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CIPA produced the results for July 2025, and for the first time this year, the shipments have fallen to around the same level as last year. After showing months of increased shipments, the fall looks fairly dramatic. However, this was to be expected as the tariff delay was until August, so the Japanese manufacturers most likely decided to manufacture as much as possible and ship it out.
One notable drop from its breakneck increase is the shipment to China, which was flat with a 0.8% decrease against July 2024. At the same time, shipments to the United States for interchangeable lens cameras grew 16% year on year, most likely to attempt to skirt around the majority of the tariff charges.
Built-In Lens Cameras
Built-in lens cameras grew significantly from last year to last month, though, most likely buoyed by the recent compact shipments such as the Canon Powershot V1, Fujifilm X half, and Ricoh GR IV.
The compacts this year have shown strong growth in all regions, something of a surprise that we haven't really seen before. However, a few years ago, when we observed this trend with built-in lens cameras, we predicted that what we see now in Japan would most likely spread – and I think that's what we are seeing now.
Granted, new releases will have a significant impact on shipments of new cameras; however, overall, built-in lens cameras are 15% by volume and 31% by value greater than those from January through July 2024. I think it's safe to say that built-in lens cameras are back, and we should be seeing more of them, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Canon announce more this year.
Interchangeable Lens Cameras
Throughout 2025, interchangeable lens cameras have shown strong shipments, much larger than in 2024 year to date, and even with a flat month of July, where the growth from 2024 was 1.1% over July of 2024, overall the growth for ILC cameras was 9.8% – a significant increase from 2024.
Now we know that Canon and others pre-shipped what they felt they would need before the tariffs took effect, and they may have decided to ship them everywhere, as shipments increased in every region.
China continues to lead the increase in interchangeable cameras, showing a 23% increase from 2024, which suggests that the growth isn't entirely due to tariffs. The Americas (which is dominated by sales in the United States) followed China's growth with a 16% increase over 2024, but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of those gains from 2024 were tariff-related.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025
This is what will be interesting – to see how many cameras were pre-shipped to various regions because of all the tariff uncertainty. This will start to be clearer with next month's numbers, at least for the Americas. Suppose it weren't for the looming spectre of tariffs and the impact upon shipments, and this were a normal year. In that case, I'd be fairly bullish about this year's overall camera shipments and indicate that it's likely the industry has turned the corner. Alas, no one knows until the final numbers are in what this year will ultimately be.
