gavinlg
Veteran
In terms of RF's, Voigtlander is the best company. In terms of Overall cameras, I would say Canon and Olympus. Olympus for doing things differently, Canon for overall best technology.
No place for Mamiya or Hasselblad in this conversation? If not the absolute best, they're not far from the top, IMO.
Hasselblad should rot in hell for dropping Zeiss and the V series.
Anyway, I put Nikon because it the is the only camera company which always had an almost complete backward compatibility in their products.
GLF
From an RF forum's perspective (which is what this place is after all) I would have to say Cosina for having the balls to keep pushing the rangefinder concept when the world (mostly) seems to want DSLR's! I can't nominate Leica, although they've effectively done the same thing, because they've priced their cameras and lenses beyond the reach of the average individual wanting to try a rangefinder setup for the first time ... the price of an R3A represents loose change compared to an M7 (new) but effectively it does exactly the same job! Leica should thank Cosina for opening this door to 'rangefinder land' for many shooters who eventually buckle to peer pressure and sell their souls to the devil for ownership of the Leica status symbol.
Anyone not living on the street can afford a good use Leica M. I hardly see as having the best tools available as a status symbol.
See my earlier post - re. Pentax, they could soon be in trouble!Uh, Pentax has better backward compatibility than Nikon. Nikon omits metering w/ manual lenses on its cheapest DSLRs, Pentax doesn't. Aren't there focus confirmation issues as well w/ low-end Nikons?
M42, K mount, AF K mount, all these lenses operate well on Pentax DSLRs. No marketing-driven tech lockouts.
Hasselblad should rot in hell for dropping Zeiss and the V series.
...and unless someone buys it new, the company will cease to exist. Not such a crazy new concept.