which is the best digital camera?

You left the number one brand (Canon) off the list! But the best camera is not determined by who makes it, but by what you, as a photographer, can do with it. What kind of photography are you talking about? After all, the best camera for a wedding photographer might be useless to a landscape photographer or a submarine biologist or an astronomer, or a someone who loves to shoot sports. My wife says the best camera FOR HER is the Olympus E630: she has tried plenty, including many tat were better specified and capable of making better images, but she has damaged her wrist, and the E620 is the only camera with the features she needs that she can actually carry and use for more than an hour. The best rated optical quality is not owned by any camera company (unless maybe by Leica) but by lens companies, and the Germans still have an edge over the Japanese in this area. If you exclude large format digital backs like the $30,000 Leaf systems, many professionals shoot with full-frame Digital SLR cameras. The best of these may be one of the Nikons, but many still swear by the top-of-the-line Canons, It depends on what you want it for. Amongst the smaller sensor APS-C type cameras, the best of breed for the last year or so was probably came the Nikon line-up, but now Canon's 7D has trumped them all with higher speeds, faster frame rates, more pixels and much better low-noise shots in poor light. Next month, that may have all changed. None of the big players wants to let their rivals get too far ahead of the pack.