600D, Nikon D5100 and Sony A65 are all very good cameras, and anyone who buys either one will be very happy with their purchase. But there's no way to deny that the Sony A65 brings features that are a cut above the rest, and if we have to call it then the A65 wins.

Editor's note: Sony's entrant was made available towards the tail-end of 2011, whereas the Canon and Nikon models were evaluated much earlier and thus the ratings are are not exactly cross-comparable with Sony given the progress of time and the changes in the market. As noted on the first page of this article, all ratings are valid at the time of review. Still, the Alpha 65 came out tops for all the described reasons above.

Scoring Breakdown
 Criteria/Model Canon 600D Nikon D5100 Sony Alpha A65
Physique 9.0 8.0 8.0
Features 8.0 9.0 9.0
User-Friendliness 8.0 9.0 8.0
Performance 9.0 9.0 9.0
Value 8.0 9.5 8.5
Overall 8.5 9.0 9.0
Price S$1199 (with 18-55mm kit lens) S$1199 (with 18-55mm kit lens) S$1399 (with 18-55mm kit lens)

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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