State of the camera market.....
Well it is discussed from time to time on the forum. How is the state of the current camera market? A short view on this topic from my experience and some lurking for information. Already discussed in the meeting with two Ricoh Imaging reps I had in January but time goes on. You can find the thread with the link:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/16-pentax-news-rumors/248845-ricoh-imaging-europe-s-s-report-meeting.html
So the camera market is shrinking and does that already for a while. Thom Hogan wrote an article about it stating that already a few years ago the peak in production was reached while the shipping is declining for the past two years. With also shrinking numbers for DSLR only the market for mirrorless is still up, but that market is not matured yet. The latest CIPA figures are again pointing out that a fall of 30 % this year is to be expected. Last year’s fall was even bigger. The question is “When does it stop?”, or better at what level can camera makers expect to see a new future? The CIPA figures can be seen:
http://www.cipa.jp/stats/documents/e/d-201406_e.pdf So I went to the Zoo.
Last Sunday I visited a small local zoo near my hometown. It’s called Dierenrijk in Mierlo and it is a very young zoo that started in 2004. At first it was a zoo with only animals that lived in Europe, but that couldn’t attract enough visitors so in 2008 it was expanded. Now having tigers, lions and elephants and some other mammals and birds from all over the world. In the first years I had a membership card and visited the zoo often. Also used it for some photography practice, but haven’t been there for the past 4 years. It was nice to see the development of the park. Except for the number of visitors, the parking lot from 10 years ago is still sufficient for a Sunday in the middle of our vacation period. Visitors come from around, maybe 70 km or are on holiday in the region. I was with my brother and his family and we do that from time to time. It’s nice for his kids and we can talk about different things. The camera subject came to the table at the elephant feeding time, which was a show for grooming the large mammels. I’m on the left and my brother on the right:
Family planning and all the things you need for it.
So not too long a ago when you started a family you had some issues to solve. Is our house big enough? Is our car big enough? What do we need for the upcoming baby? Where do find the time to raise children? Can we afford a new child in our family on a financial base? How about a new camera to capture the new born in our family? Even when it was about a second or third child these question’s came to the table. But then again, things changed over time. All those questions are still being asked, but some of the answers are different. The last few years the economy is very hard on some people and new cars and new houses aren’t that hot on the list anymore. Not for everyone at least. Do we need a new camera? Well yes, but do we still buy them? At the most popular show in the zoo there where three serious camera’s, a few mirrorless camera’s, a few point & shoot camera’s and then….. smarthphones and one iPad.
The zoo…..elephants.
We only had the Olympus E-PL1 with us that my sister in law bought. I didn’t bring any gear and just used her camera. So I made a short movie clip, handheld so you can enjoy the show:
That is a show people would like to remember. That is a show people would pull out their camera’s to make images of if this was 2012 or 2010. But not in 2014! We now just take out our smartphone, take some images or a movie clip that goes directly towards some sharing site. Hi people, we are at the zoo…….. is one of the things you can read on Facebook and Twitter. So when families with children don’t even take camera’s to their outings on holiday, why would they ever again buy a new fancy camera? Some images from the crowd at the elephant show:
IPC Swimming European Championship (Paralympic sports)
This week is in Eindhoven in our National Swimming Stadium the EC for Paralympic swimmers. So I go there a few times to take images, but this time I also looked a bit around. There are still dslr’s in use with some teams (these are not professional sports teams) and some dedicated cheaper video cameras. But next to that the iPad is winning in use. Not new, but for the first time I was thinking, that is a way better working method to share and gather footage.
What are all these changes bringing us in the future?
Well when families stop investing in camera’s then the lower market is going to shrink. When there is only one serious camera in a zoo on a summer day (this was the 7D with 70-200mm lens) then the upper market for camera’s just for private use is almost gone. When sports teams are not investing in camera’s for their social media coverage then you will see that there are less camera’s and lenses needed. On the other hand maybe there will be a larger market for serious sports photography in the future, but that market is shifting towards volunteering. So I guess the market for the traditional camera makers (dslr, mirrorless and point & shoot) has not yet seen the bottom of the sales numbers. My guess is that not only this year, but also in 2015 we will see a big decline in sales of camera’s and lenses. So with the upcoming Photokina we are all looking forward to new camera’s and lenses to be presented by all brands. But in real time all these brands (including Ricoh Imaging) should be worried about their future. How can “we” survive as a camera brand in a market that will maybe just sell 25 million units a year, coming down from 120 million camera’s in 2012.
I think we all know that we lost the
"Bieber Fever" generation to smartphones. The sad news in this article is that we also lost the young family's to all those wonderfull new smartphones that are expensive, but also can make descent images. Looking at the just new Lenovo Vibe Z2 one starts to think, why not....if it is just for family use....
Ron Hendriks
Last edited by RonHendriks1966; 08-07-2014 at 02:37 PM.