28% drop in (photographic) camera sales in 2018 over 2017!

But the Canon 60D mII is $1599 and was described as a "higher quality smartphone" but you can't use it as a smartphone. I don't understand why this is happening.
 
Is it really that surprising? I'm still shooting with a pair of (now) ten year old Nikon D300s. The cameras have all been excellent for a long time now. And when everyone's cameras are "good enough", why would they bother with an endless cycle of upgrades?
 
I haven’t seen a convincing reason why I should upgrade from my 5D mIII for my paid photography work.
 
GH4 user here and just haven’t had a massive compelling reason to upgrade yet either.

I also find myself using my smart phone a lot more these days for family stuff. I prefer the video and stills from my GH4 but sometimes getting the sudden random moment with my baby and sharing it with family is worth 100x more than quality. My wife gets annoyed when I have to go get my camera, set it up and make her wait a week to actually see the photos. In the time it takes me to get my camera out of my office my wife shot a dozen photos with her phone and shared them on Facebook.

Cameras really need better integration with social media or mobile devices to make the process seamless. It’s getting better but still not the same user experience.
 
Thomas Smet said:
Cameras really need better integration with social media or mobile devices to make the process seamless. It’s getting better but still not the same user experience.
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For me, it was easy enough to pickup a Case Air wireless tethering box for my 5DmIII, send my pics direct to my iPad, use Lightroom mobile, and voila! for any quick personal pics rather than spending thousands for a WiFi capable cam.
 
My colleague bought an iPhone 8... gotta say, it makes damn fine images. At some point, very soon, the sale will dip even further. There's absolutely no reason to buy a dslr for shooting photos if what you can get in your phone is either "good" or good enough.

Ofcourse, and luckily, a smart phone can't make anything useful for a decent image photo needed on fx a wrapper or poster... so high end clients will still use us. But I suspect that portrait photographers will take a hit big time.
 
legrevedotcom said:
My colleague bought an iPhone 8... gotta say, it makes damn fine images. At some point, very soon, the sale will dip even further. There's absolutely no reason to buy a dslr for shooting photos if what you can get in your phone is either "good" or good enough.

Ofcourse, and luckily, a smart phone can't make anything useful for a decent image photo needed on fx a wrapper or poster... so high end clients will still use us. But I suspect that portrait photographers will take a hit big time.
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All very true until the light goes down. Then the smart phones are absolutely horrible. Even in moderate lighting the photos can start to take on an overly processed look. There are now apps to shoot raw photos on smart phones which is pretty cool but it still doesn't help the atrocious sensitivity of these tiny sensors. Outdoors I have no problem with my iPhone X photos. Indoors I would rather grab a box of crayons and draw a picture of what I see.

Other major flaw is the lack of adjustable aperture when shooting video. I'm sure its not a big deal for consumers who also insist on shooting vertical video but shooting video outdoors in bright light looks horrible due to the shutter speed being the only option to control how much light hits the sensor. Its almost impossible to shoot with a smart phone locked in at a specific shutter speed like 1/48th. Only real option is to shoe horn a variable ND to the phone which is cumbersome and an odd thing to have on your phone.
 
Dateline - Las Vegas, Neural Networks Conference, July 2047 - As a footnote to the NNC, Panasonic announced the closing of its camera division. With 63% of the population now having the federally required embedded neural port attached to their brain which allows access to everything they have ever seen for instant recall, consumer photography and video and much of the corporate and wedding industry is defunct. Camera manufacturers tried to compete with 32k 24bit 512fps holographic cameras, but since communications is largely instantaneous with the internet implant that is so popular with the Fadumpy generation (Fat, Dumb, and Happy), phones have also mostly become extinct. Phones were subsidizing the camera divisions, which were on a long decline, but kept open for sentimental reasons.

In other news, no one can figure out how to store all the images stored in our brains. Kodak has proposed to use film, which is still the only long-term storage medium that can last for centuries if properly stored.
 
Paul F said:
Dateline - Las Vegas, Neural Networks Conference, July 2047 - As a footnote to the NNC, Panasonic announced the closing of its camera division. With 63% of the population now having the federally required embedded neural port attached to their brain which allows access to everything they have ever seen for instant recall, consumer photography and video and much of the corporate and wedding industry is defunct. Camera manufacturers tried to compete with 32k 24bit 512fps holographic cameras, but since communications is largely instantaneous with the internet implant that is so popular with the Fadumpy generation (Fat, Dumb, and Happy), phones have also mostly become extinct. Phones were subsidizing the camera divisions, which were on a long decline, but kept open for sentimental reasons.

In other news, no one can figure out how to store all the images stored in our brains. Kodak has proposed to use film, which is still the only long-term storage medium that can last for centuries if properly stored.
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You win the thread.
 
The numbers for ILCs are kind-of-OK, it's the integrated-lens cameras that are falling 40% from last year. And why shouldn't they? (said the guy who has been using an RX100IV as his main camera for the last two years)

A couple of years ago I still had friends asking what compact camera to buy under $200, and I always told them to just get a slightly better phone. Nobody is asking anymore.
 
Samuel H said:
The numbers for ILCs are kind-of-OK, it's the integrated-lens cameras that are falling 40% from last year. And why shouldn't they? (said the guy who has been using an RX100IV as his main camera for the last two years)

A couple of years ago I still had friends asking what compact camera to buy under $200, and I always told them to just get a slightly better phone. Nobody is asking anymore.
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Hehe... but it's good advice. I told my cousin the same in regards to her buying a present for her daughter for her "confimation" celebration.... unfortunately she did end up buying a ilc camera for her. I told her to get her an iPhone 8 or X. I'd still say the same.

The best camera is the one you have with you. Most people always have their phone with them, not their ilc.
 
Right now I have 2 cameras, and I just upgraded my Canon 5D Mk3 to Sony AR7 3, and then I have an older AR7 2.

I went over to Sony cause of much better video, higher Rez and smaller. However, I don't see myself upgrading to a new mirrorless/SLR again in a long, long time... It would only be some "magical" increase in low light, etc. that would make me wanna switch. Right now and in the foreseeable future 40-50mp, 4K video Slog 2-3 is more than enough for clients and what my lenses can produce... Next step is Medium format, and that is way to expensive, even full frame that I'm in now is expensive and I finally have more or less all the primes, all the zooms that I want... To me and I guess to a lot of others the cameras now are more or less just incremental upgrades. Like nobody will think it is weird if you are a pro using a 6 year old digital camera like 5d Mk3, but that wouldn't have worked in 2012, or 2006...
 
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I think everyone pretty much has seen it coming for a while. Yet everyone gets upset when this is mentioned. Just like they used to get upset about digital cameras vs film, VDSLRs vs video cameras, etc, etc.. Not to worry- the reality kicks in eventually....
 
vcassel said:
Does this mean Red saw this coming?
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It probably has something to do with why Red is introducing a cell phone. Red's sales aren't really affected by the decline in camera sales, because they're not aimed at the same market that most cell phones are. It's mostly the lower end that's getting hammered; the budget cameras that sell in large volumes.

Which means that everyone in cameras except Sony is suffering because of them; Sony isn't because Sony provides the cameras that are in most of the smart phones. :)
 
I just revitalized my old 10mp Lumix camera with fixed zoom 35-420 35mm equivalent Leica lens. Only reason I had an newer Lumix was because it had video. But for photography this old Lumix FZ50 camera is almost always good enough.
 
It isn't just cameras being saturated with "good enough, no need for upgrade", same thing is happening to phones and computers. Smart phones aren't growing as a market anymore, some quarters they are declining, desktops have been on a decline as well (a more steady decline). Iphone 5 can still play youtube, spotify, etc... so why bother with getting Iphone X if the battery is still fine on your old one. That is the reality now that nobody (at least in terms of huge numbers as back in the day) cares if you go from 12mp to 14mp on the next camera on the phone, or if you can do 240fps instead of 120 in FHD. They simply need to make crappier screens again that break if you look at them so they can sell more phones because nobody is gonna upgrade a "working phone".

I have Samsung S8, it is waterproof (I swim with it in the sea taking underwater videos), it got h265 support, etc... 0 need for upgrade. I also guess this has some part to do with companies/phone operators in the US and even here in Sweden having deals/plans for "upgrade your phone every year *for free*" because that way you can make sure you are more or less always gonna sell phones...

I think we soon be there with drones too, we are more or less there already with action cameras being over-saturated to the point that there isn't much more the consumer is willing to pay for when there is cheaper and really good alternatives. It is a blessing and a curse with saturation, cause it leads to cheap prices but stifles innovation at the same time.
 
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