It’s TIPA time

Roll up, roll up, to the competition where everyone is a winner! Yes folks, it’s TIPA time – where the love is shared around like it’s 1969 and we are back at Woodstock.

This year, due to Coronavirus, the editorial representatives of the 26 magazine editors who comprise the TIPA judging panel had to cancel their expenses-paid annual junket/awards dinner in Las Vegas. Bummer – but they hope to re-schedule. Last year it was held in Tokyo. In 2018, Bangkok was the location.

Starting out with a modest five product categories in 1991, there are now 40 TIPA awards. A crowded field of excellence, you might think, but when you understand that companies with winning products pay a hefty fee to use the TIPA Awards logo (‘the highest accolade for any photo and imaging product’), the logic of TIPA’s incredible expanding product categories is clear. And it’s probably just a co-incidence, but having a spread of awards across a large number of prospect manufacturers has a certain business model logic to it too.

In the weeks after the TIPA announcements the email in-tray becomes home to multiple TIPA press releases. This year the Canon spinmeisters were first off the mark with this morning’s: Canon awarded five prestigious 2020 TIPA World Awards – demonstrating its commitment to innovation. Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm will be among those who follow in the next few days outlining what their collection of prestigious perspex trophies demonstrate about them. They will all get a run on a range of undiscerning websites, generally word for word, because, well, it would be rude not to run a press release when a potential advertiser has taken the trouble to send it in.

Actually, there was one notable absence from the list of leading manufacturers winning a gong this year: Olympus didn’t get a look-in. Perhaps because there was no Micro Four Thirds category – who knows? There were some other weird category omissions. TIPA gave an award for a chintzy little portable printer but none for any desktop photo printer or a wide format printer. There is an award for a travel tripod but not just a tripod. Two awards for portable lighting options but nothing for studio flash. Anyways, here’s the full list of 2020 TIPA Awards:

CAMERAS

DSLR Advanced Camera: Canon EOS 90D

DSLR Expert Camera: Nikon D780

DSLR Professional Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III

APS-C Camera Advanced: Nikon Z50

APS-C Camera Expert: Sony α6600

APS-C Camera Professional: Fujifilm X-Pro3

Full Frame Camera Expert: Sigma fp

Full Frame Professional Camera: Sony α7R IV

Full Frame Photo/Video Camera: Panasonic Lumix S1H

Medium Format Camera: Fujifilm GFX100

Expert Compact Camera: Sony RX100 VII

Vlogging Camera: Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III

Premium Compact Camera: Fujifilm X100V

LENSES

DSLR Professional Lens: AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR

DSLR Prime Lens: Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD

DSLR Macro Lens: Venus Optics Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO

DSLR Wide Angle Zoom Lens: Tokina atx-I 11-16mm f/2.8 CF

MFT Lens: Panasonic Leica DG VVario_Summilux 10-25mm f/1.7 ASPH

Mirrorless Prime Standard Lens: Nikon Z 58mm f/0.95 Noct.

Mirrorless Prime Wide Angle Lens: Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 RF

Mirrorless Wide Angle Zoom Lens: Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN | Art

Mirrorless Standard Zoom Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | Art

Mirrorless Telephoto Zoom Lens: Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

Professional Portrait Lens: Canon RF 85mm Ff/1.2L USM (DS)

LIGHTING

Portable LED Light: ARRI Orbiter

Portable Flash: Nissin MG80 Pro Flash

THE REST:

Inkjet Photo Paper: Hahnemühle Natural Line

Portable Printer: Fujifilm instax mini Link

Imaging Software: DxO PhotoLab3

Imaging Storage Solution: SanDisk Extreme Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type B memory cards

Travel Tripod: Manfrotto Befree GT XPRO

Tripod Head: Gitzo 3-Way head

Photo Monitor: BenQ PhotoVue SW321C

Professional Video Monitor: LG UltraWide 38WN95C

Photo Smartphone: Huawei P90 Series

Mobile Accessory: Godox R1

Colour Management Solution: X-Rite i1 Display Studio / i1 Display Pro Plus

Photo Lab: WhiteWall MasterPrint

Photo Service: CEWE Photobook with leather and linen

Photo Innovation: Sony Real-Time Tracking technology