Digital Camera Sales are in Free Fall

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Digital Camera Sales are in Freefall image

^{Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash}

We’ve had tons of new cameras debut in the last year or so, and that has been exciting to see (and even more exciting to play with them).

But despite a bevy of new mirrorless cameras from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and other camera companies, as well as a continued commitment to DSLR production, digital camera sales are in the proverbial toilet.

A report by the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) outlines a harrowing situation for camera companies. Not only are DSLR cameras not selling, but there has also been a dramatic decrease in mirrorless camera sales as well.

According to CIPA, shipment of digital cameras as whole dropped by nearly 75% from June 2018 to June 2019. In that same timeframe, DSLR shipments dropped by 56.8% and mirrorless shipments dropped by a whopping 79.8% from 2018 to 2019.

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^{photo by EXTREME-PHOTOGRAPHER via iStock}

This precipitous drop isn’t relegated to DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, either. Over the same period, lens shipments dropped by more than 67% and compact camera shipments dropped by nearly 90%. Yikes.

Obviously, compact camera sales have tanked because of the increasing quality of smartphone cameras, so no one really needs a compact camera anymore.

But the steep drop in mirrorless cameras and lenses, and to a lesser extent, DSLRs, is quite alarming.

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^{photo by LDProdvia iStock}

Take Canon, for example. They’ve shifted focus to their EOS R mirrorless cameras, yet the company saw a nearly 25% drop in sales in the second quarter of this year. According to this report, that translates into a 64% profit loss.

Canon blames the lack of sales in large part on the current trade war between the United States and China.

To entice buyers, Canon, Nikon, Sony, and other companies have begun to offer bundled packages, like the Canon EOS R with an EF lens adapter.

We’ll see if this bundling strategy paired with even more mirrorless cameras coming to market can turn things around for digital camera sales in the coming months and years.

^{Via No Film School}