PICK A WINNER IN THE 2023 BPI NEWS AWARDS

Don’t lose your voice! Choose your winners in our annual photo trade awards via email or our social media channels – and encourage your customers and peers to get in touch and do the same to maximise your own chances

This is your annual big chance to spotlight a great product or inspirational photo marketing campaign that you believe is worthy of recognition throughout the trade. Maybe it’s one of your own, or one of your industry peers. And yes, you can vote in more than one category. In fact, if suitably inspired, you can send us your choices for all of them.

As with last year’s nominations in the BPI News Trade Awards, we’re offering up a broader range of categories to be more inclusive and provide a wider breadth of recognition. Our categories awaiting your vote this year are as follows:

„ Retailer Of The Year (last year’s winner: Grays Of Westminster. Can anyone take their crown for 2023?)

„ Promotion Of The Year (previous winner: The Societies Convention & Trade Show)

„ Product Of The Year (last year’s winner: Nikon Z 9)

„ Accessory Of The Year (previous winner: Sigma 1850mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary zoom)

„ Innovation Of The Year (last year’s winner: Saramonic VGM Stabilisation Kit, via MAC Group Europe)

„ Media Of The Year (previous winner: Hahnemühle Natural Line Digital FineArt papers)

„ Printer Of the Year (last year’s winner: Epson SC-8500D, via the DPS Group)

„ Consumer Camera Of The Year (previous winner: Canon EOS R7 & R10 combo)

„ Campaign Of The Year (last year’s winner: Fujifilm ‘Print To Prove It’ campaign)

„ Distributor Of The Year (previous winner: Transcontinenta UK)

„ BPI News Special Award For Services To The Industry (A new category introduced last year, in recognition of an individual or a business, who over the years has contributed to the industry & made it a better place. Your winner for 2022 was Mr Cad’s Alex H. Falk.)

With our above list of categories in mind, doubtless you’ll be wracking your brain for pro and consumer cameras launched throughout 2023 that could conceivably win our Innovation of the Year and overall Product of the Year categories. You’ll also be recalling the most memorable promotional features printed in this magazine and deals and incentives highlighted during the past 12 months that could conceivably bag Promotion of the Year or Campaign of the Year.

Some Suggestions For Your 2023 Nominations

Need any pointers or reminders to fuel your nominations? We’re here to help.

The close of 2022 / start of the year bore witness to distributor Swains plugging the instant camera boom to customers via a pro-active A5 8-page colour brochure within the pages of women’s magazines Red and Grazia, while there were the usual cashbacks and savings for the trade’s customers via OM Digital Solutions and Tamron. Pentax also announced its first DSLR in ages in the ‘KF’, a rare sight in an age of mirrorless camera dominance. We also heard that Hahnemühle papers would henceforth be supplied via UK distributor Art Systems, while Transcontinenta UK dazzled us with the latest travel tripod offerings from its Leofoto, Peak Design, Cullmann and Velbon brands. January also saw Wex Photo Video opening its 13th store – this time in central Cambridge – and Fujifilm reflecting on its partnership with pro lab One Vision Imaging. Tetenal (now Dupli) was also showcasing that it had recently acquired distribution of Noritsu dry labs. Our February and March issue meanwhile carried details of Canon’s latest mirrorless cameras in the EOS R8 and R50, while there were new camera bodies from Panasonic too in the Lumix S5II and the slightly more video targeted S5IIx. Fujifilm continued to focus on instant print cameras with the launch of a special white edition of its Instax Mini Link 2 smartphone printer, while Nikon promised the trade and its customers new optics for spring in the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S and the Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8.There were new Nanlite lighting solutions too announced by Mac Group Europe, with its Forza and PavoTube series expanded. With content creation on the up, Falcam video accessories were taking flight from distributor Transcontinenta UK. BPI News also hosted a unique Q&A with photo software specialist Skylum, with it detailing how it was continuing to do business despite Russia’s invasion of its Ukraine homeland. Finally there were new lenses for full frame mirrorless cameras from Sigma in the

60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports and the 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art.

The focus in BPI News April / May was on Tetenal UK changing its name to Dupli as it looked to put clear water between its independence and its former parent company, with CEO Mike Fawcett telling us what had changed and why. New kit this month included the Sony ZV-E1, which the manufacturer was describing as the perfect in-camera content creator. Fuji continued to focus on Instax with a ‘bubblicious’ range of colours for its latest Instax Mini 12 camera. Canon told us elsewhere that it had kept the number one spot for DSLR and mirrorless cameras for the past 20 years, while Transcontinenta UK announced a spring and summer promotion on the Tamron lens line up. Printer specialist The DPS Group was inviting the trade to take stock of the latest printer line up from Epson, which now included new large format ‘P’ and ‘T’ series printers. Likewise as regards print, we heard of five reasons from Shackleton Photographic why it was worth becoming an independent retail partner of Fujifilm. Finally, we reported on a positive experience at the 2023 Societies Trade Show, where we witnessed an upbeat

HERE’S HOW TO VOTE

CEO in Colin Jones and positivity emanating from the photo industry.

June’s BPI News found us reporting on the best photography products in the world – as decided by the editors and journalists (including ourselves) who make up TIPA. There was also a fair bit of new photo gear on display in our news pages, with Canon introducing the EOS R100 camera body and RF 28mm f/2.8 STM lens. Fujifilm’s own new release in the compact and mirrorless X-S20 was similarly joined by a new XF 8mm f/3.5 lens plus ‘XApp’, allowing for remote control of its camera body via smartphone or tablet. Fuji owners also had a newly compatible Tamron lens in the 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD, while a second new Canon camera appeared in the ‘vlogging’ friendly PowerShot V10. Not to be outdone, Nikon trumpeted a new Z 8 camera; with an impressive 45 megapixel resolution, 8K video and a body some 30% smaller than its own flagship Z 9, this was the one to beat. Elsewhere Sony was rapidly expanding its line up of video first models aimed at content creators with the ZV-1 II, Leica launched the wellcrafted full frame Q3 at a £5,300 price tag and there was a new Fujifilm Instax SQ40 instant print camera for a more affordable £134.99.

The above are just pointers – and undoubtedly you’ll have your own favourites and additions. We’ll be announcing the winners in due course. So get involved now or get left behind…

Got a winner – or winners – in mind? Just mail us with your choices in all, or as many categories as you like, to info@bpinews.co.uk or DM or send us a message direct via ‘X’, the new name for Twitter via our regular address of @bpi_news

The nominees with the most votes are our eventual winners. It’s as simple as that! So don’t delay, have a think, and make sure you use your vote.

The closing date for votes is Friday November 10th. Winners will be notified and awarded in our end-of-year December 2023 edition.