[D1N0]

Canon immediately knocks sony off it's throne with a less capable more expensive camera
The Around $2000 segment is where the fight is fought.
Full frame is ruling camera sales
The Nikon D850 is the only DSLR on this list.

Via Sonyalpharumors on twitter: Twitter

[photoptimist]

For the most part, this is just a list of recently introduced cameras in reverse chronological order. The newest products often seem like the most popular. But that says little about the long-term market shares and almost nothing about the viability of product categories.

This list may also be unique to MAP Camera and/or Japan. If you look at Amazon's "best sellers" in the US, nine of the Map Camera best sellers don't even crack the top 50 on Amazon! The only Map Camera best seller on the Amazon best seller list is the Olympus TG-5 (@ #42 on Amazon).

If Map's list proves that the future belongs to mirrorless, then Amazon's list proves that the future belongs to the Canon Rebel T6 which occupies an astounding 12 slots in the top 50 including the #1 spot.

[D1N0]

It is telling us something about the direction photography is going in. Also whatever list you check, Canon is on top. Amazon lists tend to top whatever is cheap and being dumped. How many of those rebels end up on shelves and in closets? A dedicated camera store is more likely to show which way enthusiast shooters are moving.

[Rondec]

MAP's list tells about the Japanese market which, for better or worse, is quite different for the European and North American markets. Amazon's list isn't particularly helpful because it separates out all the different bundles a particular camera comes in. At least the list I'm looking at has 3 different Canon T6 bundles as the top 3 best sellers.

I would say that looking at Amazon's list the only thing I can glean for certain is that APS-C and SLRs are both far from dead.

[photoptimist]

It is telling us something about the direction photography is going in. Also whatever list you check, Canon is on top. Amazon lists tend to top whatever is cheap and being dumped. How many of those rebels end up on shelves and in closets? A dedicated camera store is more likely to show which way enthusiast shooters are moving.

I'm not sure that "photography" can be said to have a direction. Sure, the basic sensor technology can have a direction (more megapickles, more ISO, more FPS). But people who take photographs aren't all wanting the same thing. The absolute vast majority of people who take photographs want an inexpensive convenient pocketable automagical box for snapshots. They abhor all the arcane details of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, DoF, flash, etc. that enthusiasts actively seek to understand and control.

The "enthusiast" segment is an even more diverse group divided by genres of images: BiF/wildlife shooters, landscape, portraiture, studio, macro, astro, etc. And then there are the tech-gadget-du-jour lovers and folks who just want the most expensive camera possible to show off how rich they are. Moreover, the enthusiast (unlike the snapshot shooter) as the knowledge to know exactly what equipment they want and they have willingness to pay for niche cameras, lenses, and accessories. Enthusiasts drive photography in a dozen different directions.

We can agree that Canon is on top -- they have 28 entries in the Amazon top 50 (Nikon has 6, Sony has only 3). But even Canon shows no single direction in that Canon's popular products span the range of compact, bridge, cheap DSLR, $$$$ proDSLR, MILC, and dedicated video cameras.

And there's still the issue that Japan is just different. They are actually on the trailing edge of sales trends in compact cameras, for example. Of course, you can argue that Americans (and Amazon) are different too, But then that is my overall point that there simply is not a unified photography market with a unified direction.

[JPT]

Map Camera is a single retailer with one store in Tokyo and an online business of unknown size. The customers are serious photographers mainly, and it is on the tourist trail, so I think some significant portion of business would be from foreign visitors. If I could compare it to another case, it would be like saying SRS in the UK represents the whole market.

Having said that, the EOS R does seem to be selling well by every ranking I can find - certainly outselling the Nikon Z cameras. I think the EOS R is a well positioned product for a first camera. It undercuts the Nikon models in price and has a better viewfinder.

Ultimately, these cameras will sell because that’s what the camera companies want to sell you. Mirrorless will outsell DSLRs this year in Japan, lenses will have a delayed effect, but follow a few years later. I guess the rest of the world will follow with some delay.

My expectation is that once Canon and Nikon have enough sales data to validate the idea that they are being successful in switching their users over to mirrorless, they will accelerate the transition and switch almost all their resources to the new system. What happened with Sony will happen with Canon and Nikon. Im sure they will keep selling and supporting DSLRs and lenses for some time, but it will be clear that mirrorless is where they are investing.

Where this leaves Pentax, as the sole active DSLR company, is not clear, but it is not necessarily a bad thing.

[D1N0]

As long as there are no mirrorless alternatives for the D5 and 1Dx Mk II we will not have to worry about dslrs disappearing. Once that happens the end is near I think. I do wonder what Nikon is going to do with aps-c. Their main sales volume in numbers must still come from the D3500/5600/7500 and earlier models.