2019: Nikon did well in SLRs, Mirrorless not so much

[CameraQuest]

Nikon sold tons of DSLRs in 2019, but not so many mirrorless cameras



The following data is coming from an article posted on nikkei.com - Nikon kept the #2 spot in interchangeable lens camera shipments for 2019, but in the mirrorless segment, Nikon is even behind Olympus (Olympus basically gave up on their camera business):

Shipments of interchangeable lens cameras in 2019:

Canon: 4.16 million
Nikon: 1.73 million
Sony: 1.66 million
Fujifilm: 500,000
Olympus: 330,000
Others: 280,000

Mirrorless camera shipments in 2019:

Sony: 1.65 million
Canon: 940,000
Fujifilm: 500,000
Olympus: 330,000
Nikon: 280,000
Others: 240,000

Via Digicame-info

damn, I wonder if Canon is counting smart printers as cameras :angel:

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The same could be said for Canon.

From the numbers you posted, about 1/6 of Nikon's camera sales were mirrorless, while about 1/4 of Canon's sales were mirrorless. Canon certainly did better than Nikon, but neither company really is doing well with mirrorless.

I'm really amazed that so many SLRs are still being bought.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I have Canon RP and totally understand why many still buying DLSR. One thing is static objects, weddings and such and another is anything which moves fast.
AF points everywhere on the mirrorless sensor is totally awesome. But processors and EVF for 1/4000 shutter speed and burst instead of nothing but mirror...
RP is FF mirrorless cheapo camera which could barely handle people and pets moving at home. But I doubt if twice, triple more expensive EVF FF cameras are handling sports and BIF better.

I'm surprised Canon is second for mirrorless. Their nRF lens lineup is awful, IMO. Overpriced and way too huge in size to be practical in 2020. Sony is decade ahead with compact FF mirrorless lenses, including impressive by compactness and weight third party lenses.
Canon earlier announcement of nRF was with mentioning of making more compact lenses, but it went to the opposite with most of the L lenses been behemoths on mirrorless oxpeckers.

 

[jgrainger]

I don't keep track of modern cameras but find it somewhat amusing that Nikon are doing so poorly.. they could surely build just about any camera yet here we are with various horrors.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

When you think that virtually all of Nikon's mirrorless cameras sold in 2019 would be Z6s and Z7s selling at near MSRP (the Z50 only came out in November 2019 I believe), versus older model Sonys still in the line and selling for reduced prices, I suspect Nikon did better financially than these numbers seem to indicate.

Also the "Others" categories are interesting. I would think the "Others" would be basically Panasonic and Pentax. Panasonic doesn't make SLRs and Pentax doesn't make mirrorless, so could we safely assume that Panasonic sold 240,000 mirroless ILCs and Pentax sold 40,000 SLRs (280,000 total "Others" ILCs minus 240,000 mirrorless ILCs)? If so, I am even more worried about the future of Pentax than I was before.

 

[css9450]

When you think that virtually all of Nikon's mirrorless cameras sold in 2019 would be Z6s and Z7s selling at near MSRP (the Z50 only came out in November 2019 I believe).....

True, I would think the sales trend would be going up soon if not already. How long was the wait at the beginning when B&H had trouble keeping up with demand (or maybe that was back in 2018)?

 

[benlees]

Surprising numbers. Canon has been the 'top' for cheapo SLR's for a long time, but 4 million?! In 2019?! And almost a million mirrorless? I can't even name one...

 

[farlymac]

Two things to be taken into consideration when it comes to Nikon mirrorless sales. One, they were so late to the game that many who were waiting either gave up and switched brands, or invested really deep into the DSLR line and lenses. Two, those who are invested deeply into the F mount lenses are likely to keep buying DSLR's as long as they are available, instead of having to adapt them to the Z mount.


You can also say there are many who are reluctant to dump their F mount equipment to switch to Z while there is still not a complete build-out of the S lens line, and the lenses that are available (delivered, not just announced) are somewhat expensive. The delivery delays have got to be hurting Nikon.


PF

 

[hap]

not terribly surprised. I occasionally follow dpreview most popular cameras. Many new cameras introduced this year and the newest ones, if decent tend to take the "top spot"...for a while.

However, I have noticed that the one camera that has the greatest staying power on the list is the Nikon 3500. It would be interesting to see sales by model # for Nikon this year and last.

 

[css9450]

Surprising numbers. Canon has been the 'top' for cheapo SLR's for a long time, but 4 million?! In 2019?! And almost a million mirrorless? I can't even name one...

That was going to be Part 2 of my earlier post. Is there one model making up a big chunk of that 4 million? Spread around through the full line? That number is almost unbelievable for 2019.

 

[xayraa33]

More affordable prices for the Nikon FF mirrorless cameras would boost sales...Canon is offering more tempting prices for their FF mirrorless cameras.

 

[CameraQuest]

Personally I usually view the various Nikon USA advertising ads / campaigns as inept.

Nikon could do a lot better.

 

[Dogman]

While the whole world is supposed to be enraptured by mirrorless, I've managed to go backwards and purchase several used Nikon DSLRs over the last year. Cheap. That's after using mirrorless cameras exclusively for over 4 years. Oh, I still use one particular model of mirrorless but otherwise I'm shooting a lot more now with DSLRs. There's something about the handling of an SLR that feels natural to me. And really good SLR lenses seem to have a more organic rendering than the "perfection" of the current mirrorless lenses. Plus I really don't enjoy EVFs. I prefer looking at the subject instead of an electronic interpretation of the subject.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Personally I usually view the various Nikon USA advertising ads / campaigns as inept.

Nikon could do a lot better.

The cameras and the new Z lenses are amazingly good, but you are right about the advertising. It’s been puzzling for a while.
The fact that otherwise knowledgeable people seem to still think that there is some downside to adapting F mount lenses to Z bodies, speaks to the poor marketing that Nikon does, at least in the U.S.
The latest release of the 50/1.2 S lens and the 14-24/2.8 lens is a case in point which just continues a trend which has been going on for years.
There are no MTF charts to be found in the Nikon USA promotional brochures. You have to go to the Japanese brochures to find those, along with vastly more technical information on the lenses. This matters because the MTF charts for the new 14-24/2.8 zoom for the Nikon Z mount are better than anything else being produced by anyone, currently. Mind bogglingly good. If nikon USA keeps that a secret, why would they expect to turn the quality advantage that they have into sales? It’s more than inept, it almost verges on sabotage.
The sensors are fantastic, the ergos are great, the lenses are stunning, the menu system makes sense, and they are that far behind.....Sony?
You’d have to look at marketing, because it makes no sense. People switch cameras all the time if they understand that there is something better out there, which is why the “late to the market” doesn’t account for Nikon’s problems. That’s not a real world factor to any significant extent. People just are not aware of how good these cameras and lenses are. That’s marketing failure, not product.

 

[gavinlg]

The cameras and the new Z lenses are amazingly good, but you are right about the advertising. It’s been puzzling for a while.
The fact that otherwise knowledgeable people seem to still think that there is some downside to adapting F mount lenses to Z bodies, speaks to the poor marketing that Nikon does, at least in the U.S.
The latest release of the 50/1.2 S lens and the 14-24/2.8 lens is a case in point which just continues a trend which has been going on for years.
There are no MTF charts to be found in the Nikon USA promotional brochures. You have to go to the Japanese brochures to find those, along with vastly more technical information on the lenses. This matters because the MTF charts for the new 14-24/2.8 zoom for the Nikon Z mount are better than anything else being produced by anyone, currently. Mind bogglingly good. If nikon USA keeps that a secret, why would they expect to turn the quality advantage that they have into sales? It’s more than inept, it almost verges on sabotage.
The sensors are fantastic, the ergos are great, the lenses are stunning, the menu system makes sense, and they are that far behind.....Sony?
You’d have to look at marketing, because it makes no sense. People switch cameras all the time if they understand that there is something better out there, which is why the “late to the market” doesn’t account for Nikon’s problems. That’s not a real world factor to any significant extent. People just are not aware of how good these cameras and lenses are. That’s marketing failure, not product.

When the Nikkor 50mm f1.2s was announced the other day I spent a good 20 minutes scouring the web for the picture of one mounted on a Z body and eventually found one tiny pixelated thing. Next to no user impressions of It either, or bloggers with a copy. Not sure how nikon thinks they're going to sell a lens without any real world hype or exposure. It looks optically amazing from what I can tell, but there's not much to go off.

 

[jsrockit]

I am thinking Nikon did a lot better in 2020 with mirrorless and will continue to. The Z5 and Z50 are in the lower end where volume is sold. $2000+ cameras and $600+ lenses do not sell in huge volumes. This data shows nothing except that Sony is a major player in cameras now. I would think that we are going to see a lot less DSLRs sold in 2020 and especially 2021.