The European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has announced its yearly photography gear award winners—and you may not be too surprised to see the Nikon Z8 bag its “Camera of the Year” award. As EISA puts it: “The Z8 is a powerful hybrid camera that offers most of the capabilities of the Z9 but in a more compact body.” Our Z8 review is coming later this month, but we’ve been very impressed with the Z9: Just check out Daniel Norwood’s full review and Nicolas Remy’s assessment of the camera’s performance in temperate waters.
The association hands the Sony Alpha 7R V its award for best “Advanced Full-Frame Camera,” while the best “Full-Frame Camera” award goes to the Canon EOS R6 Mark II. Not to be left out, Panasonic and Fujifilm pick up awards for best “Video Camera” and best “APS-C Camera,” respectively, for the Panasonic Lumix S5IIX and the Fujifilm X-H2. If you’re looking for the best compact camera of the year, you won’t find it—sadly, compact camera releases are a rare thing these days. But EISA does present an award for best “Content Creator Camera,” which goes to Sony ZV-E1. That camera turns out to be a great option for underwater video, too, as evidenced by the recent arrival of housings by Ikelite and Nauticam.
Finally, if you want to pick up a great and affordable full-frame mirrorless camera, you might consider the Canon EOS R8, which EISA crowns its “Best Buy Camera.” The $1,500 camera shares much in common with the higher-end EOS R6 Mark II, and inside Ikelite’s recently announced housing, it’s a fantastic way to start shooting high-quality images and video without breaking the bank.
When purchasing underwater photography equipment like the products mentioned in this article, please support DPG by supporting our retail partner—Backscatter.com.
