Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

http://www.diyphotography.net/camera-sales-report-2016-lowest-sales-ever-dslrs-mirrorless/

See this link and the trending comments.

2016 had the lowest sales in cameras ever. It is smart phone photography and social networking
that have taken over the market. The long growth of interchangeable lens camera's and the pro and enthusiast
will be a small segment of imaging. One issue is the investment some of us have in gear and work will
be diminished. Some might say this is panic but I do remember my film cameras and slide projectors.
I now have a lot of Sony cameras and lens and wonder if support will fall off for this gear.
The pro cameraman and still shooters I know definitely don't have near the work they used to have.
The acceptance of images as a commodity and not an art form is a social change that has come.

TheDman Loc: USA

The pro photogs I work with at my company have more work than they can handle. In fact we can't find enough good ones.

The consumer end of things is of course getting killed, but the need for pro imaging is as strong as ever. Cameras are just pretty mature now.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

All of my remaining cameras work as well as they ever did. Since I purchased them to use them, not to "flip" them, I have no concern at all about my "investment".

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

People have been talking about the "demise" of DSLRs being brought about by iPhones, Micro four thirds, etc. for quite some time now. Yet Nikon, Canon are still releasing new DSLRs and people are still buying them.
Whatever happens in the future is going to happen no matter what. I can't be bothered with worrying about it. The cameras I have won't stop working if there is a popularity shift to other formats.
Don't worry, be happy, keep shooting.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

"2016 had the lowest sales in cameras ever. It is smart phone photography and social networking"
To my way of thinking not counting smart phone sales at least as as some part of camera sales is misleading. A certain segment of the market has always looked for something to record events with that got the basic job done with out any real investment. Ie 110 and disk cameras. That segment of the market now have their needs met by a sub function of another product but it should still be calculated if to reflect nothing other than a potential market.

repleo Loc: Boston

Note reason #5 for the decline - "Cameras are for old people"

There is plenty of evidence of that here on UHH. It seems every string attracts a number of 'in my film days' posts. There must be a higher percentage of retired people here on UHH than any other group outside of the AARP. Photography, as in the taking of pictures is not dead, but it is transforming. Camera phones are not the only change. Look at the explosion in the use of action cameras like GoPro, and now drones. Young people still want to take photos (and video), but they want them to be part of their active lifestyles and social lives. They are not interested in creating images that are destined to go no further than a slide box or a hard drive.
The image of a nerdy old photographer going out on their own in their floppy hats to shoot birds or the tourist with a couple of cameras around their neck following a tassel waving tour guide does not hold any attraction for a generation of mountain bikers, rock climbers or club goers. If we want to attract young people into the traditional ILC end of the market we need to jazz up the image of the photographer. So shed that multi pocket vest and wriggle into one of those compression fit Underarmour activity shorts and swap that floppy hat for a sleek helmet.
I drive by a Leica store every evening on the way home. All I can see inside from the street is racks of cool Leica tee shirts and caps. Maybe they are on to something.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

[quote=repleo]Note reason #5 for the decline - "Cameras are for old people"

So shed that multi pocket vest and wriggle into one of those compression fit Underarmour activity shorts and swap that floppy hat for a sleek helmet.

And I would still be seen as an old fart but one who thinks he can look younger wearing compression stuff that reveals all the warts.

repleo Loc: Boston

[quote=Rich1939]

Not at all. Those shorts are designed to shove the flab up into your biceps and pecs. You will look like Superman. You will certainly put on muscles pulling them on.

SS319

It will be interesting to see what Camera sales did during July and August. I suspect that signs in the heavens resulted in a significant bump in sales that may actually extend well into the fall.

Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

Hello everyone just a response to other responses.
I am not one of those "the good old days guys" I am older in my 70's do ride a Klein mountain bike and swim a number of times a week.
I wear black T shirts everywhere now (moved to Florida last year) and have been in 30 countries or so. I read Wired & Fast Company
and the NYTimes on my iPad Pro. I have moved to much more video the last 5 years shooting sporting event like triathlon videos.
Have been struggling with getting decent pay for small docs and run & gun videos. Most times remove 4K or 2k frames from
my Sony video for stills. It is very interesting seeing the options in a second of a scene. And todays cameras can capture frames
especially in 4k that a really good. I think wearing a jungle hat and a vest shooting in the wilderness very cool. Nature is where it all started.

That said my posting of the shrinking upscale camera market was philosophical look at a changing imagery world. Their are folks
who are making living shooting stills. A lot of stills shooters have become still & video shooters. Their is certainly a lot less work.
I know that for sure I know a lot of creatives. Yes weddings, school photos and some other work still is around. I used to go
into studio operations that had still shoots all over the building.

What I do care about having been in the creative, adverting and art business about the creative tools our gear and a world that
honors and respects images. Good luck to all. Ok maybe lose the vest!

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

reason #4 for the decline should be - "Cameras are for perfectionists"

All you have to do is to go back thirty years {yes, to the days of film} and see that not very many people were using what I call "adjustable cameras". Yeah, there were point-and-shoot 35mm cameras, but they were being sold to the same people who had purchased disk/110 cameras ten years before, Instamatics twenty years before, 127/620 cameras thirty years before, etc.

There was a bulge late in the film age / early in the digital age when there wasn't much difference between a point-and-shoot marketed to that crowd and a simple compact camera marketed to the sort of people who post here, and for whatever reason many people gravitated to SLR's even, but that bulge is past. The person who would have carried a disk camera as she biked now carries a phone of roughly the same size. If you want to talk about "old people" {us "Boomers"}, I have a number of friends and relatives of Boomer generation who started unaccountably using SLR's in the late 1980's (*) but switched to point-and-shoot when they went digital and then to smart phones within the past half decade.

Meanwhile, the young professionals who cover weddings, entertainment, and sports use up-to-date ILC's.


added:
(*) now that I think about who those people were, I'm guessing that at least some of them were switching to "the epitome of photography", and that cache went the path I've described - digital in general and now to smart phones.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

My observation is that the current generation (of all ages) tends to have very shallow interests. And those interests are mostly centered around having pleasure "in the moment." Think about the whole idea around selfies and the selfies you have seen...they generally capture "the moment," sometimes completely missing the event. There is very little concern about tomorrow. The girl (yes, she is a girl) who used to do my haircuts had selfies posted completely around the big mirror at her station. Each one clearly commemorated some event, but with two exceptions, there was very little clue what the event was. Just a photo of her with one or more of her friends.

Any of us who have a deep interest in a specialized area are considered very odd to them, no matter how we dress. (And if you think about it, most of us probably are at least a little odd.) And they have no understanding why we might be interested in anything that requires expending some energy to learn something about it...especially if it is a hobby. There are a few exceptions, of course, but not very many that I am finding.

This site is filled with comments telling us to "get over it, photography has changed." And that is true. But it is also true that our entire society has changed...in deep and abiding ways. My guess is that it will continue to do so. Probably at an accelerating rate.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Overall declining wages and increase in the cost of living are factors as well. For most people, a dedicated camera (unlike the phone camera) is looked upon as a luxury item. Nice to have, but not an absolute necessity. When money is tight and bills are piling up, or there is a lack of long-term job security, purchasing a new camera is often postponed until the situation improves.

dmeyer Loc: Marion, NC

What a hurtful way to describe senior photographers. Seems that you want all the nerdy, dowdy old folks to stay home and not spoil the landscape for the young people out there doing selfies. I think you went out of bounds on some of your comments, repleo.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Serious non-journalistic photography has always been a niche pursuit for hobbyists and professionals. For most amateurs (me included) photography was snapshots of family and places I visited (the beach, a vacation, etc.). It was done to chronicle events and people, not to create art. For serious photography I looked at National Geographic or Architecture Digest, or Arizona Highways or the Smithsonian Magazine. It was not something I could do myself. For most people that is still the case.

Up until ebay and paypal guarantees I was reluctant to shell out several thousand dollars for a new dslr and lenses. (Back in film days I lusted for a Nikon 35mm and some lenses, but that was out of my price range so I settled for a Yashica Rangefinder.) Being retired and with ebay putting used equippment in the low hundreds instead of low thousands I jumped into the hobby. There was a lot to learn and I did learn a lot. Taking pics of birds or insects or the insides of a flower, or closeups of the moon requires some knowledge and some specialized lenses. It's not something you can do with a cell phone camera. It's not selfies or pics of your friends at a party. So like Ansel Adams with his 8x10, I was willing to pursue this type of photography with my dslr and lenses.

But most people aren't and never were. The point and shoot or cell phone camera is fine for snapshots. So DSLR's are no longer needed for that purpose. If the manufacturing of DSLR's has really dropped 90% since 2010, then it's a done deal.