No surprise: latest advanced digital cameras got to a stage (120K+ usable ISO, blazing fast AF, absurdly high resolutions,very high DR, etc.) where the actual useful performance improvements are negligible or none.
IMO, you don't buy a new camera in year 2015 unless you're a last-model junkie or really need a specific performance improvement for a very specific use.
Markets saturate at a given feature level, and 2010-2012 was the ramp up for APS-C mirrorless cameras, among other things. It's probably the same thing that happened AF p/s cameras supplanted Canonets and AF SLRs replaced manual focus cones.
But from the numbers in interchangeable-lens cameras, they were
roughly 9.666 million January to September 2015
roughly 10.084 million January to September 2014
That's a decline of 418,000 units or 4.1%. At that rate of change, it would take well over a decade for the sales of interchangeable lens cameras to reach half of what they are today (assuming that 4K video doesn't spur a wave of upgrades). But it's really hard to call, since in June and July of 2015, those cameras exceeded the 2014 numbers by 300,000 units.
But two other things are also clear from CIPA:
1. The small number of market participants (10) shipped
26 million digital cameras in nine months.
2. Mirrorless cameras are still languishing at about 1/4 to 1/3 DSLR volume. So for all the "converts," it is hardly as if DSLRs are dead in the water. But their average sale price must be higher.
Dante
