Corran
Well-known
https://www.fujifilm.com/innovation/achievements/instax/
"In 2015, Fujifilm sold over 5 million units of the instant camera"
So the dozen available on Goodwill's auction site means...what exactly, compared to millions and millions sold?
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
It means there are far more charity shops than just Goodwill that have Instax cameras in their bins. It also means that the somewhat unreliable cameras may break and the user may never come back to them after they throw it away. Add to that the fact that Instax doesn't go into ANY currently existing traditional film camera, so saying that it is film is a red herring at best. There is an emulsion, yes; which needs to be coated in a film production lab, yes. But the commonalities stop there. You can't now nor could you ever put Polaroid or FP100c into a film camera without the proper accessory back, if available.
So if Fujifilm keeps selling Instax, good for them, maybe they can funnel some that money over into keeping traditional film production going, and hopefully bring out some new or reissue old emulsions, not gut their catalog as has been done.
Phil Forrest
I’m am glad for instax as a proud Fuji digital customer. I liked their film but haven’t shot film in 5 years maybe. Oh well, the digital work flow allows me to be a efficient amateur. What limited time I have needs to be used making photos, not wrestling with film. I learned on film... learned color on Fuji. But if they stop making all of their films, someone else will make something else. I don’t get my feelings hurt as long as someone is making something I can use to do the photography I like.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
I'm still finding Kodak C-41 to be very different and more pleasing than digital. Well, maybe Ricoh GRII and III. And some of Olympus 
.
But Fuji... you really have to learn a lot to get decent color from its film.
.But Fuji... you really have to learn a lot to get decent color from its film.
Corran
Well-known
Well I agree with that.
I still don't get your point otherwise. A few Instax cameras in charity shops, so what. I know a lot of folks shooting them exclusively and have eschewed their phones (anecdotal, but no more so than seeing a few at Goodwill). They are selling well and that's what I see.
And yes, I wouldn't mind seeing FP100 or preferably 3000B come back.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
It must be something kincky.
Those instaxes are collecting dust everywhere, almost at any store. Yet, I have seen people using these cameras in public maybe four times in ten years. I walked this week from customer site to go station and all I have seen was DSLRs... Predominately in hands of younger people...
Oh, wait. I'm in Canada. Most of the time, if you want instax outside here, you have to sit on it before it hatches.
Corran
Well-known
I see lots of Instax prints on Instagram - taken with their phone!
I hardly see DSLRs out and about. Phones everywhere.
From my perspective, phones have not only destroyed the P&S market, but also the low-end DSLR market. Other than photo hobbyists, there is no reason to bother. Phones will get a better image for most because it's simple and just makes a photograph without a bewildering number of dials, menus, etc.
I hardly see DSLRs out and about. Phones everywhere.
From my perspective, phones have not only destroyed the P&S market, but also the low-end DSLR market. Other than photo hobbyists, there is no reason to bother. Phones will get a better image for most because it's simple and just makes a photograph without a bewildering number of dials, menus, etc.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
Followed by you logic, nobody should buy instax, because it have next to zero quality.
DSLRS have green box. Press one button, picture is taken. But it is not about simplicity of taking picture. It is how simple it is to dump it on the net. Phone will facepuke it instantly.
DSLRS have green box. Press one button, picture is taken. But it is not about simplicity of taking picture. It is how simple it is to dump it on the net. Phone will facepuke it instantly.
Corran
Well-known
There are many different market segments.
Parents snapping photos of their kids? iPhone. Younger generations interested in travel / physical prints they can hold? Instax. It's quite an ingenious system - convenience of digital + instant "Polaroid" just like the "old days." Hint: they don't care about "quality." That's for the old camera enthusiasts.
I'm sure we can cue the "hipster" name-calling soon.
Parents snapping photos of their kids? iPhone. Younger generations interested in travel / physical prints they can hold? Instax. It's quite an ingenious system - convenience of digital + instant "Polaroid" just like the "old days." Hint: they don't care about "quality." That's for the old camera enthusiasts.
I'm sure we can cue the "hipster" name-calling soon.
Huss
Veteran
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
Interesting and appropriate allusion to Robert Pirsig. That about sums it up, re: qualities of cameras, quality of life.
Anyway, nice one, Huss.
Skiff
Well-known
In Fujifilm's last fiscal year, which ended 31th March 2019, they sold 10 (!!) million instax cameras.
Instax is now the most successful camera type, significantly surpasssing digital compact cameras, DSLRs and DSLMs in unit sales volume.
My local camera shop (brick and mortar store) told me they are selling thousands (!) of instax film packs each month. That helps them staying alive. Whereas digital cameras are sitting on the shelfs and gathering dust.
The drugstore chain shops here are meanwhile also selling instax film packs along to standard film.
peterm1
Veteran
The following is known as the Business Life Cycle Graph. It describes the fate of every market that exists........unless it can be extended by constant innovation (but eventually even that fails as the potential market becomes saturated)
joe bosak
Well-known
Yes, and by defining the market as "standalone cameras etc" rather than "photography" we exclude a few major innovations in photography from our picture (smart phones and instax for example) and we get the drop off at the end.
NickTrop
Veteran
The entire capitalist economy is based on continual growth, obviously unsustainable and inherently flawed. Rather than viewing this as a drastic drop in sales, I view this as the camera market experienced an unprecedented boom period due to digital technology and cheap digital cameras. The same base tech also resulted in ending that boom period when smart phones took over. What is occurring now is a "market correction". The big established players will scale back to pre-boom levels. I wouldn't invest in them. But I'd still buy their cameras.
Ted Striker
Well-known
I believe that this view is incorrect, simply because the market for imaging devices is growing. Every single year millions of people in developing countries join the middle class. In China alone over 100 million people joined the middle class in the past decade. India is also growing, although not as rapidly. These new members of the middle class want to capture their lives and record them for their families. It is telling, very very telling, that despite tens of millions of growth to this market, the traditional camera companies cannot eek out a million or more units of sales.
It's not surprising. Why would you want a traditional camera when your phone can do 99% of that and is always with you?
The big players are not preparing to scale back to "pre boom" levels because the steep decline in sales is not showing any signs of ending.
As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, diversifying completely away from photography is the strategy most companies have taken. Fujifilm makes far more money from office equipment than they do cameras. Fuji is also investing very heavily in pharmaceuticals. Canon makes a huge amount of their revenue in the same area. Nikon is investing in chip production. Canon and Nikon are going mirrorless, so it will be interesting to see what, if any, affect that has on their sales.
bushwick1234
Well-known
Leica is not following that pattern, though. https://ch-de.leica-camera.com/Unte...sich-vom-rückläufigen-Trend-im-Kameramarkt-ab
lynnb
Veteran
As always, I find Thom Hogan's thoughtful musings on this subject illuminating.
NickTrop
Veteran
-- I believe this (my) view is correct because it inherently addresses the growth in photographic imaging in the Asian market. They use Smart phones like eveyone else.
-- Additionally, the "steep decline" will level off. That it has
no signs of abating" is an incorrect assumption. The decline in film sales "leveled off" and experienced a modest uptick (I read about here). Digital imaging -- DSLRs, mirrorless will not be as drastically impacted as the film industry was. You can still get slide and 120 roll film (for Pete's sake), which really, from a purely pragmatic standpoint, has no useful application in modern times and is completely obsolete.
-- The big suppliers ARE scaling back to pre-boom levels based on forecasted demand. They, however, have no plans to cease prodution afaik. That they are strategically focusing on other divisions -- now that the camera boom is over, is only logical/goes without saying.
I am not sure what you're disagreeing with. I'm not sure that you can reasonably disagree with my original statement.
Ted Striker
Well-known
We need a few more years to see which view is the correct one. With the decline in sales volume still very much ongoing, the contraction, IMO, will be severe enough for several players to exit the market. That would be far beyond contracting to pre doom levels of sales.