What historical level? I remember back in the late 1960’s, when I was in my late teens, I went to the Photo show here in NYC, and asked Canon how many FTs they sold in a year. The told me about 100,000. Is that the historic level you mean? Because if it is, then they’re finished.The sky isn't falling. Instead, the the market is returning to historical levels. The major difference is that instead of Instamatics, people are using their cell phones. Camera sales are down from the past decade when the rapid adoption of digital sent the market through the roof, but I strongly suspect Canon and Nikon with about a century of experience in the market fully understood that the boom was temporary.
Like bank robbers, they are now going where the money is, which is upper income, generally older, users. They are also aiming at new markets in Asia with rising disposable income. It's true they haven't unlocked the secret to younger consumers and that will become a problem over time as people like me are only one or two camera generations away from exiting the market.
Canon's emphasis on video may be one path to younger buyers. While iPhones can substitute for point and shoot cameras, they really don't do video as well as Apple would like you to believe. For folks like me, who aren't big users of the video features, these new R models may not be as appealing as they are to others, but the video-centric features are apparently essential to expanding the market.
So, I wouldn't say it's all doom and gloom. Things are changing and Canon and Nikon are working to adapt to those changes.
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