The latest CIPA results show that May was an excellent and interesting month for the photography industry. For the January through May period, camera sales hit their highest levels in the past three years.
Camera sales have been on the up for several years now but that was mostly in contrast to how poorly the industry fared during the height of the pandemic. But this time, a research firm in Japan reports that the industry will grow for the first time in over a decade.
It's time for a State of the Union, Camera Edition. In recent years, we have seen some dramatically positive changes from all the major camera manufacturers, but nobody is perfect. Let's talk about each one's weak points.
The monochrome digital camera is an odd beast - something talked about in revered terms - with echoes reverberating from those hallowed Leica halls because it is only Leica that had dipped its toe in the proverbial monochrome waters... until now.
Innovation from Canon got me into photography, but sadly Canon and its competitors lost their way.
The camera market is a bastion of high tech as manufacturers constantly innovate to create market-leading products. Not only that, they appear to invest increasing amounts of money into research and development in order to stay relevant as the smartphone onslaught continues unabated. Or do they?
In a question and answer document attached to its second quarter 2022 financial results, Canon responds to an inquiry about the future of the camera market by saying it believes it "has largely bottomed out at its current size."
Over the last decade, mirrorless camera technology has evolved to the point that it's now a welcome technology for many photographers and filmmakers. Although, along the way, it's not been an easy ride for the big mirrorless camera brands. User sentiment, Japanese earthquakes, the pandemic, and newer technology adoption have all taken their toll, leading to spot fires in the manufacturing process and camera uptake.
The camera sector isn't exactly a thriving business at the moment, with year-on-year declining sales and a slew of manufacturers having exited the market.
The news of falling camera shipments is like the dripping of a faucet. It comes with a regular, steady, beat, and just when you think it has stopped... plink, there it goes again! So perhaps it's no surprise that CIPA -- the trade body for manufacturers -- has a downbeat forecast for 2022, but strangely seems to have missed the good news!
Cameras are expensive, and Canon is no stranger to hiking its prices when it sees fit -- the EOS 1D X Mark III flagship DSLR costs a fairly sizeable $6,500. But has it always been this way?
It's the dawn of a new era for OM Digital Solutions (OMDS) -- Olympus as was -- as it forges a new beginning, with a new camera, bearing the new name, and the last to be emblazoned with the Olympus logo. Is this the start of a golden age for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) or simply the beginning of the end for both OMDS and MFT?
The global silicon shortage has resulted in a lack of supply across the electronics industry and the camera industry has been particularly hard hit. A new report alleges that the problem may be worse than some realize.
It's no secret that Nikon has been having a tough time financially -- a result of an over-reliance on its Imaging Division -- and has been implementing a medium-term strategy to help balance the books and foster long-term growth. Results from its Imaging Division suggest it is struggling and possibly caught in a perfect storm.
Manufacturing silicon is patently not required in order to make cameras -- anyone can put together a pinhole model -- however, the wider point is more pertinent. To be a competitive, global, manufacturer, do you need to make the sensors that actually go into camera bodies?
Buying a new camera is about to get even harder, as exploding demand in China led by "live commerce" has led to increased supply issues on a system that already cannot meet demand.
The camera industry suffered a massive blow at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but began to recover just in time for the global supply chain to collapse. Very few want to openly discuss this problem, but the industry is currently in a tough spot.
While 2020 wasn't a particularly good year for camera manufacturers overall, by the late fall and into the winter the sales number had rebounded, returning to more typical numbers. Through the year, the big three -- Sony, Canon, and Nikon -- unsurprisingly led total production numbers.
A new article published by Business Journal in Japan revisits Nikon's current status in the country and cites a new report that found Nikon has fallen to fifth place in mirrorless cameras in the country with just 7.5% market share.
Doom-and-gloom stories of the state of the camera market have been pretty common over the past year due to COVID-19. But what if the data used to determine the health of the industry was flawed?
Since the completed transfer of Olympus's imaging division to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the company has not announced or even hinted at any concrete examples of new products. But the company has continued to put significant press efforts behind promising that it will... eventually.
In an interview with Asahi, the CTO of the newly-created OM Digital Solutions answered several questions about the company, its products, and its future. In it, why the imaging division was sold off, how long the company intends to keep the Olympus brand, and other details were revealed.
If you pay any attention to the photography industry, it's hard to ignore the news of the financial struggle that Nikon has been dealing with since late last year. What were once rumors are now confirmed: the company isn't in a good place. But that said, Nikon is going to be fine... probably.
While monitoring the camera market over the past year has been like riding a volatile roller coaster, now that 2020 is behind us it can be properly evaluated as a whole. BCN+R, a major Japanese camera retailer, has released its data from the whole of 2020 and it is unsurprisingly pretty bleak.
According to a report on Nikkei, Tamron has solicited 200 voluntary retirements from its two factories in the Aomori prefecture in Japan, equal to about 40% of its domestic factory workforce.
The Nikkei Asian Review's data gathering arm has published 2019 worldwide market share numbers on 74 different industries, including digital cameras. The new data point shows how each of the big three is faring in the first full year after Canon and Nikon released their full-frame mirrorless systems.
The photography industry has been shrinking and the COVID-19 pandemic has not made things any better. This smaller market is being shared by the same number of companies, which could mean some huge changes for the industry. As formats go, Micro Four Thirds isn’t looking strong through this time.
Olympus has announced that it is exiting the camera business in South Korea due to plummeting sales.
After the Second World War, if you were a professional photographer, then you would have used cameras from companies like Hasselblad and Leica. Photojournalists tended to shoot predominantly with Leica cameras, and they were essentially the standard.
It's a sad day for the photo industry. Imaging Resource, one of the most respected and uncompromising camera review websites in the world, is shutting down. The news became official earlier today when founder Dave Etchells sent an email to some of his friends and colleagues in the industry.