Report: Canon leads 2023 camera market share, but will they keep it?

Nikkei has published an article with an interesting graph as part of their Canon EOS R1 ($6,299) announcement coverage. And along with all the usual marketing nonsense, is a study published by Japanese research company Techno System Research.

The study’s results put Canon at the number one spot for 2023 camera sales by quite a wide margin. With 41.2% of the market share, they dwarf pretty much every other company individually except Sony, which sits at 32.1%.

Canon has the top spot – for now

Canon held 41.2% of the market share, according to the survey. This is followed closely by Sony, with 32.1%. Nikon’s share isn’t great, at 13.2%. However, last year’s sales report from Japanese camera retailer BCN showed Nikon’s sales were increasing – at least for BCN.

This seems largely thanks to the Nikon Z8 ($3,796.95), but it may be that Nikon’s starting to claw back a little of the market share it once had. Below Nikon is Fujifilm, at 8%, with every other camera manufacturer out there lumped into the final 5.5%.

This last 5.5% includes companies like Panasonic, Olympus/OM System, Sigma, Ricoh/Pentax, etc. I have to admit, I expected Panasonic to have enough sales to at least get their own slice of the pie. Maybe now that Panasonic’s figured out how phase-detect autofocus works, they’ll get one sometime in the next few years.

Could this change?

Canon’s top spot has no doubt been bolstered by the announcement of the Canon EOS R1. This is Canon’s new flagship camera. However, it’s seen somewhat of a mixed reception. Some people can’t say enough good things about it, while others don’t believe it offers enough over the EOS R3 to justify its price.

They suggest that the new camera release is more of an EOS R3 Mark II, but with a lower resolution, than it is a true flagship. It just doesn’t stand out enough in enough ways against either Canon’s own lineup or the flagship models from the competition for many people.

For others, however, it’ll be the ideal camera. But not for most, even if they can justify the expense. Canon’s glass is still too expensive for many outside of the high-end and hardcore enthusiast. They’ve been getting better, but there’s still a lot of lenses missing, particularly for lower budgets.

There are a few third-party RF lenses now, but Canon is still holding the reins fairly tightly on their beloved RF mount. Speaking of the competition, there are a lot of third-party lenses available for Sony E, Fuji X, and Leica L mounts. Nikon’s also keeping a bit of a grip on the Z mount competition, but there are a lot more third-party Z mount lenses than RF.

I don’t think Canon is in danger of folding anytime soon. But it will be interesting to see if and how the market shifts over the next five years or so.

[via Nikkei]