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Sunday, November 15, 2015

Are Worldwide Camera Sales Still Declining?


Canon DSLR, Mirrorless and CinemaEOS cameras and EF lens

It is probably the worst kept secret to anyone following the photographic industry but camera manufacturers have been experiencing declining sales for the last few years. The main reason is due to changing customer preference and the advancement in many smartphone cameras.

Canon, the largest photographic equipment manufacturer in the world has experience a drop in profits in their latest quarter. They are hardly alone and based on data published by CIPA, the Japan-based Camera & Imaging Products Association, Mayflower Concepts published the charts below illustrating the trend in camera sales over the past decade.

It seems mirrorless cameras offered the industry a bright spot for about two years but now sales are leveling off and the increase in sales may have been at the expense of the traditional DSLR market.
There is no question smartphones have taken away some sales from the low end point-and-shoot and DSLR camera segment, but the best way to keep a photographic company relevant is to come out with the state of the art product to convince serious photographers why it is still the traditional DSLR camera that takes the best photos. What is more important than the number of DSLR sold is the mix of the sales, since low end cameras like the Rebel and SL series bring considerably less profit than the higher models like the EOS-5 and EOS-1 bodies.

My readers know, I have been a Canon user for about 25 years. Through the decades, I have used almost all of Canon's cropped and full frame, film and digital cameras and lenses. You can see my equipment bag and works on MichaelDanielHo.com. On my recently concluded Polar bear photo shoot in the Canadian sub Arctic, I have used both my smartphone and DSLR cameras to take photos and find the two types of photography perfectly compatible with each other.  I am waiting for the EOS-1D X Mk II and EOS-5D Mk IV to debut early to mid 2016 for my next DSLR purchase.





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