Was declining. According to Canon's financials as well as industry reporting, the ILC decline appears to have leveled off and has started to increase (albeit only slightly).
The sales were MUCH higher years ago. They dropped extemely low due to material shortages. That increase is slowly working the pipeline issues out. So I agree that it has leveled off. But it has done so at rate that is a fraction of what it was in the past. The non ILC marketed has basically been rendered obsolete, and now DSLR are essentially moving that way as well. So the market is consolidating around mirrorless as its last stand. There is currently a market for Youtubers, content creators, etc. But eventually this market will be wiped out as well and its going to happen faster if they dont provide options. Ultimately they'll essentially only be able to sell ultra high end specific cameras as that will be the only niche to fill. Providing competitive options pushes that day off and brings more people in the hobby.
On the smartphone side you already have companies like profoto that are designing their flashes to work directly with smartphones. Imagine the workflow of being able to take flash photography directly on a smartphone, saved directly to the cloud, quickly edited on the same phone and then posted to social media.
Sony has already stated "we expect that still images [from smartphones] will exceed the image quality of single-lens reflex cameras within the next few years". Now that probably is due to the fact that Sony has 42% of the global image sensor market for phones. I currently think CANON has the BETTER strategy for ILC to try and bring in entry level consumers by providing more robust entry level cameras. My rub with Sony is that I believe they are less focused on the entry level market. They are fragmenting the market for their cameras to try and sell more higher end cameras to the same consumer. There is no reason why the A74 should have 4k60 cropped other than to make the consumer want to buy the new ZV-E1 as a backup/alternate camera. But it seems their strategy is to NOT focus heavily on the entry level because they serve that market buy selling image sensors for iphones.
So, which of Canon's competitors has a 16mm f/2.8 lens for under $300? A FF 15/16-xx mm zoom for under $600? I guess I missed those more affordable competitor lenses.
Look back at my original post. The 16mm F2.8 prime was the lens I RECOMMENDED. I think the R8 with the 16mm and either the 24mm or 35mm with stabilization gives you a total price around $2,200 which is the price for the ZV-E1 body ONLY.
Now as far as zoom lenses that where I see an issue. Sony has way more options because their e-mount is open to Sigma and Tamron. There are multiple lenses Sigma 18-50mmF2.8 ($550), Tamron 11-20mm F2.8($700), Tamron 17-28mm F2.8($800) just to name a few. Were talking about people looking to step up from smartphones. They are not going to be blowing images up they are looking for a certail look for youtube and social media. They are looking for at least an F2.8. The canon F2.8 is $2400.
Look at the Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 at $2400. The Sigma equivalent on the E mount for Sony is $1100. IF you are buying the Canon R3 or Sony A1 then sure have the absolute best quality 24-70mm for them to buy at $2400. But people buying cameras like the A74 or teh R6ii at $2500 giving them an option at $1100 goes along way.
It's also worth noting that 'growing your business' doesn't necessarily mean selling more lenses. That's important, but so is the profit margin. Selling an additional 10,000 high end lenses with a $500 margin is more growth than selling an additional 100,000 inexpensive lenses with a $40 margin.
I'm curious – what multinational, multibillion dollar market cap imaging/industrial products business do you run? It's so amusing when people here claim they know better than Canon how to make and sell cameras and lenses.
I somewhat agree here. In my day job I work in real estate development consulting and as a small boutique company we focuse on taking on less projects that pay more per project. But again we are a boutique company with 6 people and a 50% operting margin. Our model doesn't work at scale with the larger corporate companies we compete with.
Canon can run their business as they see fit. I'm sure when Blockbuster controled the home video market with the most brand recognition had plenty of business acumen. They should'v become what Netfilx is today but they ignored the streaming sector and didn't cater to those customers because they were on top.
Sure, sure. But have you told Canon that unless they offer fast, fixed aperture RF mount zoom lenses at 3rd party prices they'll lose your business? I'm sure that would get them to change their strategy, especially if you tell them how wrong their approach is. Good luck with that.
Go on the Youtube. Look at most of the more popular content creators. Sony is clearly the prefered platform and the big reasons are the lens selection. Sony jumped into mirrorless first and Canon finally moved over because they were forced. Canon has overtaken Sony as leads mirroless sales. Again they seem more willing to focus on the sub $1500 market (GREAT). However they seem to be trying to go the gillette route and sell more low end cameras to get people into the fold but then make up that money by forcing them to buy more expensive lenses.
If they want to go the Blockbuster route and focus on making the most money today but sacraficing the future I don't think that bodes well for camera hobbyist in the long run.
Go look in the comments section of any place that is pro Sony. Anytime someone mentions hey the R8 or R6ii are better cameras than the Sony equivalent the immediate reaction is BUT you have to pay $1000 more for a comparable lens. Why get the R8 and 24-70mm for a combined $3900 when you can get the clearly better A74 and the Sigma 24-70mm for a combined $3600.
But you could be correct. For all I know they may not have the capacity at this point to make more cameras faster so why try to provide more lens options to sell at a lower cost when its not going to translate into more camera sales. Going back to the original topic of this thread then the future for Canon's camera division may indeed be very sad.
And none of this even touches on AI.
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