Image source: BCNranking.
BCNranking published the full mirrorless camera sales data from January 1st til December 24th. And at least for me it’s a real surprise to see that the Nikon J1 was actually the most sold mirrorless camera in Japan!
When you think that on Internet most of the talk is about the Micro Four Thirds or NEX system than this is an unexpected success for Nikon.
Another surprise is to see the OMD and NEX-7 on position 11 and 12 only. The cheaper entry level models are on top of the ranking. Not the more expensive cameras.
There is no such detailed rankings in other countries. You can if you want check the Amazon rankings. But these are not real indications of a long term camera popularity as they change a lot depending on the running deals: – Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon US (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon Deutschland (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon UK (Click here)
– Mirrorless camera ranking at Amazon France (Click here)
17 Responses
Wow, look at Olympus, they will survive!
But Japanese people are as fooled as all others by the “big name” nikon.
Happy 2013 to everyone, enjoy your live!
Nikon is a Japanese company, and if any kind of people know about cameras its the Japanese. They’re not fooled by anything, least of all Olymnpus. These are results from mirrorless sales in Japa, where they like smaller cameras, second, its the mirrorless market, not dslr and others. Mirrorless is no more than scraps off the dslr table worldwide; You make it sound like olympus si running the biz now and all pros and everyone is runnign aorund with olympus nex cameras and lenses. If you’re going to be a fanboy that’s one thing, but dont distort facts to feed you dilusions. Take a good look at what MOST folks are using, its aint mirrorless cameras, and you dont need some poll to tell you that.
I wonder why they keep old versions in production for so long/manufacture far more than they can sell??
Is it about looking for market share?
About having low cost alternatives to bring people to upgrade from compacts?
Are the manufacturing cost per camera that low?
Or bad planning?
No doubt older versions cannibalize on sales of the latest version.
From a customer perspective, never buy the latest version but the and save money!! -Unless the camera is a real game-changer + mature like the Oly EM-5 or similar.
In the world of business economy manufacturing “for the shelf” is a slow suicide. There are far too many older versions on this list. It shows the industry is in dire straits.
The low score of the Sony NEX camera’s is obvious. There are no high performance lenses for those camera’s and that is killing. Super stuff (NEX-7) become useless for this reason.
Nikon J1 is very cheap 2nd body for tele shooting and video. Nikkor 70-200mm/f2,8 => J1 with adapter 189-540mm/f2,8 .. wow! .. and picture quality is quite good in normal light conditions. Video quality is exellent.
I guess it’s nice to know that Japanese buyers aren’t really more camera-savvy than the rest of us after all…
The only big surprise here is why the Pentax Q scored so low in 8th position. The Japanese market is heavily skewed towards small cameras. The public there can’t get enough of them. Take a close look at the top ten and you will find the smallest mirror less models on the market.
Case closed.
It would be more relevant to compare the entire NEX line with 18.4% market share to the entire Nikon 1 line with a 13.3% market share.
they have bad taste.
OMD-5 is a camera at a higher price bracket than several others so it shouldn’t be too surprising for the Q to outsell it. Also the Q contrary to the small sensor=useless knee jerk reaction is quite good. Yup, another camera with “Sony InsideTM” (intel jingle plays).
I have a theory about the success of the Nikon J1 and I want to see what you guys think.
Imagine DSLRs to be the photographic equivalent of Linux–something that is highly customizable, allows one to accomplish the same thing in multiple ways based on the person’s habits, and rewards anyone who is willing to learn with efficient workflows. People doing certain types of work demands such an advanced system. Other people learn Linux just so they can boast about their geekiness.
Imagine point-and-shoot cameras to be the photographic equivalent of Windows. Not very elegant, but very affordable (comes with most computers) and gets the job done for the most part. And they come with a lot of settings that to most people are just clutter–they have no intention of ever learning what those knobs and buttons are, except to leave them alone.
And then there is the Mac. For the people who are traditionally intimidated by computers, the Mac does not “humiliate” them further by presenting them knobs, buttons, and settings they no intention of tweaking. And for the purposes that most people use it for (email, web browsing), IT JUST WORKS, and works beautifully. Physically Macs are beautiful, and because of the price people know they are buying something nice. Because of the simple user interface, people feel they can master the beautiful machine they have just paid a handsome amount for.
I think the One-series is Nikon’s idea of their “Mac”. It’s for people who have no intention of “learning camera”, but just want to take nice pictures with a “nice” camera that just works. With solid kit lenses, rock solid AF and a good metering system, I actually think the Nikon 1’s deliver on that promise.
At the same time, in trying to deliver a “condensed DSLR” experience, other mirrorless cameras are making the people who don’t want to “learn camera” feel humiliated again by presenting them with all these buttons that don’t know what to do with except to “leave alone”.
also japanese people love their small sized stuff too
Olympus 28.8 %
Panasonic 21.4 %
Sony 18.4 %
Nikon 13.3 %
Pentax 7.1 %
Canon 2.1 %
(MFT 50.2 %)
Yet more proof that loudmouthed ‘enthusiasts’ on forums do not in any way reflect actual sales figures. Calling things like the Nikon 1 and Pentax Q DOA and even things like the GF3/5 etc – that photographers want x features and none of this ‘silliness’ is in itself plain silly. These companies know their buying public far far far better then these ‘photographers’ will ever fully understand.
We should think ourselves lucky though that the manufacturers do actually listen to photographers and have enthusiast models and halo products for us to enjoy – even if they aren’t going to be top sellers for them.
What does this list reealy show us? NOTHING!
Is Olympus (the brand with the largest overall marketshare) making more profit then Canon (the brand with the smallest market share in mirrorless)?
Can you use these numbers in other markets (like Europe and the US)? NO Samsung is not acrtive in Japan, so from what brand will they take the larest slice in the rest of the world?
So the only thing these figures tell us that m43, Sony and Nikon are doing good in Japan on market share, nothing more
well, actually this study BCN is useless because it has not included Yodobashi, Map and Kitamura(the 3 biggest camera retailers in Japan).