2018 is a year of mirror-less-camera outbreaks, and a year of whole pepole photography; but let more people know the charm of photography, not only due to the camera but also by the smart phone. On the one hand, there are more and more users who love photography. On the one hand, the market sales of cameras are declining. In 2018, is the year when the Mirrorless camera broke out, or is it another year that the camera phone has won a big victory? Today, let's have a look at the current state of the camera industry in 2018 from some market sales data.

The release of new products in the digital camera industry has basically ended in 2018, and there will be no more high rank products released before CES in January 2019. From this year's new products, as of December 14th, a total of 38 new camera models were released, including 16 mirroless cameras, 2 Leica M-series rangefinders, 4 SLR cameras, and 16 fixed-lens cameras.

In terms of new products, besides Panasonic S1/S1R, the main models this year are all kinds of Mirrorless cameras and full-frame Mirrorless. Nikon Z6/Z7, Canon EOS R and many new lenses have been fully launched in December.

Since 2016, the sales of digital cameras have been declining slowly. The theory of Mirrorless-phase camera should promote the sales of cameras, but in fact, the sales of digital cameras in 2018 did not increase significantly. October was the month when Nikon Z7 and Canon EOS R were fully listed worldwide, but CIPA statistics in October showed that camera sales did not increase in October and were lower than the same period in 2016 and 2017.

According to CIPA data, sales of digital cameras in 2018 are much lower than in 2017.

Let's take a look at the annual sales of digital cameras. Overall sales in 2018 are not as good as in 2017. The main reason for the overall decline in sales of digital cameras is the sharp reduction in sales of fixed-lens cameras. We collate the data from 2015 to 2018, we can see that although the total sales of cameras in the market are always declining, but in the field of replaceable lens cameras, the sales of cameras are basically stable.

Global sales of digital cameras are declining from 2015 to 2018 (combined January-October sales)

From the four-year sales comparison, we can draw several conclusions:

1.Sales of mirroless cameras are increasing gradually, but compared with 2018 and 2017, sales of Mirrorless cameras are basically flat.

2.Sales of card cameras have declined significantly, with sales from January to October 2018 being only 1/3 of the same period in 2015.

Mirroless cameras are gaining more and more weight nowadays. In fact, in terms of global sales, Mirroless cameras have been in a rising market share. In 2017, the market share of Mirrorless camera is about 35%, and by the end of 2018, it is expected to exceed 40%. At this rate, sales of mirroless-SLRs will reach or exceed those of DSLRs between 2019 and 2020.

Mobile phones have eaten up the card market. Camera photography and mobile phone photography will coexist in the future.

It's not the price factor that affects the sales of cameras. On the contrary, digital cameras in 2018 are actually getting cheaper and cheaper. The reason why cameras are selling worse and worse is that the rapid development of smartphone photography function is the biggest reason. Around 2013, 12 million pixels were on mobile phones, and around 2016, dual cameras began to become the mainstream. Mobile cameras have developed rapidly in the past two years. In 2018, many camera phones have begun to challenge cameras. Even though the effect of mobile phones is far from that of cameras, it does need to be acknowledged that the effect of direct photography by mobile phones is more suitable for mass consumers without photographic knowledge nowadays.

可换镜头销量实际并没有大幅下降，大幅下降的是卡片机销量

Sales of interchange lenses have not actually declined dramatically, but the sales of card machines have declined dramatically.

For users, in 2018, it will cost 3,000 yuan to buy a mobile phone with powerful function and good photo function. Or do you pay 3000 yuan for an entry ticket? This is an important choice for many users to enter photography for the first time. Mobile phone photography or camera photography, for entry-level users, there is no absolute good or bad. So many users will now ask, this camera will be better than the mobile phone?

Consumers first contact with cameras, the first concern is the 3000-5000 yuan price model. This price used to be the world of home card machines. But nowadays, the mobile phone that takes photos will generally not exceed 5,000 yuan, and the mobile phone with 2000 yuan will have a good photographic effect, so now the home card machine has basically disappeared. In fact, mobile phones have eaten up a large part of the market share of card machines. In 2018, sales of fixed-lens cameras were only 37% in 2015, a decline of 2/3.

At present, although there are still many household products, card cameras have entered the field of professional cameras as a whole. The traditional cheap card cameras now have few new products. Card cameras are either professional one-inch cameras or larger pictures, such as Sony RX100, Fuji X100F, Ricoh GR, or long focus cameras or waterproof cameras. Card machines are now all professional style, but the entry-level Mirrorless are more in line with consumer buying habits.

Now many card DC have actually embarked on the high-end line, but the entry-level Mirrorless is now more people-friendly.

Why can mobile phone photography gradually replace the camera? The reason is very simple. Mobile phones are the necessities of life. There is no burden to take photos by mobile phones. A mobile phone with powerful photography function does not need to pay too much RMB. Mobile phone is a photographic tool that everyone can take when they reach out. Camera is a product that requires certain photographic skills and needs extra carry-on. Photo phones are gradually replacing entry-level home cameras, which is the inevitable result.

Enter-level mirroless Camera replaces the position of home card machine. In the future, do you take photos with a camera or a mobile phone?

Faced with the tremendous impact of mobile phones, the days of entry-level SLR and entry-level micro-SLR in 2018 are not so good. In contrast, the entry-level micro-sheet is smaller, the quality of the picture is no different from the single-inverse ratio, and the shape is better. The entry-level mirrorless  is gradually becoming the first choice for young people to choose cameras. This also accelerates the gradual replacement of the progress bar of the SLR camera by the micro-SLR camera. In fact, many of today's entry-level Mirrorless can actually be equated with household card machines around 2010.

For many people, buying a small Mirrorless in 2018 is the same choice as buying a card machine in that year.

Summarizing the market performance in 2018, Mirrorless camera is gradually replacing the status of SLR camera, while the sales of card machines are declining dramatically, especially household card machines are gradually withdrawing from the historical stage. Photo mobile phone has become more and more people's photography enlightenment equipment, mobile phone photography has become a popular factor in national photography.

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In 2019, are you taking pictures with your mobile phone or with your camera? I believe there are still more users who choose cameras. However, for entry-level photographers, mobile phone photography has become an indispensable process in daily life. As the so-called mass photography is coming, mobile phone photography is bound to pose a greater challenge to the camera in 2019.