EISA Awards 2026: no Sony clean sweep this year as Nikon snags "Lens of the Year" crown as photography winners announced

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The Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has announced its 2026/27 winners and, unlike last year, which saw Sony win the sweepstakes across the best lens and best camera categories, this year Nikon has mixed things up.

Each year, EISA – a major consumer technology awards group currently formed of 51 technology-related publications – announces winners across a range of technology product categories, including hi-fi audio, home theater and photography.

2026/27 has seen a new "Lens of the Year": the Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S II . The Nikon lens, which has already made a name for itself for producing sharp images across the frame, dethroned the Sony FE 50–150mm f/2 GM .

EISA particularly praised the internal zoom construction for bolstering its video-making abilities, calling the Nikon lens professional glass "without any weaknesses."

The Nikon win meant that there was no Sony clean sweep like last year, but the mirrorless camera giant did retain its "Camera of the Year" crown, which EISA awarded to the Sony A7 V . The latest installment in Sony's coveted prosumer range, the A7 V has dominated sales charts in Japan since its release just shy of one year ago.

It has been praised for its 33MP hybrid stills-video performance, thanks to the partially stacked 33MP sensor and BIONZ XR2 processor, which deliver fast readout speeds and reduced rolling shutter artifacts.

EISA – whose expert member publications' editors test all awarded products – commended the A7 V for its "cutting-edge photographic technology", making it a suitable rig for "virtually" all kinds of shoots.

Sony also captured the "Professional Camera" award with its A7R VI . The 67MP full-frame beast is Sony's latest release and combines a new dedicated AI processing unit and a fully stacked sensor. EISA said the professional rig boasted "dramatically improved" subject recognition and tracking compared with the previous model, the A7R V .

In other categories, Fujifilm won the "Best Buy Camera" award with the X-T30 III , while the cropped-sensor giant was also recognized as the best APS-C camera producer thanks to the X-E5 .

Tamron captured a pair of awards, too, including "Wide-Angle Zoom" with the 16-30mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 and "Standard Zoom Lens" for its 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD .

To see all of the 2026/27 EISA Award winners, head to the awards website .

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