What Digital Camera Awards 2012

2012 will be remembered as one of the busiest years in the photography industry. We've seen cameras arrive that were first announced last year, we've witnessed a huge number of new camera announcements at Photokina, not to mention the hundreds of accessories and lenses delivered to the WDC office for review.

In 2011 the Compact System Camera area of the market was a hive of activity and 2012 has been no different. There has been a plethora of new CSC's from all the major players in the market and after watching this area of the market very closely for the last few years, Canon joined the party by announcing the EOS-M - a CSC we're expecting to lay our hands on soon for a full review.

It's not just the CSC's that have taken the limelight in 2012. There have been many significant DSLR launches throughout the year for both professionals and enthusiasts too. As well as more affordable full-frame DSLR's being offered by Canon and Nikon with the EOS 6D and D600, Sony has added to its Alpha range by releasing the A99 - a full frame, digital semi-translucent model.

With so many new products passing through our hands it made the job of deciding the nominees for the What Digital Camera Awards very difficult indeed. After much deliberation we've compiled sixteen categories for all the gear that has been announced and reviewed in the last twelve months. The list of categories can be found below and we've added links through to all of our reviews so you can read up on each and every product that's made it through to these preliminary rounds. 

Best Consumer Compact 2012
Best Tough Camera 2012
Best Superzoom Compact 2012
Best Advanced Compact 2012
Best Consumer CSC 2012
Best Advanced CSC 2012
Best APS-C DSLR 2012
Best Full-Frame DSLR 2012
Best CSC prime lens 2012
Best CSC zoom lens 2012
Best DSLR Prime lens 2012
Best DSLR Zoom lens 2012
Best Accessories 2012
Innovation of the Year 2012
Camera of the Year 2012