A decline in DSLR sales threatens camera companies

An interesting article, perhaps a bit too pessimistic though. No direct mention of Pentax but they will be affected if it's true.

link

Interesting indeed...

My own thoughts (and the article hit the nail on the head) is that the "casual consumer" no longer cares about image quality, possibly caused by "techno-babble" that claims that more megapixels = better photos. The added "bonus" of smartphones is that most (if not all) add gps information to the metadata, making it much simpler to geo-tag on websites such as Flickr. The only camera that I can think of in the Pentax stable with this function is the Pentax WG-3. I cannot speak for Canon or Nikon, but surely now is the time when a gps-sensor is built in to Ricoh Pentax cameras, whether they be compacts or DSLR's? If something the size of a smartphone can have one, why can't a DSLR? Would having such a thing built-in compromise image quality?.. Surely not.

The worst thing I can say about smartphone photography is that it "encourages" people to take photos of their friends with trees growing out of their head, and the like. Due to the relative cost of film and processing, I learned to think a bit more about what went into my photos, and whilst I'm no David Bailey, Patrick Lichfield, etc - I certainly think that for all its benefits, we are increasingly witnessing the "downside" to digital photography from the "casual-user" perspective.

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

Can't see much of a future for traditional point and shoots, unless there is a phone in there too, The Camera Companies need to get on board!
DSLR's are big and there is a backlash to this amongst the kids, they love Large sensor compacts, Nikon 1's and in the far east even the Q.
Mirrorless 2x sensors are not much worse than APSC and there is a bit of movement over to that too, the demographics are different, though. Young uns are buying into the Nikon 1 system, et al, cos it's light and funky, Old uns are buying into M4/3 because it's light but still regarded as serious kit, Pro's are still buying FF but it's never going to be more than about ten per cent of the market. Which leaves us, the Pentax User in the the squeezed APSC middle, up until now, 90% of DSLR sales have been APSC but because of the new formats that share is shrinking. I think it'll eventually even out though but the share of the market that has traditionally been only APSC DSLR will be smaller, there's just more choices...

An article from a phone lover Nothing at all to
do with Pentax Apart from it being doom and gloom
which is always of interest to this forum I don't see
any reason for it to be posted here

10-15% fall if true isn't the end of the world and mostly
effects Canon and Nikon. SLR manufacturers make most of their
money from lenses. Phone manufacturers make 0% from lenses.

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Cough!! Splutter!!!

The "Black Plastic" Harvest is down 20% this year
due to poor weather conditions world wide

SLR prices predicted to rise by 50% to compensate
or rationed!

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FWIW I don't see *our* little 'enthusiasts' bubble shrinking. But yes, the casual user is probably more interested in instant uploads to instagram and being able to apply filters and photomontages on the fly.

Ricoh-Pentax is a small company which caters mainly for the enthusiast. Maybe it makes sense to be small and focussed in that way, in the current climate. Look at how their 'entry level' bodies are packed with 'enthusiast' features rather than the touch screen/wifi shenanigans of their competitors. Is this a sign they are choosing to look after their core market, rather than compete with smartphones?

The camera companies need to put tablet capabilities into a dslr like samsung did with their camera. This would be so easy to implement. The moment a 3g or even a 4g sim can be inserted into a dslr needs to come quickly. Imhave an eyefi card in my k-5 when i shoot at the nightclub i work in and have to send the images to an android phone to share on social networks. If i could miss this part out it would save me time, the same goes for my gig work, if i could upload from the pit, directly from camera (there are some excellent photo editing apps out there) to my agencies then my images would be online for sale quicker, increasing my business potential.

The issue I foresee is more one of convincing people they need the latest and greatest model.

Convincing someone that a K-10D is better than a *ist D by far enough to justify an upgrade was fairly easy. My *istDL2 was less than a year old when I bought the K-10.

Convincing someone that the K-3 is better than the K-5 by the same ammount might be harder, and that is only going to get harder as time goes on.

More people are going to skip more models before upgrading in future

Do many people upgrade every time?

I came into dSLR-Land with the K10D, kept it until I got a K-5, and I'll only be getting a K-3 if the AF is as good as they claim.

I expect in general, those that don't upgrade every model are fairly out of phase with one another too - I expect plenty came in one of the *ists, then upgraded to K20D, then K-5 II, and may not bother with the K-3. Some of course will start with entry-level, and then move up the range.

So provided the catchment is broad enough, there will continue to be sales of each new model. The answer has to be to maximise the number of people buying Pentax at all. If the K-3 is any good, the range will be genuinely competitive, so it will have increasing credibility amongst Pentax Pollyannas, hard-core other branders (even if they don't actually switch) and beginning dSLR users alike.

Has to be a good thing.

I think most manufacturers would consider a 10% drop in sales a cause for concern. It seems logical less camera sales will lead to less lens sales in the long run. A few months ago Nikon were rumoured to be moving into other areas with a possible Nikon phone.

Yes, I think you are right. I have a K30, which will produce outstanding 16x12 prints. Whilst it *might* be possible to tell the difference between images from the K30 and K-3 by peering at 100% crops on a decent calibrated monitor, I'd bet that it wouldn't be possible by inspecting prints, unless they are a lot bigger than 16x12.

The principle advantage, as I see it, of a camera with lots more mega-pickles is that it would allow me to crop an image that I didn't get quite right in camera and still produce a decent large print - but is that enough to justify an upgrade?

I bought the K30 to replace a K200 just 12 months ago now. My reasoning then was that the K30 had much better low light performance, had focus peaking and was silly cheap at £319 for the body only from SRS after the £50 cashback from Pentax. I don't see the K-3 as having any "must have" feature or performance advantage over the K30 to make it a mandatory buy - and it isn't (yet?) silly cheap.

Andrew

I don't;t believe, that the reason of the decline of SLR,s and similar high priced cameras has much to do with the advent of the phone cameras.

At the moment we are still in a bad economic climate around the world.
It makes sense that photographers who see the new models either skip the next one or two models before uprating, or wait longer.

I am one of them, I have a K5 and a X-5. There is no way I will upgrade to a K3. I keep saving until the improved model arrives. (K3II)

I would say, that the mobile phone cameras are equivalent to the Instamatic cameras in the old days.
People who bought this type of cameras, never would have bought something big and complicated to use in the first place. With some exceptions of course, Why spend 1000 bucks or so for something which is complicated, bulky and expensive. The camera in the phone cost nothing.
However it keeps the memories of the moment and lets them share it with others instantly.

This people are no threat to the SLR, Leica and other high priced cameras.
The thread are the economic conditions at this stage.

Regards, Horst

Well said Horst

85% of the people on ZDNet agree with you....
http://www.zdnet.com/debate/have-smartphones-killed-the-slr/10123193/

Obviously we don't hear the 'Doom and Gloom' Merchants
mentioning that the exchange rate Yen/Pound has gone up
by 26% in the last year meaning that Japanese Companies
receive an EXTRA 26% for everything they sell in the UK

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