It is probably the worst kept secret to anyone following the photography industry but many 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 experienced drops in profits in the last few quarters but they had a good 2017 and as you can see from the chart above, their market share has actually increased gradually from 2012 to 2017.
Canon may be a bright spot among its competitors and they have 93 reasons why not to fear smartphones but based on the most recent data published by CIPA, the Japan-based Camera and Imaging Products Association, sales have not improved much for the other manufacturers.
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 end models like the EOS-5 and EOS-1 bodies.
My readers know, I am the Wildlife Ho-tographer using Canon equipment for almost 30 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 previous trips like the photo shoot in the Peruvian Amazon, I have used both my smartphone and DSLR cameras to take photos and find the two types of photography perfectly compatible with each other. More important than smart phones or cameras is a smart photographer, with the proper skill and experience to adapt and make the best of the situation at hand. I use the EOS-1D X Mk II and EOS-5Ds cameras as main bodies for my work.
No comments:
Post a Comment