Break out the bubbly! Interchangeable camera shipments for the month of April topped both 2016 and 2017 levels, according to the latest figures from Japanese camera manufacturers’ association, CIPA.
Total shipments of interchangeable lens cameras in April topped 2016 and 2017 levels.The month by month, quarter by quarter decline we have seen for the last seven years or so seems to have moderated in 2018, with the mirrorless segment driving all growth while DSLR shipments continue to slip away.
So for instance for the month of April, mirrorless shipments were up 21.5 percent while DSLR shipments were down 6 percent on April 2017. The mirrorless surge drove the total category 4 percent higher than April 2017.
The lacklustre DSLR performance could be down to the paucity of new releases from the DSLR big two, Canon and Nikon, over the last 12 months or so. Nonetheless the broader trend seems to favour mirrorless cameras. In value terms, the contrast is even starker, with that 21.5 percent increase in shipments worth 55 percent more than 2017 shipments.
And even with total shipments of mirrorless cameras down slightly on Jan-April 2017, the value of shipments for the year to date is up 25 percent.
Shipments of lenses are roughly matching 2017 levels month on month. Interestingly, most of the growth in lenses is with full frame and larger format lenses.
Compact camera shipments are in greater decline than ever. From January to April they plummeted to less than two-thirds the levels of the same period last year – although some of this could be attributable to a ramp-up in shipments in 2017 following the Kumamoto earthquake.
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