Lens maker Tokina has taken back the top prize from its 2025 photo-of-the-month contest for breaking the rules, after a post on r/cameras accused it of honouring an AI image and called the choice shameful for a lens company, whether the picture was wholly synthetic or just heavily upscaled. The award, picked by employees across development, manufacturing, logistics and sales from the year's 12 monthly winners, now goes to a photo by Lee Nuttall, PetaPixel reported in April 2026.
Tokina apologised and promised extra checks before final judging. The image carries Google's hidden SynthID watermark, meaning it was either generated with Gemini's Nano Banana Pro or changed with a Google editing tool such as Magic Editor. Commenters and The Phoblographer faulted the judges for not asking for RAW files.
Not everyone is sure it is fake. Elias regularly posts nature photos that look genuine and has won other awards. One Redditor noted that Google's editors add SynthID even to routine fixes like swapping a sky, and linked a video by the photographer, Abu Elias from Oman, apparently of the same spot at midday, which suggests the sunset sky was replaced. PetaPixel said it had asked Tokina which rule was broken, and Elias for his side, and would update the story.
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