The camera industry is currently in a very interesting place. On one hand, we’re seeing the end game of the mirrorless revolution, overtaking their mirror-touting predecessors in total unit sales according to recent reports. On the other, smartphones, in just a touch over a decade of existence, had already dwarfed the total sales of dedicated cameras in the last half century. Throw in a global pandemic into the mix of already hurting market segments, and the numbers get a little grimmer pretty quickly. Let’s run through some figures and see how the camera industry has fared since its peak and unfortunate decline.

DSLR Sales

DSLRs used to be king. They were the go-to cameras for people curious about photography and professionals who, with a heavy heart, abandoned film and jumped ship to digital. There was a DSLR camera for everyone — industry giants Canon and Nikon had extremely capable offerings starting from the entry-level to their pro lineup.

But why is it that we aren’t seeing as many people with now “old school” DSLR cameras hanging around their necks? Well, tech has inevitably moved on and have introduced lighter, smaller, and dare I say, better cameras with better selling points for the average consumer.

Looking back at the data from CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association), 2012 was perhaps the height of DSLRs in terms of the total number of units shipped globally. Back in 2012, the camera industry moved 16.2 million digital single lens reflex cameras worldwide. This figure excludes mirrorless cameras, compact cameras, and rangefinders.

Source: CIPA

Less than a decade later, the total number of DSLRs shipped worldwide has shrunk down to just 4.5 million in 2019 — 27.78% of its former volume seven years ago.

Source: CIPA

From January to August of 2020, camera manufacturers have reported a 54% decrease in sales from the previous year’s figures within the same period. Things are certainly not looking great for DSLRs, seeing how 2019’s data showed shipment numbers that are still a notch below 2018’s shipment data.

 

Mirrorless Sales

When the first mainstream mirrorless cameras entered the market, many were skeptical about its viability. The novel electronic viewfinders, still in their infancy, were expectedly sluggish. It didn’t help that the first EVFs didn’t have as much resolution as they do today. Then there was the issue of poor battery life and slim native lens selection for the available mirrorless systems.

Today, however, the issues that plagued the early days of micro four thirds, stylish X-series from Fuji and the original Sony A7 line are long gone. Mirrorless technology has evolved and has even surpassed DSLRs in some technical aspects. We’re seeing faster burst rates, far superior video capturing features, and the game-changer that was the Eye AF to name a few.

Sony had been refining their lineup since the early 2010s. Meanwhile, Canon and Nikon arrived quite late to the mirrorless party, just releasing their flagship mirrorless contenders in 2018. With the entry of the two largest manufacturers from the DSLR era into the mirrorless segment, all signs point to mirrorless being the future for dedicated cameras.

Here’s how the mirrorless segment has fared against DSLRs over the years:

The figures starting from 2012 up to 2017 (green line) has held quite consistently. While DSLR sales took a nosedive in 2012 and are still in decline as of 2020, the mirrorless segment has maintained healthy numbers, even seeing a slight bump in sales. It wasn’t until 2017 that the mirrorless segment has reached a point within striking distance of the struggling DSLR figures.

As we’ve mentioned previously, the CIPA report indicated a 54% decrease in sales for DSLRs in 2020, with 1.562 million units shipped worldwide. The mirrorless segment, however, wasn’t safe from any of the decline either; it dropped 35% sales from 2019’s figures and now totals to 1.807 million units shipped globally.

DIYPhotography reports that the average cost of DSLR unit is at around $398. Mirrorless units average at $778 per unit, which comes close at doubling the average cost of a DSLR, beating it in overall sales for this year’s report.

Smartphone Sales

Olympus, a camera industry giant, had sold off their imaging department last June of 2020. One of the final triggers for the decision to opt out of the camera industry, as Olympus had explicitly stated, was the smartphone’s dominion over the market segment they previously held. Check out our article on Olympus’ peak and eventual downfall if you’re in the mood for a bit of photography history.

Smartphone cameras, with iPhones at the helm followed by your Samsung Galaxies and other android-powered pocket supercomputers, had the lion share of the market, leaving Olympus no choice but to cut their losses and call it quits. Phone cameras are now good enough for the average consumer to leave their point-and-shoots behind and shoot everything with their iPhone.

Then there’s the aggressive marketing surrounding multi-cameras, absurd megapixel counts reaching as high as 40 to 60-megapixels crammed into tiny sensors, and of course the ever-popular “Shot on iPhone campaigns.” With a promise of cinematic 4K footage, AI-assisted photography, and competent photo-editing apps, flagship smartphones that can be had for around $1,000 do sound like a great deal.

That being said, let’s see how smartphone sales compare to dedicated cameras over the last few years. Data from Statista tells us that in 2019 alone, the smartphone industry has moved 1.5 billion units of smartphones worldwide. In that same year, a total of 15 million dedicated cameras were shipped.

To illustrate these numbers, have a look at this graph courtesy of Reddit user u/theimpossiblesalad:

Source: Reddit

…and updated data from 2022:

Of course, it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison because the market for smartphones is infinitely larger than dedicated cameras. However, the graphic should illustrate the point of intersection between the decline of camera sales and the skyrocketing of smartphone sales in the last decade.

Final Thoughts

Needless to say, the camera industry is struggling. Sales have been on a decline since 2010, and the 2019 figures are now just a mere shadow of the magnitude of revenue the industry once enjoyed.

But what does the decline in “real camera” sales mean for the average photographer? Do lower sales figures mean minuscule R&D funding for even the top manufacturers? If so, should we expect longer product cycles and slower innovation? Perhaps more importantly, what can the top dogs in the industry do to claw back some of the market share they’ve lost to smartphones?

Some say camera innovation should focus more on user accessibility to such a degree that the resulting photo would blow an iPhone snapshot out of the water, with the least effort possible. While others recommend that leading players snap out of their hallucinations and pull their prices back down to reasonable figures. Another interesting take on this matter is that, on a more superficial level, manufacturers should pay more attention to their camera’s aesthetics, create more fashionable camera designs, to attract more audiences.

In 2017, photo-sharing site that 50% of the photos on their site were shot on a smartphone. iPhones are responsible for 54% of this figure. For a site that gets tens of millions of photos a month, that is simply incredible.

This brings up my final point. It’s safe to say that a wider group of people now have access to capable cameras that happen to double as their phones. With more people taking more photos than any point in history, it may be fair to say that interest in photography is also now stronger than ever. If that’s the case, shouldn’t we be taking the rise of adequate camera phones as a win?