|
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. |
There was the Nikkei Financial Yearbook released in Japan, and DCLife summarized camera shipments from the big Japanese manufacturers over the last 4 years. It's a fascinating look at the industry, and how DLRs have fallen off – but at different degrees of slope than one may have anticipated, given that we were looking back in 2018 when Nikon and Canon joined the mirrorless market en masse.
I could have made a lot of money betting Sony fanboys in 2017 that Canon would rule mirrorless by 2021. Alas, it was not the case, though I will accept donations ;)
The mirrorless market after the RF and Z mount introductions was Canon's and Nikon's to gain and take over from Sony, who controlled the market by default. While Canon managed to execute that pivot remarkably well, even with rather lackluster cameras in the RP and EOS R cameras, what happened was anything but a graceful pivot by Nikon, with arguably far superior cameras to the Canon releases. It wasn't until Canon released the R5 and R6 in 2020, that you could say they were fully invested in the platform and competitive in the market.
This is a look at what happened from a year after that point, from 2021 onwards, and after the dust had settled, it has been a two-horse race since – Canon and Sony.
You could argue, I suppose, that Canon had history on their side, as they made a central pivot from the FD manual focus mount to the fully electronic EOS mount. So they had a working blueprint and arguably a much easier path forward, having trialled many of the technologies in the EOS-M mount. That being said, Canon not only dumped one mount, but two at the same time, with both the EOS-M and EF mounts rapidly replaced by the RF.
For all I gripe about Canon and its RF mount not having Sigma full-frame lenses – and the fact that Canon released a camera like the R100, it's a remarkable shift for Canon that they managed without losing their overall grip as the number one camera company in the market.
What About those DSLRs?
Overall, DSLR shipments have declined significantly. Canon has continued to ship significant quantities of DSLRs over the past four years, even as DSLR shipments declined from 1.54 million in 2021 to 790,000 in 2024. Nikon appears to have lost complete interest, and Pentax is content to be a minor player.
What About Just Mirrorless?
When we examine mirrorless, we see a two-company competition between Canon and Sony, with Canon leading the charge, shipping a commanding 2 million units in 2024—the highest number of mirrorless cameras that Canon has ever shipped.
Interestingly, Nikon seems to be picking up the pace a bit as well, but it remains unknown if they can pull themselves up from the bottom tier of camera companies to take on either Canon or Sony.
The dark horses in all of this are what may or may not happen in China, with domestic brands such as DJI and Huawei rumored to be entering the market, and mobile phone juggernauts such as Xiaomi and Redmi experimenting with interchangeable lenses attached to smartphones.
They chose to occupy a niche, long "affordable" teles, where both Canon and the other one whose name I enjoy forgetting 😈 are still absent.
It helped them to regain the interest of many wildlife, maybe also sports photographers.
Good news for them, and also Canon.
Canon/Nikon competition was good for both, not too long ago.
I don't really understand what I am reading (hey that's not all that unusual!).
What exactly do these data represent?
Interchangable lens cameras only?
Specifically, you write:
When we examine mirrorless, we see a two-company competition between Canon and Sony, with Canon leading the charge, shipping a commanding 2 million units in 2024—the highest number of mirrorless cameras that Canon has ever shipped.
How is mirrorless defined here?
I have other questions, many of which indicate my cluelessness.
Do I read your post right that you think Canon is lazy and doing nothing to maintain that position?
If so, where do you think they are lazy?
It's all explained in the charts and article. The Overall Shipments include DSLRs and Mirrorless. In the DSLR chart Canon had a decline, however, they trended upward in Mirrorless. They're doing fine.
I think it's more the case that the DRLS market is disappearing fast and Canon is the last manufacturer that still sells a significant number of DSLRs, so their growth in mirrorless is countered by their decreasing DSLR sales. I assume that they will reverse the trend once DSLRs will disappear
Overall, the mirrorless segment grew by 9.7% from 2023 to 2024.
The relevant graph -- the only one which can be relevant for your points about RF mount -- is the "Mirrorless Shipments" one. Here, obviously, the gap between Canon and Sony is smaller, because Canon's DSLR shipments are not included (but still remarkable considering that Canon started from zero FF mirrorless shipments in 2018), But, contrary to your point the gap increased between 2022 and 2023 and the difference appears pretty much unchanged since then. In fact, since 2023 the four leading shippers, Canon, Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm all seem to have increased their shipments "in parallel", whereas the others listed, Panasonic and Olympus/OM seem to be flatlining.
I don't see any evidence to support your point, so Canon seems to be "managing" despite your recommendation to others to avoid your "mistake" and buy other brands. Personally, I think such a recommendation may be very short-sighted and not in the longer term interests of new photographers.
Canon had a decline in DSLR sales. It wasn't as bad a decline as the DSLR segment had overall so they gained market share.
Canon had an increase in Mirrorless sales. It wasn't as good an increase as the Mirrorless segment had overall so they lost market share.
While Intel was busy pasting 2 single core CPUs together, AMD designed the first single silicon die dual core processor. Then Intel took their pasted two core design and pasted them together with another pasted dual core CPU and created the first quad core CPU, while AMD designed the first quad core on a single silicon die. Each time AMD beat the pants off Intel.
A year ago I responded to a questionnaire sent by Canon and I asked about a triple layer BSI sensor. Considering Sony announced plans to do so, Canon needs to design and release a new sensor architecture, from the ground up, to pull away from the pack. Canon behaves like AMD, its mirrorless camera and lens design and innovation is slow and methodical. It can beat the pants off Sony and Nikon. Couple that with their excellent customer support. No 3rd party repairs for Canon products and I've never been ignored or turned away by customer support.
As to Canon, my feeling is that they are no longer being considered as THE innovation company. Canon often seems to be following trends set by competition.
And Chinese companies are waiting...
Not sure why you wouldn't believe it and its certainly not niche for someone to divert from the canon ecosystem. Its only been going on for years.
I personally have been canvasing options now that I have access to all sigma lenses. It's a YUUUGE deal. That's literally money not going to canon. My next 2 lenses will not be going to canon....maybe a 35, or 28-70 or 24-70...hmm....choices matter.
Ironically n the salespersons at BH..in the CANON booth complain about it.
Every single week customers are reminded that they are in canon lens jail. Do you really think that's insignificant? Feel however you want but that's exceedingly unrealistic.
Now back to my sigma lens shopping..hmm..this one, or that one...hmmm.