Japan's Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) has released figures indicating significant growth for the Compact System Camera category. This report is particularly interesting, because it's the first where CIPA has separated the CSC and DSLR categories, allowing for a more accurate estimate of the volumes in each of these.

The primary data, being shipments for the second half of 2011, is presented below, showing Compact System Camera shipments as a percentage of all interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs), which includes both CSCs and DSLRs. As in previous years, CSCs are particularly popular in Japan where they accounted for 46% of shipments, nearing parity with DSLRs. Marketshare in terms of value is lower, at 37.7% due to the lower prices of many CSC models, but the numbers shipped indicate that this category may eclipse DSLRs during 2012 in Japan's home market.

Additional CIPA Data

The worldwide stats are not shown in the graph; but on a global basis, shipments of CSCs accounted for 22.7% of the ILC category. That's more than double the 10-11% share that market research companies had estimated for 2010.

Aside from the CSCs, CIPA's figures also indicate healthy growth for ILC cameras and lenses in 2011, in spite of the effects of the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. On a worldwide basis, shipments of fixed-lens cameras fell 8.1% from 2010, but ILC shipments increased by 21.8% and lenses jumped by 19.9%.

CIPA is also bullish about the Interchangeable Lens Camera segment for 2012, forecasting a rise of 16.6% for cameras and 18.8% for lenses on a global basis.

The Americas

While North America still lags far behind Japan in Compact System Camera sales, shipments of this category have approximately doubled in this region as well in vs. 2010. And there's another bit of CIPA data that's worth noting. The proportion of mirrorless cameras shipped to the Americas region jumped from 12.5% to 22.1% between the third and fourth quarter of 2011, a 76% increase.

CIPA's report mentions the effects of the natural disasters in Asia. Global shipments of cameras and lenses in general were down 4.9% vs. 2010 partly because of these factors. Some pundits have suggested that the disasters caused a dramatic drop in DSLR production, accounting for the growth in the CSC category's proportion. However, the production of Sony's NEX-7 and 5N was halted for some months and the supply chain was disrupted for other CSC brands by parts shortages. Hence, it's likely that the natural disasters did not skew the Interchangeable Lens Camera stats as significantly as some have suggested.

The Bottom Line

Will we see Compact System Cameras taking a lion's share of the market in Canada anytime soon? That's not likely but continuing growth is probable in my estimation.
As industry observer Rob Galbraith indicates, "Japan is often seen as something of a bellwether for technology adoption, and especially consumer electronics. Given that it's only three years since the first compact system camera went on sale [in June 2009], the speed with which mirrorless models have almost caught up with their SLR brethren in Japan is incredible. That bodes very well for their future elsewhere!"

Article Tags:  Japan, CIPA, mirrorless, CSC, ILC, DSLR, shipment, sales, market, compact system camera, interchangeable lens camera, Galbraith