
Tokina Pulls 2025 Photo Contest Winner After AI-Generation Claims
Tokina disqualified and pulled the 2025 monthly photo contest winner after allegations that the image was AI-generated, spurred by a Reddit post. The company replaced the winning image with a photo by Lee Nuttall and said it would revise its judging process with additional checkpoints. The contested image reportedly bore a SynthID watermark suggesting AI use or heavy edits, though observers dispute the claim. PetaPixel has requested clarification from Tokina and the involved photographer, Abu Elias.













