As well as the "incredible" surge in entries, about 900 photographers had taken part, nearly twice as many as last year, a museum spokesman said.
Entries closed on Monday. The contest has been renamed the Otago Museum Photography Awards.
The museum wanted to increase the engagement with the community, bring the awards in line with other photography awards and into the digital world and create new partnerships, museum marketing co-ordinator Charlie Buchan said.
A new landscape photography category proved the most popular, attracting about 1381 entries, and the wildlife section gained its highest entries.
The new social media category gained almost 300 entries.
Mr Buchan was "stoked" with the overall response.
He was "really impressed" with the entries. His favourite was Jimmy Fraser’s "stunning" image of a rifleman.
The winner of this special social media category would be selected, also on social media, on June 15.
The main winners will be announced June 26 and all entries will then be displayed in the Beautiful Science gallery until September 17.
