TIME’s 300-strong 2026 Best Inventions list features cameras from Nikon, GoPro, Fujifilm, and HoverAir. The Honor Robot Phone, Asus Zenbook Duo, and iPhone Duo are in too.
The Nikon RED ZR, GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS, Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema, and HoverAir Aqua all made TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 list, while elsewhere there were also awards for the Honor Robot Phone, Asus Zenbook Duo, and the Apple iPhone Duo.
TIME Magazine certainly knows how to hog a news cycle. It started its Person of the Year award back in 1927 (then, inevitably Man of the Year, with the first winner being aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh), and has curated quite a stable including the TIME100 Most Influential People, Most Influential Companies, and a whole lot more.
Apart from the years when Person of the Year goes rogue and names someone truly horrendous for their negative impacts on the world, our favorite is the Best Inventions awards, which started in 2000. As with everything else in the modern listicle- and SEO-dominated publishing industry, this has expanded hugely from an initial 35 or so entries to 300. That means it’s almost less surprising to find four cameras on the list than that there aren’t more.
These are the award-winning cameras, and there is something for everyone in there, as they also extend to drones and phones. Well, almost something for everyone, as there is no award for what is probably the hottest camera category of them all, a dedicated gimbal camera. Nor can we find any record of one in recent years, which seems a bit of an oversight.
Anyway, onwards with 2026’s crop.
2026 award winners
Nikon RED ZR: “Smartphones made quality video recording accessible to almost everyone, but there’s still a chasm between the amateur clips on TikTok and the polished productions in movie theaters,” writes TIME. “Nikon’s bid to bridge that gap is the Nikon Red ZR, an ultra-lightweight, full-frame camera designed for emerging cinematographers and high-end content producers.”
GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: “While action cameras can shoot anywhere, they’re not known for producing movie theater-quality footage. The GoPro Mission 1 PRO ILS shatters that silver ceiling.”
Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema: “Oodles of analog charm in a digital-friendly package,” says TIME.
HoverAir Aqua: “The team had to balance weight and waterproofing as well as figure out successful take off and landing in water, which reflects light and challenges the sensors used in most consumer drones to gauge distance from the ground.”
Honor Robot Phone: “The Honor Robot Phone includes a 360-degree rotating gimbal that, upon activation, swivels the camera out from the back of the phone, where AI software helps it track and interact with subjects, or you, in selfie mode, as they move.”
Meanwhile, other award winners that are part of the regular RedShark beat include:
Asus Zenbook Duo: “The new Asus Zenbook Duo, made with top-end components like Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chip and a 1TB SSD, appears indistinguishable from a conventional 14-in. touchscreen laptop. But here, the keyboard is actually a Bluetooth peripheral attached by magnets. Lift them up to reveal a second, equally vivid 14-in. touchscreen.”
Apple iPhone Duo: “Apple has been exploring the [foldable] concept for years. In 2011, when many people still carried around flip phones, Ternus and five other engineers filed a patent application for foldable electronic devices, exploring what kind of batteries and circuit boards might be needed for such an idea.”
DDJR Productions DualShot Recorder: "Influencers and hobbyists alike have long lamented the fact that smartphones can’t record horizontal and vertical video at the same time—a real annoyance when you’re trying to optimize clips for multiple platforms." And man, don't we all wish we'd thought of that one. We'd probably have enough money to buy ourselves the equally award-winning Vestaboard Note (below) if we had.
Congrats to them all.