Mirrorless Shipments Down Year-to-Year

[Exdsc]

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/mirrorless-shipments-down.html

CIPA shipment numbers:

• Q1 2012: 1,043,846 units
• Q2 2012: 882,783 units
• Q3 2012: 876,919 units
• Q4 2012: 1,456,054 units
• Q1 2013: 603,532 units

DSLRs were not doing so well as well:

P&S sales are of course down, so the question is who's actually making money in camera business?

 

[YYV_146]

Maybe it's just the general economy. China's growth is slowing, Japan still slouches, they're the biggest EVIL markets.

But now is a good time to buy Leica from the EU, with the euro soft against the dollar!

 

[zuiko85]

Are phone cameras taking over? Perhaps a lot of folks just don't care anymore in an image saturated world.

 

[paulfish4570]

most digital users, i think, just want to share photos among themselves. the improved phone cams allow them to do this immediately ...

 

[sevo]

I have my doubts whether these statistics have any value except as a benchmark for new release promotion successes. I'd rather see a count of cameras sold at list price more than two months after market introduction, as that ought to be a far more valid benchmark for the interest a genre generates than a count that includes release promotions and end-of-lifetime discounts. Arguably the latter sell the majority of cameras these days, but sales there will be due to a success of promotion efforts rather than a genuine interest of the consumer - going by the questions people ask on general consumer forums with no photography focus, it is quite obvious that the majority of EVIL camera buyers from these rushes were driven to it by sales talk and don't even know they ended up with something fundamentally other than a fixed-lens camera or DSLR.

 

[Noll]

Certainly camera phones are cutting in. Maybe people are finally catching on to the fact that all these new models are 95% marketing hype. Digital is mostly matured and not improving at the same rate as the mid to late 2000s - only the depreciation is as bad as ever - not that I'm complaining. I just bought a used m4/3 body that was $600 in 2011 for $150. More $$ for film 😀

 

[daveleo]

IMO the mass consumer market is saturated, the larger market is probably
"enthusiasts" (and some of them buy used equipment), but for the most part
the mass of people find their i-phones to be all they need.

The money making opportunities are lenses and accessories (bags and straps ! ).

That's all speculation up there.

 

[Exdsc]

These two quarterly numbers are very dramatic:

• Q1 2012: 1,043,846 units
• Q1 2013: 603,532 units

A 50% drop, despite major discounts.



Last year despite those numbers some massive price cuts was initiated for example from Nikon and Panasonic, what will happen this year is anyone's guess.

 

[jsrockit]

These two quarterly numbers are very dramatic:

• Q1 2012: 1,043,846 units
• Q1 2013: 603,532 units

A 50% drop, despite major discounts. .

Ok, but then what about...

Q4 2012: 1,456,054 units - I'd say it is way too early to read into these figures.

 

[kbg32]

Sony, I read, is going to go all mirrorless and stop producing their SLT cameras.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Maybe it's just the general economy. China's growth is slowing, Japan still slouches, they're the biggest EVIL markets.

But now is a good time to buy Leica from the EU, with the euro soft against the dollar!

Not really. Still around $1.30. It started in 2000 at around parity; fell as low as about $0.85 in 2000-2001, while people were getting used to it; hit parity again on the way up in mid-July 2002; and has not been below parity since December 2002. At one point it topped $1.58.

I'm always amused when people start talking about how weak the euro is because of the 'euro-crisis'.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Exdsc]

Ok, but then what about...

Q4 2012: 1,456,054 units - I'd say it is way too early to read into these figures.

With all those Christmas sales and shopping season, even that is pretty low if you compare it to first quarter of the same year.

 

[Exdsc]

Here is a better graph of overall camera market from Thom's website:

http://www.bythom.com/

 

[jsrockit]

With all those Christmas sales and shopping season, even that is pretty low if you compare it to first quarter of the same year.

True, the key I guess would be to see how 4q2011 did.

 

[Exdsc]

Last year saw some major mirrorless releases, this year thus far only X100s stands out and that also is a very niche product.

With inventory building up, we might see some drastic price cutting this summer, especially in mirrorless cameras.

 

[charjohncarter]

Not really. Still around $1.30. It started in 2000 at around parity; fell as low as about $0.85 in 2000-2001, while people were getting used to it; hit parity again on the way up in mid-July 2002; and has not been below parity since December 2002. At one point it topped $1.58.

I'm always amused when people start talking about how weak the euro is because of the 'euro-crisis'.

Cheers,

R.

Agree, I was in Europe when it was $.85, it felt not cheap but about the same as the US. Ever since it feels like I'm being pick pocketed (which I was in Paris).

 

[Aristophanes]

The market is saturated and the turnover cycles amongst consumers is levelling out. Once sensors hit about 8 megapixels and very good 400 ISO, the need to upgrade amongst prosumers waned considerably. Cameraphone impact is mostly on the compact side of dedicated camera production, not DSLR's and spin-offs.

 

[paulfish4570]

i think photography for most people boils down to convenience. if one's photographs will be seen only on a monitor, and very few printed, then an up-to-date camera phone is more than sufficient. i offer a single example, that of my daughter. she has a very nice canon eos dslr. she has a good eye. but the vast majority of her photos and videos that she shoots of her lovely young daughters are done with her iphone. and boy do i appreciate the photos and videos that come several times a week. she does not have time to sort through dslr images on her mac, then upload to photobucket, then email to grandparents. perhaps when both of her girls are school age, she will shift to her more serious gear, and shoot outside of her family. i'd like to see her eye develop. but i want the frequent photos of my granddaughters to continue, no matter the choice of camera ... 🙂

 

[GaryLH]

The dslr and the mirrorless graphs are both showing a downturn. Your bar chart shows a similar piece of info plus the compact market is showing a downturn as well.

I would tend to agree w/ the others, mostly like showing a saturated consumer market plus camera phone usage trends. I have a friend w/ a d300 and Panasonic zs7. He uses his camera phone more that 90% of the time.

Gary

 

[Clint Troy]

Why would any ordinary person even bother with a camera anymore when their son and their son's best friend gives them a last generation iphone for free, after having upgraded themselves to the newest iphone?

A smartphone goes everywhere, can be burried in sand, and it goes inside a backpocket or even in a woman's bra.

Hard to beat.