We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Camera of the Year 2018 award goes to the Sony A7 III.

“Sony referred to the A7 III as a "basic model" during their early promotion, whether jokingly or not, but the A7 III is far from being basic. Indeed, it's so well-specced on paper that it surprised a lot of people who weren't expecting such a well-appointed camera, and thankfully that promise has been borne out in practice - the new Sony A7 III is an outstanding camera, and a veritable steal considering its price-tag.”

Read our full Sony A7 III review.

Congratulations to Sony!

Honorable mentions go to the Fujifilm X-T3, Nikon Z 6, Nikon Z 7 and the Sony A7R III.

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Mirrorless Camera of the Year 2018 award goes to the Fujifilm X-T3.

“The Fujifilm X-T3 is the best APS-C mirrorless camera on the market, whether you're a photographer, videographer or a mixture of both. The idea of a small, portable, lovely to use camera that could shoot stills at 30fps and 10-bit video at 60fps would have been laughed at a few years ago, but can now be yours at an even lower launch price than its predecessor.”

Read our full Fujifilm X-T3 review.

Congratulations to Fujifilm!

Honorable mentions go to the Sony A7 III and the Nikon Z 6.

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The DSLR Camera of the Year 2018 award goes to the Nikon D3500.

“The new Nikon D3500 retains the same core feature-set as its predecessor, the D3400, but presents it in a smaller, lighter and more logical design that's very reminiscent of the mid-range D5600 camera. A couple of things have been sacrificed along the way, but overall the Nikon D3500 is a better entry-level DSLR camera than the previous model.”

Read our full Nikon D3500 review.

Congratulations to Nikon!

An honorable mention go to the Pentax K-1 Mark II.

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Compact Camera of the Year 2018 award goes to the Sony RX100 VI.

“The new Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI is a travel zoom camera par excellence, taking the RX-series in an entirely new direction with its 24-200mm lens and easily outperforming its main rivals thanks to all of its cutting-edge tech.”

Read our full Sony RX100 VI review.

Congratulations to Sony!

Honorable mentions go to the Fujifilm XF10 and the Panasonic Lumix LX100 II.

The new Lume Cube Lighting Kit is the first and only custom lighting solution on the market for the DJI Mavic 2 that incorporates continuous light and strobe capability.

After a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, Lomography are excited to announce that the Diana Instant Square is now LIVE! They have started shipping to the Kickstarter backers and the camera is now available for regular purchase online and in store too. The Diana Instant Square is the first instant camera with interchangeable lenses and a hot shoe mount. All the existing Diana F+ lenses fit this new camera which makes it super versatile.

Instagram user and artist @nohcheonwoong was seemingly so incensed by the performance of the Canon EOS R mirrorless camera that he decided to turn it into an art installation by painting it, top to bottom, front to back. Commenting:

"I'm teaching this camera the reality. This camera (eosr) could not capture the light of my works of art. So, It become to be useless for me any more. The engineers have to study more. At my exhibition, You can meet the works of art which canon digital camera could not capture. 2018.12.14-23 "Anti-Focus IV _ the reality of being our technology and consciousness-" Duru artspace _ Seoul, Korea"

Quite the £2300 / $2500 sacrifice, but we guess anything's worth it in the name of art...

Instagram user Yusuf Kathawala (@yusufk1207) has published the first real-world shot of the upcoming NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens mounted on the Nikon Z7 mirrorless camera.

You can't actually see all of the lens in the photo, but even so, it's clearly going to be huge!

Accroding to yusufk1207, who seems to be an employee of Nikon Professional Services in India, the NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens will be available in January 2019 "most probably".

Tenba is introducing the brand new Ridged Lens Capsules – offering hard core protection for lenses carried on the outside of camera bags, on a belt or waist-pack. Also, two new Gear Pouches – which feature a handy window to view contents.

Loupedeck, the custom photo & video editing console built with an intuitive design that makes editing faster and more creative, has announced its first integration with Adobe Photoshop CC 2019.

It looks like the new Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III compact camera will be released soon, as product images emerge on rumour site Nokishita.

Nokishita are reporting that the successor to the 2 year old Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II model will have built-in Wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity, sport a 8.8 - 36.8 mm F1.8 - 2.8 lens, use the NB-13L battery, and be available in two colours, black and silver.

We should find out more when the CES 2019 show opens its doors in early January...

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Smartphone of the Year 2018 award goes to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

“In terms of the photographs the Mate 20 Pro can produce, once again Huawei has produced an extremely impressive device. Images are very detailed, have fantastic colours and with three different focal lengths to choose from, it’s a very flexible option to have in your pocket. The ability to shoot in raw format, or to take control via the Pro mode, is also extremely appealing to enthusiast photographers.”

Read our full Huawei Mate 20 Pro review.

Congratulations to Huawei!

Honorable mentions go to the Google Pixel 3 and the Huawei P20 Pro.

Sony has introduced three new professional ATOM X SSDmini products designed for use in ATOMOS recorders.

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Lens of the Year 2018 award goes to the Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art.

“Overall, the Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art concedes a couple of mm in wide-angle focal length to its 12-24mm sibling, but gains a faster f/2.8 aperture, better weather-sealing, wider focus ring, less barrel distortion, and, somewhat surprisingly, a lower price-tag, making it worthy of our highest Essential! accolade.”

Read our full Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art review.

Congratulations to Sigma!

Honorable mentions go to the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO and the Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2.

We're revealing our favourite products from 2018 in our annual awards, looking back at the essential photography kit that helped to define 2018.

The Accessory of the Year 2018 award goes to the BenQ SW271 monitor.

“...if you’re a photographer or videographer who is looking for a large-screen with superb image quality, then it would make for a great investment. Photographers in particular should enjoy the fantastic colour accuracy and high level of detail that the monitor provides.”

Read our full BenQ SW271 review.

Congratulations to BenQ!

Honorable mentions go to the Billingham Hadley Small Pro and the Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-26EX-RT.

The new Irix 150mm f / 2.8 Macro 1: 1 is the most compact and lightest macro telephoto lens in its class.