Amateur Photographer reports that mirrorless system camera sales dropped by 32% while DSLR sales dropped by 11% in 2013.
Lens sales for mirrorless system cameras fell by 16% and for DSLR -22,8%.
Compact camera sales fell 34%.
Overall mirrorless and DSLR camera sales peaked worldwide in 2012 and the market is now shrinking. Mirrorless is doing a bit worse than DSLR but we have to see in 2014 if more “mature” mirrorless products like the Olympus OMD, Fuji X-T1, Panasonic GH4 and Sony A7 series will make a positive difference.
14 Responses
Because cameras are far too expensive.
something very wrong with the UK figures given/used by Amateur Photographer/Chris Cheeseman…
Panasonic stated in late 2012 that they were on course to sell 250,000 units in the UK and for 2011 they stated they sold 160,000+ units which obvoiusly doesn’t include the rest of the mirrorless players.
so “CSC sales appear to have peaked in 2012 when 146,000 units were sold over the 12 months.” does not compute 🙁 no link or proof or where they got their information or how it was compiled and no break down by manufacturer…
Strange to say the least… I´d like to see also separated figures for low end and high end compacts. Low end compacts are being replaced by phones very quickly.
The sales of mirrorless outside Japan have fallen sharply more so than DSLR sales which still demonstrate huge dominance with 81% of all interchangeable lens cameras being DSLR’s. Your bias has been shown in multiple forums. The very fact that you are willing to accept what a maker claims for potential sales is incidence enough of your lack of though on this matter. Even in their home market Japan, Panasonic’s market share bombed falling from over 20% to just 14%. Worldwide in 2012 4,228,735 mirrorless cameras shipped compared to 3,305,798 last year that is a unit decline of over 922,000. The real problem is that when you boil it all down mirroless has only one advantage namely size/weight, if you exclude that one area then it is easy to get better image quality for less money sometimes a lot less money.
The unfortunate “facts” are that both Panasonic and Olympus’s share of the mirrorless market has fallen considerably since their peak.Which in a shrinking market is bad news hence the poor financial.numbers from the respective major mirrorless players.Panasonic’s market share fall in Japan is huge from a peak of 38.7% to now 14%Olympus has fallen from a peak of 36.6% to 28.9% of what is a smaller market. So they have a smaller share of a smaller market
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/japan-2013-overall-sales-numbers-sony-dslrslt-presence-shrinks-mirrorless-share-increases/
advantages of Micro Four Thirds no need to chimp to check exposure/white balance/shadow highlight control better video, faster implementation of new technologies, more sharpness across the whole frame, better telecentricity of lenses, wider autofocus area, touch screens, tilt or removable EVFs with more information, better live view shooting experience, more accurate autofocus, more easier manual focusing, more black and white options,better in camera RAW editing (GH4), in camera panoramas, wider range of bodies to suit all needs…
The figures for total mirrorless for 2012 and 2013 have been skewed by the Nikon1 and Canon EOS M fails.
“Your bias has been shown in multiple forums.” says Mr or Mrs anonymous…comedian.
Panasonic was the smashing in the UK as far as mirrorless sales were concerned…you would know this if you live in the UK.
Olympus have increased their mirrorless sales and likely their share as having Panasonic in the mirrorless video segment unlike Nikon. So you are admitting canikon, pentax and samsung are not major mirrorless players…and all their previous talk, eh?
Wait until the full financial year reports come out in March/April, then we will see who’s DSLR, point and shoots profits are in trouble.
Your link points to Japan figures this is an article on the UK mirrorless market.
I forgot to respond to the wild claim that Panasonic sold near 250,000 mirrorless cameras in the UK 20 2012 that number would have meant that Panasonic sold 25% of their entire mirrorless sales just in the UK. Given that the whole of Europe only generated 900000 mirroless sales { includes all mirrorless brands Olympus,Panasonic ,Sony, Nikon ,Canon, Fuji etc } to seriously believe that Panasonic managed to shift 250,000 of them just to the UK is idiotic. Considering that Olympus had a bigger share of the mirrorless market in 2012 than Panasonic between them they would need to have sold the best part of 500,000 cameras just in the UK add in Sony’s share of the market and for the Panasonic claim which you plucked from mid-air to be true the UK would have had to buy every mirrorless camera sold in Europe lol
@mirrorsnomore
Panasonic mirrorless was very strong in the UK until 2012 at least, they were everywhere (maybe at the expense of profit), they were sponsoring the Gadget Show, had distribution in ALL UK supermarkets, electrical and camera national chains etc but in early 2013 Panny and Sony seemed to have drastically scaled back their UK marketing and distribution while Olympus and Fuji have ramped theirs up…
Also its been shown that the UK is Europe’s mirrorless leader by quite some margin ahead of Germany etc
Personally I think their 2011 figure of 160k Panny mft is correct.
I’m confused. First you said 250k units. Then you changed it to 160k units. Which is it, and where are the links to the facts? Thanks.
I mentioned both 160k and 250k in my reply and both figures were drawn from 2 youtube video previously linked on 43rumors and elsewhere that were filmed at photography shows in which Panasonic staff were interviewed.
Jessops, Jacobs and Comet have all went bust in the UK in recent years…
Manufacturers forecast a lot of things. When it comes to the camera manufacturers in recent years, they are consistently wrong. And wrong in the wrong way. Their actuals are much lower than their forecast.
Let’s see some more backup to AP’s numbers.
And as the problem is that cameras cost too much, I don’t see how even more expensive cameras such as the XT1 and EM1 (both essentially tarted up versions of already existing cameras) will pull them out. Quick, our cameras are too expensive and are not selling, let’s produce some even more expensive ones!
A 32% drop from one year to the next in any market except the speculative markets, is very significant.
Regarding the Mirrorless market in the U.K., upon first reading this article’s title, I thought
there must be a general economic slowdown in the U.K.
I look at Mirrorless in a similiar way I looked at Solid State TV’s.
Once they were introduced the prices were held high but then competition brought down the ‘machine stamped’ TV’s to very affordable levels.This was possible due to technology and the elimination of ‘tubes’. of which I had to go to the Drug Store to purchase a replacement tube from their counter shelf tube display. very often.
Bottom Line: We consumers will soon get the full benefit of a camera not needing a mirror box and using less glass to make lenses.
If this does not occur Camera Phones will swallow up the Mirrorless Market with only the High End surviving which thankfully will leave all of us here at this great site in good stead.
Readership of this article 40,000 on mirrorless rumors , readership of Amateur Photographer 16,000 ( use to be 100k+ a few years back)… Enough said.