TIPA WORLD AWARDS 2018
THE EDITORS OF THE TECHNICAL IMAGE PRESS ASSOCIATION’S MEMBERS HAVE AGAIN MET TO DECIDE THE BEST IMAGING PRODUCTS LAUNCHED OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS. Camera EDITOR PAUL BURROWS WAS THERE TO
Once again the editors of TIPA’s 30 member magazines – including us, of course – sat down to select the winners in 40 categories of imaging products. It’s always a challenge, but then the winners can be really proud of their achievements. This year, Sony scooped the pool with a grand total of six awards, but you can read the full story by turning to page 17.
It’s always something of a miracle that 28 editors of photography magazines (and one website) from all around the world can sit down together and decide the winners in 40 categories of imaging products… without blood being shed or the police having to attend. Yet once again, the members of TiPa – the Technical image Press association – selected all the winners of this year’s TiPa world awards and we’re all still talking to each other.
The venue for the awards judging this year was casçais, which is on the atlantic coast not far from the Portugese capital, lisbon. You’ll note that there’s been a change to the awards title and the word “world” has been added to reflect TiPa’s global reach these days. having originally started in europe back in 1991, TiPa has been gradually expanding further afield so there are now members in the usa, canada, india, china, brazil and, of course, australia. Camera magazine was invited to join in 2010 so we were attending our eighth awards judging and are starting to feel like old hands at it. incidentally, TiPa’s european members are in the uK, france, germany, The netherlands, italy, spain, greece and hungary. and, just so you know, all the member magazines of Japan’s camera Journal Press club constitute a single member of TiPa and so have a single vote in the awards (likewise TiPa has one vote in the cJPc’s own product design awards).
while the TiPa world awards is always pegged at 40 categories, these are continually being tweaked to reflect changes in the market such as the growth of new imaging product areas like camera drones and 360 degree ‘virtual reality’ cameras. what’s been particularly noticeable over the last few years is the expansion of the categories covering mirrorless cameras (which now number eight, including those for lenses). The first ten categories still all relate to d-slrs, but the continued growth of the mirrorless camera business is indisputable. it’s also worth noting that there’s increasingly stiffer competition within the mirrorless camera categories while some of the d-slr categories are no longer quite so hotly contested. The prime example this was for professional d-slrs where nikon’s brilliant d850 was pretty much on its own (although it still would have taken something pretty special to beat it).
much of the judging process’s smooth sailing is down to the extensive groundwork put in by TiPa’s Technical committee, which works all year to compile a workable shortlist of potential candidates. not long before the actual judging sessions, this list is issued to all the members for comments and amendments so, when we all eventually sit around a table for the final deliberations, we’re only focusing on the products with a truly legitimate claim to a category crown. of course, there’s still plenty of discussion and debate, but it’s always a lot more constructive than would have been the case without a well-prepared shortlist.
notable this year is sony’s haul of six awards, five of them for mirrorless products – including all the a series bodies launched in the last 12 months – which is surely an indication of the company’s gathering strength in the ilc market. it’s also just reward for some truly remarkable cameras (a9 and a7r iii in particular) and a herculean effort to build up the fe mount lens system from essentially nothing. There’s clearly a determination to succeed here which rivals, both in mirrorless cameras and d-slrs, ignore at their peril.
other multi-award winners this year were canon (five), nikon (four), Panasonic (three), and manfrotto, sigma and Tamron (which each won two).
with sony clearly on a roll, fujifilm promising big things at this year’s Photokina, and both nikon and canon likely to launch their full-35mm mirrorless camera systems some time during the next 12 months, the judging of the 2019 TiPa world awards will be more challenging than ever...