Canon: They see a grim future for digital camera market

[ChipMcD]

When I went on holiday to Girona last September I noticed only two cameras the entire week - my M3 and a friend's FED. In a busy touristy city I did not see a single camera - all the photos were being taken by phones or tablets.

I sat by a friend at Christmas lunch who is a professional photographer of some distinction. He showed me a portrait he'd taken on the latest Iphone. His comment - with output like that, who needs a dedicated camera?

I think Canon know their market pretty well.

I agree that cell phones make good color photos. My iPhone 7 has monster shutter lag though...like very early digital point and shoots. If that improved I might use it more for that, if I shoot color.

 

[Ronald M]

In this vein, you should see the look on kids faces when they ask to look through the viewfinder of my OM-1. All my OM bodies have either the 1-4 (all matte) or 1-10 (same with grid) screens. With the standard f1.8 they are amazed at the view. Sure beats the 'stinky diaper' hold of their cell phones.
I am a bit surprised that there is no clip-on, pop up hood/magnifier for cell phones (least ways, none that I've seen). Something like the old fold down waist level finders on TLR's. With adjustable side clips, or even little elastic cords one could be made to fit a variety of different phones and would exclude light from shining on the screen so you could actually see it clearly. The eyepiece should also be focusable. It would be cheaper to make and sell it if was a fixed 'chimney' type finder, but more appealing sales wise if it were designed to be foldable.

I call these ZOMBIE cameras. Stinky diaper is decent also.

 

[HHPhoto]

That is quite interesting. Do you know what other cameras are still in production and have been taken into account?

Film cameras from Lomography, Leica, Nikon, Mint, Hasselblad, Arax, DW Photo, more than a dozen different large format camera manufacturers, several pinhole camera manufacturers.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Keith]

Instagram has damaged photography and camera sales significantly depending on your point of view. It's huge and it's linked directly to the smart phone and the way it works.

 

[HHPhoto]

Instagram has damaged photography and camera sales significantly depending on your point of view. It's huge and it's linked directly to the smart phone and the way it works.

A huge percentage of the pictures on instagram is made with real cameras.
And there is a real boom of film photography pics and content posted on instagram. The revival of film is strongly supported by instagram. All film (related) manufacturers meanwhile are very active on instagram and using it for marketing purposes (e.g. Kodak has now about 325,000 followers on instagram, Polaroid only a bit less, Ilford more than 130,000).

Cheers, Jan

 

[chipgreenberg]

The jeep sounds like a lot of fun Cal..I'm really happy anywhere but my wife was dying to live rurally. We're surrounded by forest on 3 sides now!

Funny, people here tell me I have an accent. I say, "WHAT ARE YA TAWKIN? YOOZE HAVE ACCENTS!"

We've been here 25 years. Pretty different.




A dream came true when I bought a 1984 Jeep Scrambler with a half cab from a little old lady from Santa Fe. Only 20K miles and was a cherry. Later on I would install a Corvette engine, a Ford nine inch rear with Lincoln Continental brakes, and a NV 4500 200 pound cast iron tranny with both an underdrive and an overdrive.

I know it was a dumb thing to do, but I would wander around by myself in 4 wheel drive low rock crawling. Lucky I never got stuck. Did a lot of dumb things back then...

I'm with a city gal now. No car. She would never live rural.

At Princeton Grumman built a Tokamac nuclear reactor. I was not involved with that lab.

Kinda funny, but the world is not that big.

Cal

 

[Keith]

A huge percentage of the pictures on instagram is made with real cameras.
And there is a real boom of film photography pics and content posted on instagram. The revival of film is strongly supported by instagram. All film (related) manufacturers meanwhile are very active on instagram and using it for marketing purposes (e.g. Kodak has now about 325,000 followers on instagram, Polaroid only a bit less, Ilford more than 130,000).

Cheers, Jan

You can't upload a photo to instagram directly from a computer and this was always Instagram's intention. You have to send your image to a cloud or similar to get it on to your smart phone and then to Instagram from your phone. You can get an app to allow upload from a computer but they take some searching out also.

Instagram and the smart phone are connected at the hip and always have been.

 

[NickTrop]

Canon and their shareholder's concerns. I'm a consumer.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

This is GREAT news!! There will be so much new old stock sitting in the warehouses, I'll be able to buy enough discounted premium camera gear to last out my days! 🙂

 

[michaelwj]

That is a myth spread only in photo forums. Has nothing to do with reality.
There are more than a dozen big factories for photo paper globally.
The photo paper market has a volume of more than 400 million m² p.a.
It's a huge market.

Cheers, Jan

I agree.
I regularly get 4x6 and 5x7 prints made at the local office supply place at their Fuji print kiosk. They have 6 terminals, last time I had to wait about 20 minutes before I could use one. Lots of people printing, mostly straight from their phone.

 

[jsrockit]

Bill,

My fashion blogger gal has over 607K followers. She upgraded to an Iphone 10 and reports that the new phone's camera is the big reason to upgrade.

Meanwhile she camera-napped my Leica CL. I think eventually I'll get that CL back which I bought to exploit the crop sensor to convert my fast normal lenses into short telephotos.

Funny thing is that I'm not so good at taking pictures with a cellphone.

Cal

Cal, I use an iPhone Xs as well and it really is the first cellphone I feel I can use in good light when I don’t have my other cameras. It’s probably the best move for her. No shutter lag, two focal lengths, and computation methods to combat the small sensor. I don’t want to use it always but now I can when I don’t have my other cameras.

 

[michaelwj]

I believe the traditional camera companies will soo be niche manufactures. Their niche is what smartphones can't do, which every year is shrinking. Smartphones can now do reasonable portraits for instance, panoramas work really well. It's just super wide and super tele that's left, along with people who like using a "traditional" camera.
The sky has already fallen.

 

[jsrockit]

No, they didn't. Not like this. Film cameras continued to evolve and improve up until the end. The Nikon F6 and Canon 1V were absolutely at the top of the line, better than cameras before them. Today we see the tiniest iterations between digital cameras and as a result, few buy them and sales decline.

During the film era, camera companies had the moms, pops, and uncle bob's to sell mass market cameras too, to boost.

I’m not saying film cameras didn’t evolve. I’m just saying that they couldn’t have always been in a uptick period. People used film cameras for 20 years before upgrading... and the 126 and 110 cameras (and the previous generation equivalents) were the cellphones of today. Digital cameras have improved way faster than film cameras in their short lifespans. Of course, they already had film cameras to learn from.

 

[Huss]

So get ready for Leica prices on the cameras that will be left...

Joe

Just paid $200 for a like new Leica R-E. I’m fine w Leica prices.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Before digital consumer purchases of film cameras were in decline for a decade or more.
The advent of digital photography is probably what saved the remaining camera manufacturers.

Smartphones now can make digital photos good enough for most consumers, and far easier.
I'm not sure what new product might save the camera companies this time around.

Chris

 

[css9450]

You can't upload a photo to instagram directly from a computer and this was always Instagram's intention.

Instagram and the smart phone are connected at the hip and always have been.

Exactly. Oft-forgotten in every discussion about smartphones is the fact that one can take photos with them and then post them on social media with just a few clicks. Which is something I can't do with any of my digital cameras. Lots of people have abandoned their digitals in favor of their phones because they can post the photos immediately. On Instagram, for example.

Oh, film on Instagram? Sure, its there.... But I'd be surprised if its more than a percent or two of total volume.

 

[jsrockit]

But everything has a shelf life... including social media as we know it I would imagine.

 

[Contarama]

So what will Canikon do? Make camera phones? Robots?

Laws of physics dictate to me I need something bigger than a cell phone. So with me my "camera" will never be just my old phone.

Gosh maybe I'm the thing becoming obsolete here....

 

[michaelwj]

So what will Canikon do? Make camera phones? Robots?

Laws of physics dictate to me I need something bigger than a cell phone. So with me my "camera" will never be just my old phone.

Gosh maybe I'm the thing becoming obsolete here....

This is their problem. Those of us who own and regularly use a dedicated camera are not getting any younger. I'd say everyone on this forum is obsolete.

 

[Dogman]

What will the camera makers do? Well, Canon said it would focus on surveillance and medical industries where they see growth. Imaging technology is not just photography so I expect there are various routes for camera makers to pursue.

But the world hasn't ended for us grisly old photographers as of yet. I suppose we have a few years left.