Two consumer cameras sit among Japan’s Good Design Award top rankings, as the Nikon ZR and Kodak Charmera earn a spot in the competition’s top 100 designs. But for the eighth year in a row, the brand with the most accolades from the international product design competition is a camera company: Fujifilm.
The Good Design Award gives out a badge to every entry that passes a quality and value screening, which means the list of 2026 winners has more than 1,400 entries, giving about 29 percent of the entries honors. A dizzying number of those awards have gone to cameras, from the unusual gimbal design of the DJI Pocket 4 series to the tiny Instax Pal 2.
While the program gives badges to every entry that meets its design standards, the program also gives out top-tier awards and a Top 100 designation. Two consumer cameras sit in the Top 100 for 2026, the mirrorless Nikon ZR and the viral keychain camera, the Kodak Charmera.
The Nikon ZR takes the Z6 III and crams it into a smaller body built for filmmakers – but also adds RED color science. The result is a camera that has now earned several accolades – including a TIME Best Invention as well as awards from EISA, TIPPA, Red Dot and iF. Digital Camera World gave the camera a 4.5-star rating, calling it “a true videographer's dream.”
The Kodak Charmera also sits among the top 100. The Charmera’s initial launch was so popular it sold out in 24 hours. The camera’s popularity is not due to what’s inside – it’s just 1.6MP – but rather stems from a tiny, retro blind box design at $35 / £35.
The brand that appears the most on the Good Design Awards list for 2026 is Fujifilm, which has 35 products earning honors, making it the eighth year in a row that Fujifilm has been the most-awarded company for the Good Design Awards.
Awarded Fujifilm cameras include the entry-level mirrorless X-T30 III and medium-format GFX100RF Fragment Edition. Instax swept even more awards with the Instax Pal 2, Instax Mini Evo Cinema, Instax Mini 13, Instax Mini 99 in silver, Instax Wide 400, Instax Link Wide 2, and Instax Mini Link+.
Fujifilm’s first disposable camera preloaded with black-and-white film, the Quicksnap Black and White, also earned an award along with the XC13-33mm f/3.5-6.3 OIS lens and several broadcast and cinema lenses.
Additional notable award winners among the entries include the Panasonic Lumix L10, the Canon EOS C50, and the DJI Pocket 4 series. The MyFirst Instant Print camera made for kids also won an award. (A Panasonic HyperSpectral Camera also sits in the top 100, but it’s an industry camera, not a consumer camera.)
Several lenses also won honors, including the Canon RF 7-14mm f/2.8-3.5 L Fisheye STM. Canon’s entire f/1.4 L VCM series and Nikon’s entire second-generation Z f/2.8 zoom lens series also earned recognition.
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