Why haven't flashgun prices fallen?

[Mark Kemp]

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on something I just noticed.

DSLR prices have fallen very fast.

Lens prices have fallen too, but not nearly as much.

Flashguns are as expensive as ever, the prices have hardly moved except when a new model comes out and the old ones are discounted.

5 years ago a D30 was the newest camera and cost £2000. The 550EX flash cost about £350. Now the 20D costs £1250 and a a 580EX is still £350.

Wonder why :?

[Jim_T]

The camera companies make a significant profit from accessories.

Camera bodies are generally low profit items, but flashes, lenses, batteries etc are gravy :) (It's not just flashes.. price a Canon battery vs a third party one).

Think of it like the printer industry.. They sell them pretty cheap, then they gouge you on the ink..

[Jon]

There's not as much volume in flash guns, so they can't reap the lower production costs, even though the flash technology doesn't change as fast. There's also less competition in the marketplace for flashes. It's interesting to note that the venerable Vivitar 283 still has the same list price it did back when it first came out, though.

[robertwgross]

I still have an even more venerable Vivitar 252, and it still fires fine about the same way it did decades ago.

---Bob Gross---

[DaveG]

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on something I just noticed.

DSLR prices have fallen very fast.

Lens prices have fallen too, but not nearly as much.

Flashguns are as expensive as ever, the prices have hardly moved except when a new model comes out and the old ones are discounted.

5 years ago a D30 was the newest camera and cost £2000. The 550EX flash cost about £350. Now the 20D costs £1250 and a a 580EX is still £350.

Wonder why :? Digital cameras are like computers. Next year's will be better and cheaper. Flashes use a much more mature technology where changes are incremental at best, so there is little if any price reduction. But this was (and is) true with film cameras as well. There was a steady inflation, rather than deflation of SLR prices over the years. The aberation is that the DSLR's get cheaper, not that flashes and other accessories don't.

[elwood58]

Remember that lenses and flash have a very wide application over both film and digital bodies The amount of technology in these products are limited, therefore component comoditization does not impact the price of these items.

Technologies affecting glass and light are more likely to cause a price increase versus decrease.

That said, the biggest (Canon, Nikon) manufacturers are taking a page out of the cell phone, inkjet book. Cheap base hardware with expensive supplies and accessories.