Canon Claims 23rd Straight Year of Number 1 Share of Global Interchangeable-Lens Digital Camera Market

[justaCanonuser]

I’ve never defected!

Here’s me in 1973 with my first SLR – Canon FTb.

View attachment 228089

Currently, my hair is considerably shorter on the sides and almost nonexistent on top. Paisley (shirt) prints must have gone in and out of style five times since then.

Wow! In 1973 I was still playing in sandboxes... I got my first own camera about 10 years later, an already vintage Kodak Retina IIIc from mid 1950s w/o any manual I inherited from a passed-away uncle. So I had to find out how this camera works the hard way (fortunately, studying physics helped me with the basics of camera optics). Still have it, got it CLAd some years ago.

 

[Del Paso]

It was a nice little gem of a tiny 35mm SLR already with TTL! My first real SLR was a Nikon FM-2, I still have it...

On my MX, I replaced the standard (horrible!) focusing screen with a full-matte one, I adapted from an LX model.
It was indeed a little jewel, ultra-compact, but still usable with large hands. Despite using Leicaflexes and Leica Rs, I almost ordered a Pentax LX...
I also had Olympus' OM 1 & OM 2, with their focusing, aperture and shutter speed controls all aligned. I never got used to this strange disposition of controls, on an otherwise fantastic camera.
But the MX, I still regret having sold it!

 

[justaCanonuser]

If you mean new, recently produced film cameras, Canon is out of this business since decades,

I have to correct myself, I found now that the EOS-1V was produced until 2018. So it is not yet one decade since Canon quit their film camera production...

 

[Old Man FL/FD]

I have to correct myself, I found now that the EOS-1V was produced until 2018. So it is not yet one decade since Canon quit their film camera production...

I still have some 135 size ‘analog memory cassettes’ hanging around.

 

[becceric]

Oh, I absolutely agree! In fact, here's one of those discerning elites (or obtuse plebeian, take your pick):

View attachment 228088

...none other than 15 year old me on Christmas morning, holding my first SLR fresh from the box – a Pentax A3000.

I remember selling the A3000 back when!
Well, I remember showing it to customers anyway.
I had to have sold a few. I just had to.

 

[P-visie]

Shall I confess that I loved my Pentax MX?
Edit: I forgot my ME...

Pentax, Leica, Sony, it has been a long and rough journey until you saw the light and bought a Canon.

 

[justaCanonuser]

I still have some 135 size ‘analog memory cassettes’ hanging around.

I have also quite a stock of 120 film, Portra 400, 800, HP5+, TX400 etc.

 

[Del Paso]

Pentax, Leica, Sony, it has been a long and rough journey until you saw the light and bought a Canon.

You forgot : Zorki, Minox, Fujica, Rollei, Minolta, Olympus, Kodak, Voigtländer, Nikon, Exakta, Yashica, Ricoh, Nikonos...

 

[ashmadux]

Yay for canon.

In other news, the new Sigma 35 mm 1.4 mkii is head and shoulders above the quality of that stretched mess they call a vcm 35mm.

Pardon the pivot, but that sigma simply means much more to me than this Canon victory lap for fan and investors.

I'm confident they'll eventually be a Canon lens that I'm actually interested in sooner or later. The R5 needs new friends.

 

[Sporgon]

On my MX, I replaced the standard (horrible!) focusing screen with a full-matte one, I adapted from an LX model.
It was indeed a little jewel, ultra-compact, but still usable with large hands. Despite using Leicaflexes and Leica Rs, I almost ordered a Pentax LX...
I also had Olympus' OM 1 & OM 2, with their focusing, aperture and shutter speed controls all aligned. I never got used to this strange disposition of controls, on an otherwise fantastic camera.
But the MX, I still regret having sold it!

They were little jewels in those days. I think the ME/MX, OM-1/2 and FM/FE were the pinnacle of ‘consumer’ grade manual focus slrs. I have a lovely, mint ME, but having had it for a few years I realise it would never have stood up to the use my Nikon FMs did.
The only problem with the original FM is that its vertical run metal shutter created a lot of shutter shock. This was improved in the FM2

 

[Del Paso]

They were little jewels in those days. I think the ME/MX, OM-1/2 and FM/FE were the pinnacle of ‘consumer’ grade manual focus slrs. I have a lovely, mint ME, but having had it for a few years I realise it would never have stood up to the use my Nikon FMs did.
The only problem with the original FM is that its vertical run metal shutter created a lot of shutter shock. This was improved in the FM2

I had an FE, because I disliked the exposure reading (LEDs) in the FM, even though I used it exclusively in manual mode.
And then, I made a "mistake"...
For my summer vacation, I bought a Leicaflex with 560mm tele and the APO 180mm. Back home, I compared the Kodachromes, went to my camera store, and put the entire Nikon gear (F2, FE, 24mm, 60 macro, 300mm) on sale. For optical reasons, but also because 2 months old Nikkors, the 24 and the 60mm, were far too dusty inside, unlike the SL lenses. Both systems were used simultaneously and kept in the same bag, not even used in dusty conditions. Never had such issues with Minoltas.
I still regret having sold the F2...

 

[John Wilde]

Unlike Canon and Nikon, Sony never reports camera unit sales in their financial documents. The big cheaters.

 

[Ozarker]

Unlike all these Canons, Sonies and Nikons, Pentaxes are boutique cameras for the discerning elite!

 

[Del Paso]

Seems that competition is... DOOMED!

Put differently: Canon are DOOMED to be number 1 !

 

[John Wilde]

Seems that competition is... DOOMED!

Nikon is doomed to be a distant #3 in market share, but their Imaging division is profitable so they will continue to carry on.

 

[Maximilian]

... but their Imaging division is profitable so they will continue to carry on.

I hope they will continue. A pure Canon vs. Sony competition would be boring and unhealthy for us customers

 

[Michael Clark]

@neuroanatomist confirms that Canon’s #1 global market share is based on actual unit sales. While Sony has previously claimed the top spot using camera revenue they remain #2 in total volume. In the Full Frame Mirrorless market Sony leads worldwide with approximately 44% share. Canon follows in second place with 31% and Nikon holds third with 17%. These companies dominate the professional market while brands like Panasonic and Leica make up the remaining small percentage.

I have a personal interest in the Medium Format digital market and discovered that Fujifilm is the clear leader. They own about 65% of the market because their GFX system is more affordable than competitors. Hasselblad holds roughly 22% of the share and the rest belongs to niche brands like Leica and Phase One. This segment is much smaller than full frame but generates high revenue per camera sold.

As @John Wilde and @justaCanonuser noted DSLRs still have a presence despite the shift to mirrorless. CIPA data shows 690,000 DSLRs were shipped in 2025 which is a 31% drop from the year before. Most of these sales come from Canon’s entry-level models like the 2000D. @David - Sydney correctly points out that these remain popular in developing countries because they are cheaper than mirrorless options. Been living in the Philippines for a few decades and I was told locally that dSLR bodies/lenses are not being imported here anymore for the past few years. I know because I made inquiries about the 5D Mark IV, 1D X Mark III in 2020 and even that 2000D this month for a picker friend. My personal guess is that developed markets like the US & EU where the mindshare among consumers is "dSLR" and not mirrorless so they reflexively ask for "dSLR" even when the whole market is moving to MILCs. However for professionals and those interested in "full frame or bigger" the market has moved almost entirely to mirrorless bodies like the R5 Mark II or the Sony A7 series.

neuroanatomist and @P-visie mentioned Pentax but their sales are insignificant in the global share for full frame or medium format. While @Del Paso calls them boutique cameras they do not compete with the "Big Three" in unit volume. For those tracking the top of the market the competition is strictly between Sony, Canon, and Nikon for full frame, and Fujifilm for medium format.

But what percentage of total ILC sales (both units or revenue) are FF mirrorless or MF mirrorless? What percentage are formats smaller than FF, either MILCs or DSLRs? There are far more APS-C and smaller format ILCs being sold than FF + MF being sold.

 

[Michael Clark]

You forgot : Zorki, Minox, Fujica, Rollei, Minolta, Olympus, Kodak, Voigtländer, Nikon, Exakta, Yashica, Ricoh, Nikonos...

Never a Konica? My first ILC was a Konica FS-1. I've still got it. I last ran a roll of film though it sometime in the late 1990s. By then I had an EOS Rebel IIs (or was it Rebel S II?).

 

[Del Paso]

Never a Konica? My first ILC was a Konica FS-1. I've still got it. I last ran a roll of film though it sometime in the late 1990s. By then I had an EOS Rebel IIs (or was it Rebel S II?).

To be honest, the only Konica I was tempted to buy was the Hexar RF with interchangeable lenses. Yet, I resisted (being broke...)

 

[neuroanatomist]

But what percentage of total ILC sales (both units or revenue) are FF mirrorless or MF mirrorless? What percentage are formats smaller than FF, either MILCs or DSLRs? There are far more APS-C and smaller format ILCs being sold than FF + MF being sold.

APS-C and m4/3 were ~63% of ILC unit sales (and only ~44% of revenue) in 2025. The relative proportions have been shifting over the past few years – 6-7 years ago, around 90% of the ILC market was APS-C. 2-3 years ago it was ~75%. So buyers are continuing to shift from APS-C to FF (MF doesn't sell enough units to matter, really). Revenues shifted faster at first but pace of that has slowed down a bit, both probably due in large part to Canon's launch of relatively affordable FF MILCs like the RP and R8, and both Canon and Sony keeping in their 'current' catalog old models like the RP and a7III.