Creative Bloq Awards 2023: crafting and cameras winners

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Our judges have awarded the best cutting machines, craft accessories and cameras of 2023.

The Creative Bloq Awards 2023 winners week continues today with the announcement of the results in the crafting and camera categories. These include the coveted title of Craft Machine of the Year, plus best cutting machine, craft accessory and art printer. As for cameras, we awarded offerings in a range of categories, from best phone camera to best luxury camera.

Today's announcements are just a few of the more than 40 categories in the Creative Bloq Awards 2023. We've been announcing the winners throughout the week, recognising the best creative tech released in the past year, from laptops to games (see below for the schedule and links to the other announcements). You can see the full CB awards shortlist to view the competition and the Creative Bloq Awards website for more information on the awards.

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The Creative Bloq Craft Machine of the Year 2023 award goes to xTool's mighty P2 laser cutter and engraver. It's a large, heavy device that requires a dedicated space, but it's the most powerful cutter the judges had seen for domestic use. They appreciated the sturdy metal chassis and the large work area with a passthrough slot for extending the size of projects as well as the new curved surface engraving feature.

Read our guide to the best xTool machines

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Turning to our specific award for cutting machines, the judges opted for Siser's more portable and approachable vinyl cutter Siser Romeo, finding it to be a practical option for home crafters. The judges praised its quiet running and precision for fine details up to .01 millimeters.

Read our guide to the best vinyl cutting machines

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The Shaper Trace tool impressed our panel with its simplicity. It may be little more than a plastic frame and pen, but the judges found it to be a quick, flexible and economical way to turn hand-drawn designs into accurate vector images for graphic design and digital crafting, limited only by the imagination.

Read our Shaper Trace review

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Our best art printer award went to the Canon Selphy CP1500. The judges praised its evolution from its predecessor, the CP1300, retaining the small, light and compact form to offer an art printer that's relatively portable. The dye-sublimation technology avoids the clogged nozzles associated with inkjet printers.

Read our Canon Selphy CP1500 Mini review

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Turning the camera awards, the Nikon Z8 was named the Creative Bloq Camera of the Year. Judges were pleased that Nikon offered most of the same features of its top-of-the-range Z9 in a smaller body, with the same 45.7MP Stacked CMOS sensor and 20fps shooting rate plus 8K video at up to 60p and 4K at up to 120p.

Read our guide to the best cameras

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The Sony ZV-1 Mark II might not represent a major departure from its predecessor, but our judges appreciated the wider 18mm lens as a potential improvement for some streamers. The camera remains small and compact, ideal for vlogging on the go, autofocus is fast and accurate, and video quality still outshines that of a smartphone.

Read our guide to the best camera for YouYube

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Turning to the higher end of the new camera offerings of 2023, our judges loved the Leica Q3, praising the stunning results captured by the 60MP sensor combined with Leica's processing magic. With a compact size for a full-frame camera, the panel saw this as the perfect option for a luxury everyday shooter.

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Finally, turning to phone cameras, Samsung secured this year's award with the excellent Galaxy S23 Ultra. Our panel were impressed with the four rear cameras, including the main f/1.7 wide lens, and found that the pixel binning enabled by the 200MP sensor defied the doubters to offer great clarity and noise reduction in low light. 

Read our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review

Joe Foley
Joe Foley

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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