The prestigious TIPA World Awards ceremony, a highlight in the global photo and imaging industry, took place on October 10, 2024, at the Salon de la Photo in Paris, France. This event, hosted by TIPA Chairman Thomas Gerwers, marked a significant milestone as it celebrated the latest innovations and achievements in photo and imaging technology. Attended by representatives from the 40 winning companies, the ceremony showcased the results of a year-long effort involving rigorous research, testing, and evaluation by TIPA members.
The official quote, above, would not be something that I would write about here at PVC without a reason, as the Technical Image Press Association, which I saw being created, in 1991, with the goal to really award the best efforts in the industry, has turned into a “awards machine” that distributes awards to dozens of categories.
For those who are not aware, here is a note from TIPA’s website about the awards when it was created:
In 1991, when TIPA was founded, members of the association met for the first time to nominate the first best photo products. They agreed to limit the number of awards to five, and the winners were: the Contax RTS III (Best film SRL camera), the Fujifilm DL-500 Mini Wide (Best film compact camera), the Agfa Optima (Best colour negative film), the Sanyo ES88P (Best camcorder) and, looking into the future, the Kodak Photo CD (Best technology & design).
Although I understand that times have changed and the variety of products calls for a wider range of “awards”, TIPA has followed the same path as other associations and is now distributing awards for almost everything. Examples? In 2019 the website “4/3 Rumors” had a title, “As usual the TIPA awards has been won by everybody 🙂” to share the news, and in 2023 the DeadPixels Socitey website wrote “TIPA World Awards 2023 recognize dozens of products”.
These are not isolated examples and in 2021, for example, the website DIY Photography wrote that “TIPA was generous in its best gear awards for 2021” and commented, in the text, that “As I mentioned, almost every major manufacturer was awarded”.
How distant we are from the five awards given in 1991 by TIPA!
I do not doubt the member publications in the photo/imaging field published in print and online that are part of TIPA do their best to test and evaluate products, but I am not so sure their efforts translate into more than a marketing asset for companies. After the yearly announcement of the awards, a competition between brands starts, with press-releases sharing how many awards each company received… and readers deciding their next acquisition based on the awards given by TIPA.
So, what’s has changed in 2024? Well, a new Photographers’ Choice Awards was introduced by TIPA. This new initiative, “conducted through an online poll among readers of TIPA member magazines, highlighted the public’s favourites across five major product categories”.
With the Photographers’ Choice Awards TIPA goes back to its roots, as there are only FOUR categories announced… one less than in 1991. There are five categories mentioned by TIPA, but apparently there were no votes for “the favourite service”.
According to the Technical Image Press Association “the announcement of these awards underscores TIPA’s ongoing commitment to engaging with photography enthusiasts and professionals, reflecting their preferences in the dynamic world of imaging technology.” I would add that by creating the awards the association expects to motivate readers to participate in the choice of the best products and give the TIPA Awards a new paint that will help it to keep distributing awards. Here are the winning products:
- Favourite Camera of the Year: Nikon Z 8
- Favourite Lens of the Year: Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena
- Favourite Accessory of the Year: BenQ PhotoVue SW272U 4K Photo Editing Monitor
- Favourite Software of the Year: DxO Photolab 7 Elite
TIPA adds that “these selections reflect the preferences and votes of TIPA member magazine readers, offering insight into the products that photographers themselves regard as top-tier in the market” a note to which one more must be added: the list of products readers could vote on was defined by TIPA, from the most popular products available. Still the choices were made by readers from the 28 TIPA member publications around the world.
The Photographers’ Choice Awards are the reason for this piece of news to appear here. That and the fact that DxO PhotoLab 7 won the Photographers’ Choice in the software category. And yes, it did win the Best Imaging Software Professional from TIPA, if you want to know. Not that it matters, except for marketing purposes.
Jean-Marc Alexia, VP of Product Strategy at DxO, shared his excitement: “Receiving a TIPA Award for the tenth time, alongside the Photographers’ Choice Award, is both an honor and a testament to the enduring quality of our software. At DxO, we are driven by our love of photography, and our mission is to provide passionate photographers with the very best tools to unlock the full potential of their images.”
TIPA’s recognition of DxO PhotoLab 7 highlighted groundbreaking updates, including enhanced color calibration, a pack of exclusive LUTs, upgraded ColorWheel, monochrome editing excellence, and unmatched DeepPRIME XD noise reduction. In September, building on the success of PhotoLab 7, DxO launched DxO PhotoLab 8, introducing next-level DeepPRIME XD2s noise reduction complete with live previews, hue range masks, a uniquely enhanced tone curve tool, improved lens softness compensation, and a smarter, faster workflow.