A very trusted sources shared some positive insights on Panasonic mirrorless camera sales. While he obviously cannot share numbers he told me that Panasonic is finally seeing an increase in their mirrorless camera sales. We will see these positive trend within the next Panasonic financial report. Also important to know is that Panasonic expects the positive trend to continue further with the release of the GH4. So let’s wait and see.
The last months there were a lot of negative reports about the status of the mirrorless system camera market. But for unscientific reasons I strongly believe mirrorless system cameras are the future. And I am not the only one thinking so:
Digitalcamerareview writes:
The mirrorless camera genre is the future. Large, bulky DSLRs are a dying breed. Will it happen overnight? I’m sure it won’t. But I know that I will be showcasing my DSLRs next to my other antique cameras sooner than later!
Luminous Landscape writes:
The two marketplace leaders (Canon and Nikon) are in the same boat here. They’d rather follow than lead when it comes to the inevitability of mirrorless. Why? I believe that the answer is fear. It’s clear to everyone in the industry that the future lies in mirrorless technology, but the two market leaders have DSLRs as their current bread and butter products. Their wisdom seems to be — if someone is going to eat our lunch, let’s let them at least do it slowly. Doing the brave move of eating it ourselves, while maintaining our dominant market share, is just is a bit too risky.
North American preorders, shipping date and price:
GH4 camera at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), and Panasonic (Click here). Price: $1,698. In Canada at Vistek (Click here).
GH4 camera with interface unit at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). Price: $3,298
Interface unit only at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Panasonic (Click here). Price: $1,998
Europen preorders, shipping date and price:
Germany: Wexcameras, Marcotec-shop.de.
UK at Wexphotographic, CameraWorld, UKdigital, CVP, TipTop.
Holland at Fotohanskeuzekamp.
Belgium at Fotokonijnenberg.
Norway at Fotovideo.
Sweden at Cyberphoto, Skandinavianphoto.
Finland at Telefoto, Topshot, Verkkoauppa.
France at Photocineshop.
68 Responses
The GM1 and GX7 are good products. Better than the GX1 and GF6.
Having owned the G1, GH2 and now the GM1, GX7 and GH4 on order, I agree.
I find it amazing how unappreciative the marketplace is for the efforts Panasonic has made to advance the m43 technologies. Further, their relationship with Leica has brought a steady progression in the line-up of very good lenses for this platform. Luminous Landscapes calls the GM1 a stumble – having just come back from an overseas trip where travelling very light was essential, I found the GM1 performed very well (although an LCD loupe would have helped at times!).
Panasonic has done a really good job in the last year. And I still use my GH2s a lot for shooting interviews as the quality is great for anything going up on the web. In the winter time the GX7 with 20mm fits nicely in my jacket pocket and also use it to shoot strobe in the studio as I like the color rendition a lot. Plan to buy a GM1 for the summer months so that I can always have a MFT camera with me. And love the ability to use all those fantastic Olympus lenses. For anybody saying that MFT is dying, blah, blah — this system is growing by leaps and bounds. As far as mirror less cameras in general are concerned I think Fuji is doing an incredible job considering they are designing so many lenses and bodies all on their own. But I’m tired of buying into a system beholden to one manufacturer. I’d love to see a vendor independent consortium for a full frame system mirror less camera — MFT is proving that this can be done.
Upstream Color shot on GH2’s looked amazing up on the big screen as well. The GH2 is still a great day to day money maker.
+1000
The GM1, GX7 and GH4 are all (and should be in the GH4’s case) fantastic products. The well-speced, right-priced and sorely under-appreciated G6 is almost there. Give it a GX7 sensor and watch out!
(Yes, and I still love my GH2!)
Panasonic’s lens releases in the past couple of years have been very good for the most part. From the tiny 12-32mm, to the one-two-punch 12-35mm and 35-100mm, to the eye-popping Nocticron (IQ and price). Even the 14-42mm II and 45-150mm kit lenses are excellent for their prices. Hopefully, the upcoming 15mm f1.7 will up the ante, too. Please bring the 150mm f2.8, Panasonic!
Couple all that with what Olympus brings to the system, then add in lenses from Voigtländer, SLR Magic, Sigma, Tokina and (PLEASE) Schneider-Kreuznach and others (yes, even the junky “Kodak” cameras) and M4/3 is looking extremely strong, with a lot of breadth.
All we really need too see is a serious, multi-manufacturer, COOPERATIVE marketing campaign for the Micro Four Thirds SYSTEM as a whole!
Agree. A joint marketing campaign would help. And joint efforts to improve distribution.
Panasonic has always been under appreciated by the market place, it’s partially their own fault for not shouting loudly/aggressively enough…
They’re shouting really loud right now, at least through the internet. People are just so quick to downplay them.
“positive insights on Panasonic mirrorless camera sales”
Good to hear. Hope it is correct.
I also think mirror-less cameras have a future. In my humble opinion, in the next years there will be only smartphones, mirror-less (4/3 and APSC size) and FF DSLR’s. I also see a merging of photography and video. Canon and Nikon must adapt, if not….then Kodak is a good example of what can happen.
What about FF mirrorless? I see no reason for that to go away, either…
They’re newer so I guess it’s a little after the “next few years”. The A7 an A7r didn’t capture much hearts, too. Leaves too much to be desired.
Canon and Nikon are understandably concerned, no other manufacturer has made anything like the the investment in lens development those two companies have. I too believe mirrorless is the future, but I also believe it will be the consumers loss if Canikon goes the way of Kodak.
How is it a loss for consumers when companies who fail to innovate go away? If Kodak was still around it would be because people are still shooting film. The frustration with Canon and Nikon for providing mediocre upgrades seems quite fervent on the message boards and Fuji seems to be viewed as the system that Canon or Nikon could’ve created but chose not to. I say good riddance to companies that intentionally keep their technological achievements and progress out of the reach of their customers.
Don’t rewrite history. Kodak most certainly innovated in digital. Your camera has a Bayer sensor in it, in case you hadn’t noticed. Kodak failed because of management decisions. Basically, they were a huge margin chemical/paper business and they didn’t want to move to a low margin electronics business. The pieces were all there; the management wasn’t.
One of the things I learned from comparing what I learned during my MBA and doctorate work in business was that the biggest reason why companies failed almost always came back to people, in particular political posturing and poor management decisions. Companies like Kodak (and today Canon, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) often have plenty of resources in their ranks that are creating lots of interesting and useful ideas and technologies. It’s how, and whether, those things can and do become real products supported correctly by the entire organization that often determines their fate.
I see strong elements in Nikon that they are currently experiencing poor management decision making. They’re inhibiting things they shouldn’t, and encouraging things that shouldn’t, and they seem to have most of their focus on keeping the Coolpix through consumer DSLR lines updating as usual in a market that is saying no, they want something different. But I also see poor decision making in other camera companies, as well. Sony almost has the opposite problem as Nikon: Sony seems to let ANY project come to fruition. They end up competing with themselves because of that (the A7 with the 35mm lens is a cheaper and in some ways better camera that’s the equal of the RX1, for instance).
Agree lol
A good example is the British car industry. Bogged down by “give em more of the same” management. But the innovation is still there, most F1 marques are UK based and developed.
If any company has the budget and R&D infrastructure in-place to develop mirroless, it’s gotta be Canon. Fear of pulling market share from their dslr line has IMO, kept them from bringing their plans to the forefront. I believe they do have something in the works and the other manufacturers, Pana, Oly, will push Canon to up the ante in this area, which can only benefit all shooters, and keep Canon financially viable in the future.
Nothing prevents Canon and Nikon from going mirrorless with their legacy mounts. Pentax did exactly that with the K-01, but they failed because of the design, the slow AF, and the lack of an EVF. A mirrorless Canon/Nikon ‘DSLR’ done right, would sell just as well as their current Rebels and D3xxx/D5xxx models.
In fact, it’s wrong to say that DSLRs have a much larger market share than mirrorless ILCs. It’s rather more accurate to say that Canon’s and Nikon’s legacy systems have a much larger market share than the rest of the systems. When those two go mirrorless, then the market will truly embrace mirrorless.
The Pentax design was bad because it was required for a legacy lens mount, thereby eliminating a major advantage of mirrorless: size. A mirrorless design with dedicated lens + an available adapter will allow Canon/Nikon to recognize the size advantage while allowing customers to circumvent it of their own volition *if* they own legacy lenses. Designing a body around legacy lenses that defeats one of the keystone advantages of mirrorless without recourse for the consumer is a bad strategy IMO.
I also believe that mirrorless camera is the future of photography world. (but not sure which system or which company will win lol)
anyway good job Panasonic!
>>The two marketplace leaders are in the same boat here. They’d rather follow than lead when it comes to the inevitability of mirrorless.
As Andrew stated, this is exactly the Kodak situation. Kodak had too much to protect so its “too little, too late” efforts at digital for consumers never caught up with those that charged ahead. This may be the fate of Canon and Nikon.
“This may be the fate of Canon and Nikon.”
Take Canon 1200D or Nikon D3300. When you change them to mirrorless – OVF to EVF, dedicated PDAF to on-sensor PDAF – what else has to change? Nothing. Cheap EVF would be an improvement over the cheap OVF – and that’s about it.
What I’m trying to say is that CaNikon have nothing to fear, because on the larger scale of things, mirrorless are merely evolutionary, not a big huge leap.
Agreed. Canon and Nikon have nothing at all to fear. When the tides finally start to turn, they can quite easily buy some off-the-shelf componentry (like Epson’s Ultimicron in the excellent VF4 viewfinder) and integrate it into a slightly-smaller DSLR body. Keep the mount the same, simplify the design, reduce the price, and continue to coast on inertia for another 5-10 years…
Die hard DSLR owners won’t swallow an EVF and canikon won’t be introducing EVFs until 2015-16 at the earliest
Yeah, right. That’s exactly the sort of thing all the cell phone makers said about iPhone and it’s lack of a hardware keypad.
Where’s Blackberry now? Motorola? Sony-Ericsson? Nokia?
What was said about iPad when it was released? Pretty much the same. Who needs them? Over-priced. Useless. Toys. Etcetera.
Sure there are plenty of wannabe iPhones and iPads out there, but Apple takes the high-end (portable Macs, too) and something like 85%+ of the profits industry-wide, while the majority of Android devices are freebees and giveaways.
It’s not that Nikon or Canon will end up like Blackberry…
Maybe. But I think Nikon and Canon will be able to roll with the punches better, purely on the basis of their lens lock-in. Apple was among the first to create a similar legacy lock-in in the first place by creating “gotta have ’em” non-transferrable, non-compatible Apps for the App Store. That is a big contributor to their ongoing market success. You’ll notice that in other parts of the world (i.e. India, China, South America, even Spain/Portugal/Greece/Italy) that didn’t buy in to the luxury iPhone phenomenon when it was new have instead broadly adopted Android (or even Windows Phone!), largely on the basis of price.
Is there that much to differentiate a Canon EOS M from a NEX or M4/3 camera, with the exception of support and iteration? What about a Coolpix A with an interchangeable (Nikon F) mount? It’s not that Canikon is completely incapable of making these cameras, it’s that they don’t want to validate the competition. I think when the tide starts to turn, they will be able to shift quickly enough. But maybe I’m wrong.
Ultimately I don’t care, really. No matter which mirrorless mount comes out on top, it won’t make my current M4/3 and legacy lenses any less useful…
Yep, I pretty much agree.
Canon at least put out a feeler, if half-hearted, with the EOS M. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nikon has skunkworks mirrorless cameras and will pull them out… but ONLY when it’s absolutely necessary.
I’ve got enough 135 format lenses from several systems, so I’d be good to go with any system as long as there are adaptors available. But M4/3 hits so many sweet spots at this point, it really doesn’t matter.
But I suspect die-hard DSLR owners represent maybe 10% of the DSLR market, though. The majority of them want a (cheap) step-up from their phones or point-and-shoots, and “know” that Canon or Nikon take good photos.
There are a lot more Canon T3s sold than 5, 6, or 7Ds…
Not sure about Canon, but Nikon has prototypes floating around already. Given that this is a Photokina year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see something in 2014.
These are dangerous times for canikon more so for one of them, they have to be careful how they pivot their DSLRs….
Don’t disagree with Canon and Nikon having to pivot DSLRs.
But these are really dangerous times for everyone. Companies not making a profit at this point will just get squeezed harder and harder in a continuing declining (or even flat) market.
Some, like Fujifilm and Ricoh, won’t really care because the numbers for them are so small in relation to the overall company. Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony are all near an edge that they don’t dare fall off. Canon and Nikon are in a fight to remain profitable. None of these companies have a bright future at the moment.
“LARGE DSLR cameras are a dying breed…” Best thing I read upon waking up this morning!
I agree that mirrorless is the future, but it’s going to take awhile.
When digital P&S cameras appeared I thought mirrors would disappear. I have disliked mirrors slapping in a camera ever since I traded my Rolleiflex for a Pentax H3V.
I agree that mirrorless is the future; just not mirrorless M43. Poor quality + silly prices beg the question, if it is going to be around in 2 years.
People said the same thing 2 years ago…
exactly where is this poor quality and silly prices you speak of?
Have you ever taken a picture? Can you take pictures? Never mind what someone called jonjon should be doing, instead of posting rubbish…
“Poor quality.” Yikes, your crazy dude. Here’s two pics for you. The first one is the EP5 and the second is a Sony a900. Both JPEG at 3200 ISO. Now sure the a900 is old at this point, but it’s still a full frame. Point is, look at how far technology has come. M43rds is doing what full frame was doing just a few years ago- and then some.
Sorry, this test is meaningless. You can put in a compact camera and end up with similar results.
Whoever took those test pics should forget about the gear: anything goes for them. I suggest a mobile phone.
The problem of Panasonic is not their excellent cameras but rather marketing – the brand is not perceived as a “camera company” in the West. Also, they should join forces with Olympus and market the M43 under a common, simpler and flashier name. What we’re seeing now is a war of attrition. Canon and Nikon are in a position to push prices down and laugh and other mirrorless manufacturers are increasing their market share. If Oly and Pana can sustain this pressure just a bit longer they are going to prevail in my opinion, especially if they have something like a new sensor technology up their sleeve. I wonder why it didn’t happen yet but Pana should also consider making a full-frame mirrorless, just to diversify things a bit.
“The problem of Panasonic is not their excellent cameras but rather marketing…they should join forces with Olympus and market the M43 under a common, simpler and flashier name.”
Olympix?
That would be horrible indeed but anything “Micro” isn’t going to cut it either 🙂
Lumpus! 🙂
The system might be named just PEN. But never mention Image Stabilization
🙂
Really! Canikon are in no position to push down prices, if they push their lower end DSLRs down in price anymore they are entering point and shoot territory and make the gulf between their “ranges” too wide in price, those that bought “top end” DSLRs will feel cheated and those thinking of doing so are sure to have 2nd thoughts and reconsider their options… and Nikon definitely doesn’t turn over it’s current stock (DSLR, P&S and Nikon 1) over fast enough…
I think that’s why they’re putting emphasis on the Lumix brand. Not sure about other countries, but here in the Philippines, Lumix were a fairly popular name being thrown around when it comes to P&S.
“[…] Panasonic is finally seeing an increase in their mirrorless camera sales.”
Gx line I gather does pretty well. As does the GHx. The publicity splash, when the GX7 and GM1 landed, definitely have helped too. I hope Panny learned the lesson: sometimes you have to releases something cute and gimmicky like GM1 to simply draw attention to your brand.
“Large, bulky DSLRs are a dying breed.”
For sure exaggeration. (Some popular m43 cameras are bulky intentionally – not everybody has small hands.) The only real change the mass-market DSLRs (as we know them today) would undergo is the loss of OVF in favor of EVF. And that’s pretty evolutionary change. The rest I’m sure would stay for quite a time the same – even the infamous “OVF bump”.
The GM1 is more than cute and gimmicky, it also oozes some style. The GF series are the cute, gimmicky, and sometimes ugly ones.
> But for unscientific reasons I strongly believe mirrorless system cameras are the future
I don’t think it’s unscientific, since I agree with you. 🙂
Actually, there is no scientific reason for continued existence of DSLRs. The only (unscientific) reason they persist now is that they are, still, a little better than mirrorless in a number of areas, but there is no scientific reason why mirrorless won’t soon enough excel in these areas. In the least, we will start to see more and more mirrorless cameras in DLSR shape.
“Amateur Photographer” – 29 March 2014 issue – has a 2-page spread on the subject, headlined “Compact System Camera Sales Crash” – “Do smaller interchangeable-lens cameras have a future after sales plunged more than 30% in the UK?”
A certain person at Amateur Photographer has his own agenda, I would take anything they say about Mirrorless sales with a very large pinch of salt….
More like a cup of sea salt
I bet Olympus and Fuji are seeing an increase too, maybe Sony as well, canikon are 4 years toooo…. late to the game =)
Panasonic has really made 2 great cameras : gx7 and gm1. Their lenses are also quite innovative. The 12-32 is really a step forward. The 12-35 is also quite small for a constant f 2.8 zoom. Yes the prices suck, but they will eventually come down. The products that they made are both small and good.
Increase from what? An all time low? What timeframe? Need some numbers for reference. I want mirrioless to succeed but this information provides no value. Bit skeptical too that the source would not share actual numbers.
Olympus and Panasonic need to ramp up their marketing especially in the USA. Panasonic also needs a better distribution channel because products are not always available. Both companies need better repair services especially for professionals.
Visibility (marketing) does not have to be very expensive but it needs to be creative. For example, hold some events where people can get a chance to use their cameras. Sony does this well with their seminars. Team up with Epson or Adobe and show what can be done with m43
Nikon often has a representative at the local Costco able to answer questions and people can take pictures and have them printed right in the store while they shop so it is a double promotion.
Both companies need to do more to reach out to professionals. Many years later and we have no good way to tether to a PC/Mac. The phone app needs updates and it needs to be easier to get photos onto Facebook.
We are a long away from mirrorless takes over. We have great products, great lenses but the polish and support is still lacking.
“Olympus and Panasonic need to ramp up their marketing especially in the USA.”
They REALLY need to ramp up their distribution chain. No camera shop in Las Vegas carries m4/3. Best Buy occasionally has some, but they’re usually older models. There’s no place for me to compare the GX7 and the EM10, so I’ll be buying based on specs and other people’s reviews.
1.)PRICE = RULES THE MARKET = PEOPLE WHO WANT BUY = if not = PRICE is TO HIGH..
2.) do you glubsh your cam every second in day in the toilet? not
3.) the camera works a long time so what for is 1.)????
4.) the 24/7/365 IDIOTICQUE SMARTPHONE MARKETING WALL…
5.) if you get 4.) for 19,90,-/month plus Smartphone, do not think you will give 600,700,800 $
6.) the now upcoming idiotic 4k-way. same as last year…what was it? and yes.. i take it but
not spend EXTRA MONY for that.
7.) we have had a ganster raid in wall street = it was called the 2008 world economic desease
and so on…. how many peole lost…and so on…
8.) monthly rumor y ” we hav heard taht the next cam x y z..and so on
9.) for me a normal G5 is it..now…and in seconds it works manual in film mode
so what?
for smaler fingers
past it in the ass
what? now
10.) never they start with a F2,8 BASELENSE IN PRICE WITH BODY…
so if you want sell me a cam
gx7+ f2,8 12-32 = 499 and that is the maximum…. if not… tic tac tic tac oh end 2014..
please go home, you’re drunk 🙂
Very sensible, the gorillas at Panasonic just don’t get that. And I am sure some have MBAs…
You may have been better off writing:
1. yetrueiie
2.477dnknnnnhugh
3. bloo bloo blar
4. hoodeedoodoodoo
5.ehjwke9hjjooopermon
etc.
Here we go again.
Manufacturers who failed miserably in the DSLR world now eat sour grapes and proclaim DSLR is dead, and that mirrorless is the future.
Six years later, they’re still saying it. While DSLR sales are still profitable, and mirrorless never has been. While mirrorless sales are dropping even faster than DSLR sales. Should DSLRs be dead by now, or at least be showing signs of dying before mirrorless?
What is the compulsion to continually proclaim the death of the DSLR? Why is the DSLR must die? Who cares? On DSLR forums, no one is constantly, desperately, proclaiming the death of non-DSLR.
I have a GX7 and like it. I hope Panasonic survives. The best way it can do is to not charge so much. The best way for mirrorless to survive is start dropping its prices way down.
Nice that Panasonic is ‘finally seeing an increase in mirrorless camera sales.’ Of course, this is what they’ve been predicting all along, with results proving them wrong again and again.
It’s nice if Panasonic shows an uptick, because the bigger trend has been that just about every other mirrorless vendor outsells Panasonic. Note that an uptick does not a trend make, especially if everyone else has upticks.
DSLR are cash cows. For years now only small steps of innovation. A 5D MK III has a seven years old sensor. On the other side DSLM have high invest in research. That is why they can not be as cheap as DSLR for the moment.
The main reason why DSLR is on end of live cycle is DSLM can use the whole power of image recognition for advanced funktions like new AF methods, object recognition etc. where DSLR have only a mirror.
so what happened to film camera? oh ya, they are still here, and some people swear by it. Same goes for DSLR, and for mirrorless. people just need to get over this DSLR vs Mirrorless stuff. Hate to say this, but like stereotyping, it is there for a reason. Beside DSLR, Mirrorless, there is medium format, large format, what about those? When people talking about M43 being expensive and all that, they tend to ignore the fact that, if you are capable of doing manual focus, you can almost plug and play any dirt cheap quality legacy lens with a simple 15 bucks knockoff adapter. Talk about being creative in photography, you need to be creative with you gear too.
Da true.T
I would think that both the GM1 and now GH4 are bringing positive things to Pany sales. Certainly the GM1 should be providing a healthier profit margin than previous models have. I think one very overlooked item in this hopefully brighter picture for Pany is their revenue from increased lens sales as they have introduced a number of premium lenses lately.