As above. The latest figures by CIPA, the Camera Imaging Photography Association which covers all Japanese camera makers, reported a huge drop in sales for two years in a row. Camera shops are suffering from reduced sales. The Asian market dropped by 67% (if you minus China and India).

With shops catering to DSLR seemingly on the end of their life soon, just wondering if you will still upgrade your DSLR/mirrorless cameras regularly? Read more on the article below. Appreciate your thoughts!

http://www.techgarage.my/the-iphone-killed-the-camera-lah/

Ah, what happened? Not planning to follow the DSLR trend anymore ke?


Sigh, it tells a lot when Sony comes out with innovative products that we photographers dream of, while Canikon (Canon-Nikon) continues to pump out things that we don't really need. While most pros need a DSLR or a mirrorless, the massive drop in sales shows that for the majority of us, we don't need
1) More megapixels - who needs 50mp?
2) More ISO - Isn't 25600 enough? Who needs 204k? Or 512k? =.=

The worse thing camera manufacturers don't understand is, most of us shoot and put it on Facebook/Instagram with image dimensions at 0.4 megapixels at most.


Not really. If you read Nikon's financial report (they're more transparent because cameras represents 80% of Nikon's business, as compared to Canon's 25%), Nikon's trying to survive by
1) increasing prices on cameras and lenses
2) reducing costs

As such, they plan to mass build certain components and reuse them for a few years in even upcoming models. Of course, they'll throw in....more megapixels

Indeed. It is interesting to note the following

1) Steve Jobs initially wanted to launch the iCamera, a standalone camera before going with the iPhone. If he had launched the camera first, Canon, Nikon and the rest wouldn't be in business by now, while Nokia & Blackberry would still be churning out mediocre, user unfriendly handphones with slight increases in screen resolution and processor speed. Just like how Canikon is doing right now

2) Some camera shops seems to be doing really badly. One based in Sg Wang Plaza committed suicide last year (came out in the chinese newspaper). Still, they don't downsize to save costs in order to fight another day.

3) Sony supplies camera sensors to virtually all camera manufacturers except for Canon. They also supply majority of all sensors for automotive and smart phones. Their latest report is that they expect the standalone camera market (DSLR, mirrorless, Point & shoot) to further decrease 30% year on year for the next two years.

Thus
Total cameras shipped in 2012 = 120 million
Expected total cameras shipped in 2016 = 8 million (all camera types)

In four years, the camera industry would have dropped to only 6.7% of its original figure.

Hmm, what would camera shops need to do in order to survive? any thoughts?

This post has been edited by TechAddict2012: Mar 31 2015, 06:14 PM

Sigh. It was a few good years in the camera industry back then. After all, at one time people were lining up to even buy second hand lenses at Pudu Plaza before YL's shop opens. Now, the situation looks really quiet...

Looking back with nostalgia.

Indeed. It'll go down to a really niche market. However, if smart phones keep getting better, camera shops might really go bankrupt. Think about it, some of our popular camera shops were paying minimal rent when the camera trend picked up in 2005 onwards. Plus, camera industry was growing at 50% year on year.

Basically, you can be doing the wrong strategy and still see your shop grow leaps and bounds. But most camera shops have some problems now

1) Camera industry will shrink to 10% of whatever there was by 2016 (Asia minus China & India). But most of our camera shops gambled and took expensive leases with expectation for the business to keep growing.

2) 67% of camera users are found to be above 40 in 2014. The amount will grow to above 70+% by 2016. With a rapidly ageing community of users that don't upgrade, how can camera shops survive?

Indeed. Actually, all we need are the trinity lenses.
1) Ultrawide
2) Standard walkabout
3) Telephoto zoom

However, with Google's Project Ara already going through beta testing, it'll come a time very soon when you can mount lenses on the back of your phone. Heck, you can even swap processors and broken screens easily. You can apply for a Project Ara phone if you're a developer

Read more below

http://www.techgarage.my/introducing-modular-smart-phones/

Also, Apple has patents for dual lenses, instead of a standard one. I bet we'll see an ultra wide and a 50mm equivalent on the iPhone.

Ah, it might never, as DSLR makers will keep pushing focusing speed and megapixels. After all, these are what newspapers and pro photogs need. However there's a few problems to consider

1) Media companies like the Star and Utusan, never buy from a shop. Rather, they get their stocks from Nikon/Canon directly and then contra via ads
2) In terms of image quality, the Nokia Lumia 1020 out resolved a high end Nikon full frame in a test two years back. The iPhone 4s improved so much that if you saw the trends, the rise of the 4s saw the drop in camera sales
3) Not everyone needs a DSLR.

The very interesting fact is this. Most of us moved to the DSLR, because we were frustrated with the state of point and shoot cameras, no? with our P&S cameras back then, focusing was bad, flash was always overcompensated and it was hard to take good shots.

Then I found out that Canikon were skimping on sensors for P&S, as they did not have a viable competitors. Thus they can slap el-cheapo sensors on the back on a P&S, better sensors and processors on the high end powershot series and then their best on DSLRs.

And it worked like a charm as they sold 120 million back in 2012 [1]. But with the iPhone pushing the barriers of smart phone photography, suddenly people had a device they could compare to. And it's easy to tell that Canikon was giving us inferior sensors with saying stuff that small sensors can't perform. That becomes untrue when you take into consideration the performance of the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and now the iPhone 6.

The 5s superseded even the Canon 30D, a prosumer DSLR in terms of performance! What happens the next two years would be interesting

1) Would camera manufacturers change strategy? Would we see Android on DSLRs with 3G?
2) Would they go bankrupt? Nikon's shares dropped from 2500 yen (20 USD) to 1500 yen (12 USD) in the last 2 years
3) Can camera shops adapt? Most of them are reluctant to embrace smart phones, because that's really a cut throat world


[1] - http://www.cipa.jp/stats/documents/common/cr300.pdf

my goodness, 80% of travellers don't carry their DSLR / mirrorless / interchangeable lens cameras? That's why Canikon should've released quality p&s instead of giving us crappy ones for years

Actually, it is very interesting. In an interview in 2013 (I think on Bloomberg or Petapixel), Nikon's boss said that they expected P&S market to drop by a few percent, while DSLR to continue its upward trajectory by 17%.

Meaning, they expected DSLR sales (which is lucrative) to grow, while they were willing to give up some sales to the smart phone threat.

However, that didn't go as expected, as smartphone cameras, led by Apple's iPhone charge continue to improve leaps and bounds, crippling not only their P&S sales but also their lucrative DSLR business.

Interestingly also, with so many quarters of negative performance, Nikon then went on to divest unto medical equipments. =.=


Seems like they know that the standalone camera market might not just go through a tough time, but risk going under

Indeed, but mirrorless sales has been stagnant while DSLR sales has plunged. Furthermore, majority of ILC (interchangeable lens cameras) are people above 40 (67%), men (80%). And this crowd will get older soon with much lesser spending power.

TL;DR - most mirrorless sales came from people migrating out of DSLR. However the camera trend seems to be dying with the users of the generation (above 40)