2019 global camera market share numbers are out, Canon leads the way

Eclipsed

EOS R5, "Hefty Fifty" and more.
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I doubt if Canon is quite that optimistic.

Yes, the average buyer isn't paying any attention to the "bru ha-ha" but they don't have to. All they need to see is some internet buzz that Canon released a camera that overheats. They can come across that just Googling for information, which is how people decide what to buy today -- not by going into non-existent camera stores. Or they may not know any more than "my friend's cousin's uncle told him not to buy a Canon because they catch on fire."

As I've tried to explain before, it's not the reality that matters. It's the perception And, Canon does not want anything that damages their carefully cultivated image. People do buy based on the brand they trust the most, but it is very easy to lose that trust, especially in today's internet age.

We don't know what if any damage the R5's negative publicity has done to Canon. But, we shouldn't just write it off because we don't think it is significant.
The $3900 R5 is SELLING for $5000+ on EBay. Crisis is fake.
 
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Eclipsed

EOS R5, "Hefty Fifty" and more.
Apr 30, 2020
143
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I was happy when they release their Z6 & Z7. But when they announced the useless 0.95 lens, I realized they have no one who's skilled in business & marketing. I saw by then the writings on the wall.
For me, it was their horses leg 70-200 compared to the RF70-200 and other advanced designs that made me dump Nikon for Canon even as a happy Z6 owner. Plus the Nikon big lenses are a generation behind.
Name a leading lens design Nikon has released in the last couple years. Then look at Canons last year.
 
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The Nikon Z system was a much more impressive set of cameras than the original R in my opinion. But they put it out with mostly amateur glass. Canon had a so-so FF mirrorless system, but was putting out bonkers pro glass. With the advent of the R5, Canon now has a world-beating system for stills. Nikon has the ability to adapt Sigma and Tamron glass with decent results. I'm not all that optimistic that Nikon will catch up on the lens front anytime too soon, which is too bad. I've never shot Nikon, but I've benefited from the Canon and Sony bodies that have been pushed by Nikon's bang-for-buck ratio in the marketplace, especially after their 800 series came out.

The Sony-Canon share competition is interesting, but complex. There are people who moved to Sony (like I did) to get high resolution + high frames per second. But they're very vulnerable to moving back to the R series now (I just did). But there are video people who are going to flock to the Sony A7s3 and continue the migration to the Panasonic full frame offerings.

The upshot: I think you'll see Canon's share rise in terms of revenue , and Sony's share rise in terms of number of bodies sold, as they come out with their lower-end full frame. Nikon will shrink in both. Panasonic will shrink unless it gets a real AF with eye detect system, which would really change things given that they have Sigma backing them on glass.
 
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Joules

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And Nikon continues its slide to irrelevance. Who would have thought, a few years ago, that Sony would bypass Nikon? Very few, I would imagine.
Well, there are still tons of people who expect Sony to beat Canon, so ... in terms of absolute numbers, probably more than very few :LOL:
 
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They sold off their camera division and likely will be dwindling from now on. There are probably many reasons behind that. MFT being a format that is not distinct enough from smartphone quality to some may be part of it.

This is nonsense. Even MFT is far beyond smartphone quality. MFT also offers some pretty unique glass. The Olympus camera division is going under because they put all of their eggs in the MFT basket in a market that says "FF is better no matter what", which is also more nonsense. The OM-D E-M1 Mark III, for example, is one of the best camera bodies on the market. It has better weather sealing and IBIS than any other manufacturer at a fraction of the weight. If I was shooting in harsh conditions I'd pick that body over any FF. In short, Olympus lost the marketing war. It wouldn't have hurt to put out an APS-C body or two either.
 
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unfocused

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And Nikon continues its slide to irrelevance...

There are plenty of companies that happy succeed with 20% of the market. I would not count Nikon out and I certainly would not declare them irrelevant.
 
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Well I helped Nikon as best I could. One year ago I switched from Canon to Nikon (which is why I haven't been on this forum for a while). I switched for the D850 (which IMO is the best DSLR ever made) and for the 500PF lens (which IMO is the best long telephoto ever made, when you factor in the small size).

Mirrorless I know nothing about and who knows how that will play out with Canon versus Nikon and the early leader Sony. I do find it bizarre (really, really bizarre) that Canon would release two super telephoto lenses in this category with a maximum aperture of f/11 ? And then say you can add a 2x converter for a maximum aperture of f/22 ? They must be very confident in the high ISO capabilities of their mirrorless system.
 
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Colorado

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Mirrorless I know nothing about and who knows how that will play out with Canon versus Nikon and the early leader Sony. I do find it bizarre (really, really bizarre) that Canon would release two super telephoto lenses in this category with a maximum aperture of f/11 ? And then say you can add a 2x converter for a maximum aperture of f/22 ? They must be very confident in the high ISO capabilities of their mirrorless system.

Not high ISO tests but you might find these interesting.
 
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Well I helped Nikon as best I could. One year ago I switched from Canon to Nikon (which is why I haven't been on this forum for a while). I switched for the D850 (which IMO is the best DSLR ever made) and for the 500PF lens (which IMO is the best long telephoto ever made, when you factor in the small size).

Mirrorless I know nothing about and who knows how that will play out with Canon versus Nikon and the early leader Sony. I do find it bizarre (really, really bizarre) that Canon would release two super telephoto lenses in this category with a maximum aperture of f/11 ? And then say you can add a 2x converter for a maximum aperture of f/22 ? They must be very confident in the high ISO capabilities of their mirrorless system.

While i like the new Canon F11 primes for what are and the innovation, Nikon will soon have a 100-400 and an affordable 200-600 which will make them a very good choice for wildlife shooters.
 
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CSD

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The problem with Nikon unlike Canon/Sony is myriad but comes down to diversity in multiple markets to ride out the storms and, more importantly, they don't produce their own sensors. When a company is dependent on their competition for sensors then that'll always put them at a disadvantage and makes it near impossible to catch up. The writing has been on the wall for almost a decade. Nikon does some amazing gear, but they lost the first half of the war to Canon when we saw CCD vs CMOS sensors, then the last decade with Sony eating their lunch mostly leaving Canon mostly unaffected. We're going to see a lot of disruption and consolidation over the next five years, and in ten the market landscape will be completely different to what it is today with AR and mobile products replacing cameras as we see today. Cameras as we know them is a dead end road except to professionals and enthusiasts.

This is why Nikon is likely to drop out of the market or essentially become a niche camera company leaving it to Sony or less likely Fuji to take their place. Almost all technology markets shrink to a duopoly. Intel vs AMD, Windows vs Mac, Android vs iOS, Xbox vs PS 5. You get the idea, it's not a hard and fast rule, but eventually markets gravitate to this until a disruptive business comes along but even then they're likely to get bought out.
 
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People these days often get their 'news' from the wrong places and listen to a friend of a friend of a friend without doing any homework on their own.

Pretty sure that's always been the case. At least now we have easy access to the widest range of information and opinion (even if too few people make use of it).
 
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Canon had a so-so FF mirrorless system, but was putting out bonkers pro glass. With the advent of the R5, Canon now has a world-beating system for stills.

A few people pointed this out on these forums in the past couple of years - when so many people came to moan that there 'was no body that matched the glass'. It was a long game, and it ought to pay off.
 
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They sold off their camera division and likely will be dwindling from now on. There are probably many reasons behind that. MFT being a format that is not distinct enough from smartphone quality to some may be part of it.

Thank you for demonstrating exactly what is wrong with the internet - and exactly how it is influencing buying decisions far more than most people think. For a few years now, this has been the oft-repeated mantra on the internet "MFT is not distinct enough from smartphones." And because of that, "MFT is dead." And fools like the Northrups put out a video with that title and theme and then have either the nerve or the ignorance to think that they had absolutely no influence on Olympus' demise. Having owned cameras in MFT, APS-C and FF formats I can say from experience that their is so little difference between these formats, that all the other internet buzz proclaiming that one system is far superior or another system is dead is complete rubbish. You have smartphones on one level and the all 3 ILC formats at another. So, I'm not trying to pick on you. You are just repeating the same bullcrap that is circulating on the internet. It's so easy to do.
 
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Pretty sure that's always been the case. At least now we have easy access to the widest range of information and opinion (even if too few people make use of it).
What we used to have was a few sources of information, but almost all of them were informed (such as photo magazines or people working in actual camera stores - which at least in my experience, were knowledgeable and experienced.) What we have now is the widest range of mis-information and ill informed opinion that the world has ever seen. Estimates by companies that look into this sort of thing, say that somewhere between 20-40% of reviews on the internet may be fake or compensated. We have seen fairly well organized internet reviews and Sony fanboy campaigns on forums such as this one for years.

My advice would be for anyone interested in photo equipment to stay away from the internet. Unless you have a lot of experience and time spent, you will have no clue who to trust and who is a phony at best and a propogandist at worst.
 
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I doubt if Canon is quite that optimistic.

Yes, the average buyer isn't paying any attention to the "bru ha-ha" but they don't have to. All they need to see is some internet buzz that Canon released a camera that overheats. They can come across that just Googling for information, which is how people decide what to buy today -- not by going into non-existent camera stores. Or they may not know any more than "my friend's cousin's uncle told him not to buy a Canon because they catch on fire."

As I've tried to explain before, it's not the reality that matters. It's the perception And, Canon does not want anything that damages their carefully cultivated image. People do buy based on the brand they trust the most, but it is very easy to lose that trust, especially in today's internet age.

We don't know what if any damage the R5's negative publicity has done to Canon. But, we shouldn't just write it off because we don't think it is significant.
I don't think the short term storm in a teacup 'overheating' hogwash is going to have any effect on the long term sales of the camera. I don't remember the last time one of the big three put out a camera that is trading at 40% over list price (eBay sold listings are from $6,299 to $4,950 with most in the $5,500 range), that is unprecedented and more akin to limited edition Leica's that will do far more for a positive image than the talking heads will do for negative publicity. Add in the fact that actual pro photographers are starting to get out really good reviews with the camera faultlessly being used as designed and the camera is looking to be a game changer for many and strikes to the very heart of what people think they need. I think the R5 is the camera of the moment and nothing will stop it being a massive sales success and it will lift the sales of the baby brother R6 with it.

Indeed I think the two new R cameras are going to be so successful it will effectively end EF, much to my regret. I think virtually all EOS R&D is going to be ploughed into new RF lenses and R bodies with a Canon version of the α7S III the most obvious next step to create a market with a straight three way head to head between Canon and Sony.

Canon R? vs Sony α7S III
Canon R6 vs Sony α7 III
Canon R5 vs Sony α7R IV
 
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