EISA names Z9 camera of 2022-23, X-T30 II best buy; wait, what?

The annual EISA photography awards have been dished out, and as always, there are some no-brainers and some what-the-hell picks.

EISA, The Expert Imaging and Sound Association, has just released its list of best cameras and lenses that one could buy for 2022 and 2023. For the most part, EISA does a bang-up job of picking the best gear for the categories up for grabs. However, every year, there always seems to be one or two outliers that raise a few eyebrows. Things are no different this year.

Below, we’ll list the winners and will question how some of the products got chosen. By all means, head over to the official EISA website to also see the complete list of award winners, too.

EISA Award winners — Cameras

As you can tell by the headline of this article, the Nikon Z9 won the EISA award for best camera 2022-23. This should come as no surprise. The Nikon Z9 is an absolute powerhouse packed full of innovations, including a full-time electronic shutter, perhaps the best autofocus system found in any mirrorless camera to date, and a brilliant 45.7-megapixel sensor. Bravo Nikon! After a slow start in the world of mirrorless cameras, you have more than made up for lost time.

I am super excited to see that the team over at OMDS (formerly Olympus) has also been rewarded for their hard work. The OM SYSTEM OM-1 (read our full review here) won the EISA award for the best Micro Four Thirds camera, and rightly so. The OM-1 is leaps and bounds in front of where older Olympus cameras currently reside. The new autofocus system and the improved sensor make the OM-1 a top buy.

Kudos to almost everyone

The award for the best APS-C camera rightly goes to the Canon EOS R7. The EISA award for the best full-frame camera has been bestowed upon the Sony a7 IV (read our review here), and the EISA crown for the best professional camera was placed on the hot shoe of the Canon EOS R3.

Rounding out the list are Sony EV-Z10 (our full review is here), which took the award for best vlogging camera, and the Panasonic Lumix GH6 (see our full review here), nabbed the prize for best photo/video camera.

The biggest head-scratcher regarding the EISA camera awards is the Fujifilm X-T30 II, which somehow took the award for ‘best buy.’ This is a camera that was nothing but a very poor update to the X-T30 (the X-T30 II has an updated LCD, a bigger buffer and a few firmware tweaks). Fujifilm, for some reason, also decided to remove the AC power adapter from the box. So, why this camera won the award for best buy is beyond me.

EISA award winners — Lenses

The EISA awards list for lenses is quite extensive. Still, like the camera awards, for the most part, the list is strong. The award for the lens of the year was given to Sony for the 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II. We fell in love with this lens when we had it in for review. So, we totally agree with this choice. Bravo, Sony. The best macro lens award went to Nikon for its NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S. The award for best manual focus lens was given to the Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO.

Videographers who create with a Sony E mount camera will likely agree with the Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F/4 G winning the EISA photo/video wide-angle zoom award. EISA gave the Panasonic 25-50mm f/1.7 the best photo/video zoom lens award. Meanwhile, the best standard lens award went to Fujifilm and its 33mm f/1.4 R LM WR.

Nikon scored a win with the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8. This monster prime nabbed the crown for the best professional telephoto lens. Sigma then took home the gold for the 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports (read our review here). This fantastic lens won the best superzoom lens award.

Sharpshooters

Next on the list is the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD. This lens took home the award for the best zoom lens. You can see how much we love this lens in our full review. Tamron won another award for its 28-75mm f/2.8 G2 as well. Again, you see why this lens is one of our favorite standard zooms in our full review.

Meanwhile, Nikon hit it big with the massive NIKKOR Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S. This behemoth scored the EISA award for the best telephoto lens. Sony’s hard work on the revamped 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II (our full review is here) paid off. This lens took the gong for the best telephoto zoom lens.

The 2022-23 EISA lens awards are rounded out with the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 (see our review here), which won the best travel zoom lens award. Finally, the Sigma 20mm f/2 DG DN (see our review here) took the best wide-angle lens award.

What do you think about the products that won the awards? Do you think different cameras and lenses should have won? Let us know in the comment section below.