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Posts Tagged ‘recovered’

CIPA’s October report shows camera market has mostly recovered from its COVID-19 downturn

03 Dec
Top: Panasonic S1 (left) Canon EOS R (right) Bottom: Sony a7 III (left), Nikon Z6 (right)

It’s been a rather tumultuous year for camera sales atop a market already in decline, but the latest report from Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) shows the market is back in business and nearly recovered from the COVID-19 downturn.

CIPA, an industry association that aggregates shipment and sales information from the leading camera manufacturers, has shared its October numbers, which show the September recovery of shipments wasn’t a fluke. According to the October report, total digital camera sales – which include both fixed-lens cameras and interchangeable lens cameras – saw a total of 1.13 million units shipped. That’s still 22.8% fewer units shipped compared to October 2019, but that’s a far better shipment rate than the past six months, which have seen shipments hover around 50% of what they were in 2019 in the same months.

A line graph showing the month-by-month shipment numbers of digital cameras — including compact, fixed-lens, DSLR and mirrorless — for the past three years. Click to enlarge.

And the numbers look even better for interchangeable lens cameras. CIPA’s report says a total of 754K units were shipped, a decrease of just 13.6% compared to October 2019. Despite shipping fewer units, the monetary value of those shipments is up half a percentage point year-over-year (YoY) as well, showing the cameras being sold are more expensive models.

Interestingly, the increase in value from those shipments can be attributed only to mirrorless cameras. Globally, the monetary value of DSLR sales is down 22% YoY for October, aligned with overall unit shipments, while the monetary value of mirrorless shipments is up 11.9% YoY for October. In other words, the average revenue from global DSLR sales has more or less stayed the same while increasing for mirrorless camera sales. This backs up statements from multiple manufacturers – most notably Canon and Nikon in their investor reports – that higher-end, full-frame mirrorless models are selling better and will be the focus of their product lines.

A line graph showing the month-by-month shipment numbers of interchangeable lens cameras for the past three years. Click to enlarge.

The October report also confirms DSLR camera sales are on a far faster decline than mirrorless cameras, at least in most regions. Global DSLR shipments were at 338K units, down 21% YoY for October, while mirrorless camera shipments were 416K units, down just 6.4% YoY for October.

Where it gets interesting is when you look at shipments by region. The increase in monetary value of mirrorless camera shipments comes almost entirely down to China, which saw a 53.8% increase in value YoY for October. Also, Europe stands as an outlier in the DSLR market; according to CIPA’s report, while DSLR sales are down in volume and value to the United States, they’re only slightly down in volume and up substantially (30.5% YoY for October) in Europe. This could simply be due to the stock being sent to the respective regions (budget DSLRs vs higher-end DSLRs), but it’s an interesting discrepancy nonetheless.

A full breakdown of production and shipments of cameras aggregated by CIPA. Click to enlarge and click here for the PDF version.

The ratio between DSLR and mirrorless shipments to different region varies quite a bit as well. In Europe, DSLR and mirrorless shipments in terms of volume are roughly even, but in terms of value, mirrorless is nearly double. The United States, on the other hand, saw roughly 35K more DSLRs shipped to its shores compared to mirrorless cameras, but mirrorless still has double the value of those DSLRs.

It remains to be seen if volume and value return to their 2019 numbers over the holiday seasons, but things are looking up for an industry that’s seen a devastating decline.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: iPhone records its dramatic fall from a plane over Iceland, is recovered a year later

05 Oct

Iceland Photo Tours pilot and photographer Haukur Snorrason has shared a video showing the descent of his iPhone 6S Plus as it fell from a small plane located about 60m (200ft) over Iceland. The incident happened more than a year ago; given the height and frozen tundra beneath, Snorrason had assumed at the time that his tiny iPhone hadn’t survived the fall.

Around 13 months after the phone was dropped, a group of hikers discovered the device in a patch of moss, which had cushioned the blow and enabled the phone to survive the drop. The device powered on when tested, revealing Snorrason’s name and making it possible to reunite him with his lost device.

In addition to being nearly entirely functional (only the microphone was damaged), Snorrason discovered that the iPhone had recorded and saved a video of its rapid descent from the plane. The device landed face down on the moss, protecting the display from the elements while leaving the camera exposed to record the bright blue sky and Sun until its battery died.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lost 1960s moon photos recovered from analog tapes

25 Apr

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More than 50 years after the satellites that captured the first high-res images of the moon plunged to the surface and were destroyed, a Wired article tells the story of a group of people that found the tapes after they ended up in storage in California. Re-engineering the old drives capable of reading the tapes, they’ve recovered these historically significant images. Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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