Camera Sales went down again in 2015

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Trends are not surprising as smartphones are the go-to for most consumer needs these days. That explains for the fast declines in total cameras manufactured year over year and also the shrinking market for non-interchangeable lens cameras.

The only significant conclusion one might draw from these numbers is that compact cameras are on their way out.

The more serious photographers are represented by the mirrorless/DSLR statistics. What's interesting is the production of mirrorless/DSLR is roughly the same level as it was in 2010. In real numbers, the production of DSLRs have reduced while mirrorless have remained relatively steady. I'm assuming that production is increased and decreased due to market demand. Demand for DSLRs may have declined because the bodies are really so damn good in recent years, that people aren't clamoring for the latest model or upgrading as quickly, and there is very good used camera market that meets the needs of many.

As far as mirrorless cameras go, production has only increased marginally. This is probably due to the fact that they've really not made a true breakthrough in technology. They've come a good way, so far, and I'm thinking of getting the new Fuji XPro2. However, there's no replacing the DSLR market yet. There may be more demand when there are more competing fullframe, mirrorless cameras out there. Give it another 10 years.

Those who say that Canon is foolish in not pursuing the mirrorless market do not take into consideration that the mirrorless market is only about 1/3 the size of the dSLR market. And between 2012 to 2015, the mirrorless market has had mediocre growth from 3.0 Million cameras per year to the 3.2 Million cameras produced in 2015. Mirrorless is increasing as a percentage of the total camera market, but its numbers are scarcely keeping up with 1.08% annual growth in the worldwide population.

Yes, total camera production for ALL cameras with interchangeable lenses (both dSLR and mirrorless) has dropped significantly from a peak of 108 Milion cameras to only 22 Million cameras in 2015. The camera industry is hurting, and it seems NOT to correlate well with smartphone sales, in spite of some past tendency to blame smartphone cannibalization of camera sales there is not a good correlation of the two.
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Heya,

They're just numbers out of context. Really doesn't say anything other than "there's clearly something else doing photography & video than the dSLR."

GoPro has a big market. Smartphones are a massive market. Both cut sharply into the above mentioned niche market of dSLR/Mirrorless.

I don't have any data, but I'd be willing to bet there are more people with smartphones making money as a photographer than people with dSLR/Mirrorless & interchangeable lenses making money as a photographer these days. Again, these numbers are out of context. Put into context what it means to be an instagrammer or youtuber, you only need a smartphone with internet and the ability to post--money made, and the image quality matters not. The day of dSLR photographer is more a thing of the past, or a thing of necessity (such as sports & wildlife, etc). But that's putting the right tools in the right context.

It would be far more interesting to see the above numbers in context. What were the sales of dSLR/Mirrorless in the context of sports photography for example? Those would reflect the tool.

Very best,

Canon sales numbers will go up for the next 2 years, and then head down again, and perhaps to even lower numbers.

I think cameras, like so many techie items before this, have reached a level of maturity that many people are happy with what they have and hold onto them longer. The new sensor breakthrough of Canon will guarantee increased sales over the next couple of years as that trickles to other bodies, but given the Canon track record, there won't be much to entice 1DX2 owners to a new 1 series without some sort of major feature or performance increase. This goes all the way down to the xxD and xxxD lines as well. Once you have usable 25600 and very little noise in the shadows, with advanced AF features and pretty high resolution, there is little that can be offered to the majority of camera owners that will coax them into buying a new body.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17914003
I think cameras, like so many techie items before this, have reached a level of maturity that many people are happy with what they have and hold onto them longer.

Well put.

MalVeauX wrote in post #17913908
I'd be willing to bet there are more people with smartphones making money as a photographer than people with dSLR/Mirrorless & interchangeable lenses making money as a photographer these days.

no way.

i live in a small town and there are probably 4 or 5 full time DSLR photographers here. I don't know anyone that makes any money with an iPhone through any channel. People using iphones for social media income have a worldwide market and make pennies, or a fraction of a penny, per engaged consumer.

But I'd like to see some context too. Such as, how do today's numbers compared with 10, 15 and 20 years ago. I hove no problem with the number of camera sales declining ... in the hopes that it is a sign people like the crappy wedding "photographer" i saw on craigslist this morning realize that they can't compete. Mother/Daughter team that charges 125 bucks an hour and their chosen images were terrible. Please god stop buying cameras.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17914118
no way.

i live in a small town and there are probably 4 or 5 full time DSLR photographers here. I don't know anyone that makes any money with an iPhone through any channel. People using iphones for social media income have a worldwide market and make pennies, or a fraction of a penny, per engaged consumer.

But I'd like to see some context too. Such as, how do today's numbers compared with 10, 15 and 20 years ago. I hove no problem with the number of camera sales declining ... in the hopes that it is a sign people like the crappy wedding "photographer" i saw on craigslist this morning realize that they can't compete. Mother/Daughter team that charges 125 bucks an hour and their chosen images were terrible. Please god stop buying cameras.

Just because in your small town you experience what you say, doesn't mean there isn't over 1000 in Chicago, NY, Montreal, etc, each, or more, making money. Again, I'd be willing to make a bet that in the grand scheme of things, in terms of literally just making money (again, don't read that as "more" as that quantifier was not used), phones are doing more and more and more. There are more avenues and contexts than portraiture, etc. Advertising is simply the bigger market, and smartphones do that just fine.

I said making money. Not making "more" money.

But the allure of just taking photos of whatever and posting on instagram or posting a video on vine/youtube, and making some money, has tons of people just using their phones and it's effective enough. And that market is exploding.

Very best,

Camera sales aren't down because people might be making money with their camera phones. If phones are having any impact at all on camera sales, it is simply that people are comfortable enough to take pictures with their phones (and the phones are more capable now) to post up on media sites. It used to be that people would buy Rebels for their school events, etc, but phones are getting better and people don't have to shell out the money for a small DSLR with kit lenses in green box mode to get good family captures.

MalVeauX wrote in post #17914158
Just because in your small town you experience what you say, doesn't mean there isn't over 1000 in Chicago, NY, Montreal, etc, each, or more, making money.

and how many photographers are there in each of those cities?

I see what you are saying, or not saying, about "more money" but I still don't think there are that many people who rely on an iPhone for income.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17914180
Camera sales aren't down because people might be making money with their camera phones. If phones are having any impact at all on camera sales, it is simply that people are comfortable enough to take pictures with their phones (and the phones are more capable now) to post up on media sites. It used to be that people would buy Rebels for their school events, etc, but phones are getting better and people don't have to shell out the money for a small DSLR with kit lenses in green box mode to get good family captures.

If one considers casual photography as the situation in which smartphones are used a lot, one can easily deduce about how the smartphone usage interferes with the need for point and shoot cameras, whose sales are plummetting. But the statistical correlation between smartphone unit increase vs. point and shoot unit decline is statistically not a strong correlation at all. So smartphone use is merely incidental to the rapid decline of the point and shoot.

And dSLR sales are declining along a similar curve as the one reflecting point and shoots, but it simply is delayed by two years than the point and shoot decline! And while the curve is about the same shape (two years later), the statistical correlation between smartphone increase vs. dSLR decline is also not a strong correlation either.

Whatever is causing the rapid decline of point and shoots is also affecting dSLRs, and it isn't smartphones. And while mirrorless seems to be immune to whatever is affecting P&S and dSLR, it is merely holding steady (a very slow growth) after the initial adoption peak in Q4'2012
Japan's camera industry is freaking out about the cause of the decline, and very few blame smartphones for cannibalizing all the camera sales.

I wonder if longer product cycles could also be a contributing factor to the decline in camera sales

Ah, that's simply because I only bought one camera in 2015...

I'm on another "chat" forum totally unrelated to photography and have witnessed first hand peoples rise and fall love affair with the DSLR. That forum is a pretty good slice of life in America except that lower income and racial diversity is not well represented, at least not in proportion to the rest of America.

I've been on and off that board for nearly 15 years and have helped field a lot of questions about camera purchases. Most people I saw purchase a DSLR we're not super thrilled with it. The few people that took my advice and bought one of the canon SX series cameras made a point to come backs and tell me thanks for the recommendation.

The consumer furvor over DSLRs had to end.

We are lucky it spurred so much innovation, even though overall it has lprobably hurt the portrait and event industries. Microsoft FronPage had to die, WYSIWYG editors for real corporate websites had to die, or at least lay bleeding and in attended for a while.CEOs thinking their secretary could put together a catalog in MS Word had to go up in flames. It's time momtographers stop trying to charge for non professional results using a window, a lamp, and a wide open EFS 5.6 kit lens.

PS. I'm not a portrait photographer, this is not "sour grapes"

smythie wrote in post #17915373
I wonder if longer product cycles could also be a contributing factor to the decline in camera sales

Absolutely.