nnowak wrote:
Here is a chart compiled from CIPA data on yearly camera production
Yearly camera production taken from CIPA data
The highlighted fields above are peak numbers for the respective column. Starting in the 2017, Canon began reporting total interchangeable lens camera (ILC) sales in their financial statements. In general, Canon has always accounted for roughly 50% of the interchangeable lens camera market.
When EF-M launched, the ILC market was quadruple what it is now. When RF launched, the ILC market was double what it is now. Canon, or any other manufacturer, can not continue to support four different mounts in an era of drastically reduced unit volume. The casual shapshot photographer that was buying DSLRs in droves a decade ago, and compact mirrorless cameras a few years later, are now mostly just using their smartphone for photography. Not only is the camera market a tiny fraction of what it was, but those still buying cameras lean much more towards the prosumer/professional end of the spectrum.
Excellent post.
It looks like market saturation and the smartphones are a good reason for the decline.
But I still wonder how much the manufacturers are to blame here for their lack of innovations, they rather cr!pple features to segment their products than develop newer ones. BTW (the word cr!pple has been banned from this site, for overuse, my guess!)
There is still plenty of room left for innovations in this sector, IMHO.
Hell, even firmware glitches that people complain about Canon refuses to fix them.
Personally, in the last 6 years my photo/video money have gone to cool products instead, like drones, gimbals, 360 cameras, etc and of course iPhone upgrades which keep innovating. And all those manufacturers are thriving.
Canon even failed in their transition to mirrorless, they aborted the EF-M mount and came late to fully commit to mirrorless. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this dead-end predicament.
I had money set aside for Canon M glass that never was developed, that money is now with DJI in China.
My satisfaction with Canon, as a brand has declined along the way.