Mirrorless models now occupy nearly a third of the market!

yoshi · #1 24-05-11

According to BCN, mirroless cameras now constantly occupy 30 % of the total market in Japan.
By total they mean the sum of the mirrorless and dSLR. (So lens interchangeable cameras only. That is, excluding compact cameras)

The attached charts;

#1 The share of mirrorless cameras (green) vs. dSLR (blue) between April last year to April this year.

#2 Average retail price for mirrorless (red) and dSLR (blue) as well as the total (weighted) average of the two (green).
The figures shown are price in Yen. Approx. 82yen= 1 US $, 115 yen/Euro, 133 yen/UK pound.

mirroless cameras are now getting more competitive as far as the price is concerned.

For the month of April this year, following mirrorless models are listed among the top 10 best selling models.

rank 3 Sony NEX-5 8.1%
rank 6 Pana DMC-GF2 5.5%
rank 8 Oly Pen Lite E-PL2 4.4%
rank 10 Oly Pen Lite E-PL1 3.9%

I donot understand why Panasonic do not launch G3 in Japan. It seems to me the new model is only for Europe and North America? How about Oceania and others ?

yoshi

P.S. Sorry the order of the charts are reversed by error.

yoshi · #2 24-05-11

The order of charts are in order.
What happened to me? Just confused.

yoshi

yoshi · #3 24-05-11

no NOT in order. they are reversed.

The charts change the order by their own will, I'm almost sure.

Ian · #4 25-05-11

The changeable lens market in the UK increased from 462K units to 543K in the last year.

Mirrorless compact system camera were up 203% to 100K units.

DSLRs up only 1.9% to 443K.

Compacts down 4% from 5534K to 5315K units.

I understand these are GFK figures.

So mirrorless cameras have just less than a quarter of the system camera market in the UK, but are growing rapidly, while DSLR sales are pretty flat.

Ian

w7ox · #5 13-09-11

Key add to the message title "in Japan".

Phil

OlyPaul · #6 13-09-11

Ian it is nice to see unit figures rather than marketing hype percentages.

After all any new product coming to market can only have good percentage figures as it is starting from a lower base. If you sold two cameras last year and four this year that's a 200% increase, and by the same token if you sold a million last year and a million this year that 0%. I hate yearly percentage figures as they mean nothing except to share holders.

When CCS cameras are selling the same amount of units yearly worldwide then you can say that they have overtaken DSLr's in popularity.

Ian · #7 13-09-11

As I have previously mentioned, sales of DSLRs in the classic sense (conventional mirror/pentaprism/pentamirror) are pretty much flat and only Nikon and Canon are really making worthwhile profits in this sector. Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus are really driving sales of CSCs worldwide. Samsung doesn't seem to have the same level of drive behind their NX and admit that UK sales are relatively small for now. Sony, of course, has started the new intermediate category of SLT cameras.

CSC sales are growing very fast. It's true that this is relatively easy from a small base, but if 100% sales growth per year is maintained, it will take little time to overtake DSLRs sales if the latter remain flat. As Yoshi says, in Japan last June nearly a third of all interchangeable lens cameras sold there were CSCs. In theory, the CSC market could be 2-3 times larger in unit terms than the current DSLR market. That may never be realised, or it could take many years. But I think CSCs and SLTs will overtake DSLRs in the next 3 years, although it may take a year or two for the rest of the world to catch up with Japan.

Ian

OlyPaul · #8 13-09-11

You do have to give Sony there due they are really the only ones that have a fairly clear upgrade from CCS to SLT ( formally DSLR) or vice verca without hardly any loss of functionality and indeed are likely to pick up sales from there CCS users upgrading to a SLT unlike the other DSLR players.

Bob Ross · #9 14-09-11

I read in a forum that the Sony NEX-7 holds the record for Preorders. Highest ever and it hasn't arrived yet.
I think there just might be a Sony spike in the marketing statistics...

I think this info applies to the US market.
Bob

Ian · #10 14-09-11

I'm very impressed by Sony's sheer technical effort in finding alternatives to the DSLR, while continuing with its DSLR developments. The new 'smart' adapter that retains phase detect AF with Alpha DSLR lenses using an SLT-style mirror for its NEX CSCs is just one example, while the Alpha A-77 and A-65 are triumphs too. I was luke-warm about the NEX when it was launched last year, and I still struggle with the user-interface of the new NEX-5n (not really tried the NEX-7 properly and that has a completely new UI), but the sensor performance married to the new outstanding quality OLED electronic viewfinder all get the thumbs-up from me

. My only concern is that the APS-C sensor is too big for a CSC, so lenses will have to remain large and bulky. But now that Sony has introduced in-camera lens corrections, they will be able to design lenses for compactness and correct necessary compromises in optical design that may result - in the camera.

Ian

Bob Ross · #11 14-09-11

Hi Ian,
In considering the NEX-7, I figure that with sufficient adapters, I can mount every 35mm system lens that I have (around 27). This means that this class of camera can be considered
[CENTER]Multifunctional Universal Rear Lenscaps or MURL

The development reminds me of the old 2/3" assortment of inovative designs. Every major mfr had one or more and most had some kind of problem to work around. BTW, the NEX-5n seems to have a heating problem.....from the days of the Minolta A* cameras?
I am watching with interest and I'll watch for Oly's & Panasonic's response to Sony's new NEXes.
Bob