GEAR OF THE YEAR

Your guide to the best, most exciting and most innovative photographic kit of 2024

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The past 12 months never failed to both amaze and surprise. The amazement was really only a matter of time: AI has become the next big thing in imaging, as it has every other walk of life. New flagship cameras have eschewed the megapixel battleground and embarked on a new arms race powered by artificial intelligence and this has led to some incredible new technology.

The surprise came with the continued resurrection of film and film-inspired photography. A whole new generation continues to embrace the analogue aesthetic, which led to Pentax launching its first new film camera in 20 years and Fujifilm placing its Film Simulations front and centre on its mirrorless cameras.

Our Gear of the Year roundup is the culmination of our Kit Leaderboard rankings, which ran in Digital Photographer throughout 2024. This is the definitive guide to what has proved to be the best kit of the year - not just in a bubble, based on its score on the day we reviewed it, but in the context of all the gear that has been released. The winners of this battle royale are truly deserving of the crown.

CAMERA OF THE YEAR

THE YEAR OF THE SEQUEL

These models aren't original, but they are far from cookie-cutter follow-ups

Can you really have too much of a good thing? Not in the camera industry. While we love seeing brand-new bodies that do groundbreaking things, there's nothing better than a Mark II (or, in Sony's case, a Mark III) that takes what was good about the original and raises it to greater heights.