Field of View : Prints from Digital & High Megapixel Count Camera Sales Increase

January 2009 By George Schaub

multipage

One area I would like to see covered in these figures is the book market. More and more folks are choosing to gather and show off their images in this exciting fashion, and it strikes me that this should be regarded as part of the print survey. I know many avid amateurs who currently eschew individual prints and are in favor of the compilation of shot images into themes, be they vacations, parties or family portraits in a certain year, all placed neatly and attractively into photo books. While these are not “finished” at home they do account for more and more of the printing market.

Analog Epilogue
And now for a brief interlude of bad, though hardly unexpected, news—new film camera sales are toast. Overall, film camera sales have plunged over 60% from a similar period last year, and even OTUCs have dropped almost 40%. Oddly, Instant cameras are still reported in the mix despite the fact that Polaroid ceased film and camera sales. True, Fujifilm is now bringing an instant type camera into the States to pick up whatever ID and visa business might still be done with film, but the Instant stat does nothing but drag down film camera sales even further. My vote is to drop it from consideration.

There remains, however, life in the film business, but more in film itself rather than new cameras. Kodak recently introduced a new Ektar 100 color negative film, and many younger folks are in fact rediscovering film as a recording medium. This is evident on college campuses and in workshops, where course assistants are proudly carrying around old medium format and veteran film cameras like Leica M3s, Nikon FM2s and YashicaMat TLRs.

They see film as a sort of an alternative process medium that holds a part rebellious, part nostalgic appeal. And they like the way it looks and feels. There is a brisk business in user-collectible film cameras on auction sites with prices that even a student budget can afford. There is no question that this is a niche movement, but one that is intriguing nonetheless.

Megapixel Matters
The stats on digital camera sales are quite telling when it comes to seeing how the megapixel horse race has affected sales. While digital cameras at or below 7.9 megapixels have shown a precipitous sales drop (holding about a 28% total market share, off an average of around minus 70%), those at 8 megapixels and above are still growing in sales by unit and sales by market share. In fact, 8-9 megapixel cameras, which accounted for over 40% of market share by unit, show a 270% growth year to date and those in the 10+ megapixel class, with 30% share, show an almost 200% growth change over a year ago. The biggest jump is in the 9-10 megapixel class which, although it only shows as 4% share, had a 1000% + increase in unit sales.

These numbers bear some crunching. It’s easy to see why the 9-10MP class has grown so substantially—there simply weren’t that many units in this class in late 2007. However, when you combine the 8MP and up class together you see what’s driving the market—megapixel counts, a mixed blessing that I have covered in this column in the past. But when you look at the bottom line on digital camera sales overall and note a 5% decline, keep in mind that the lower count cameras, which have all but disappeared in anything but blister packed toy cameras, are responsible for the lower numbers. Take them out of the mix and you see another, more positive picture emerging.

Of course, this report does not delve into other digital image delivery devices, including multimedia and especially cell phone/cameras. As more and more images are made with cell phones, and as that infrastructure develops and grows, we might begin to see print figures that are out of synch with “pure” camera sales. In short, the photofinishing market, once tethered to camera and film sales and now generally fueled by digital camera sales, might take off exponentially, driven by other methods of capturing an image.

In all, the report paints a less bleak picture than one might have imagined. This is not to say that the photo industry is immune to the recession, and fourth quarter results, probably available in the middle of the first quarter of 2009, will be more telling. But growth in any aspect of the business should be encouraging to retailers, photofinishers and those of us sick and tired of hearing nothing but bad news day in and day out.