According to recent figures from Japan, surprisingly many digital cameras were sold in April. Worldwide, 790,897 devices were shipped, representing an increase of over 23% compared to the same month last year. Interchangeable lens models account for the larger share with 624,082 devices (an increase of over 25%), while cameras with fixed lenses make up the rest (166,815).
CIPA Monatsstatistik
Since such monthly figures are always published unedited by CIPA as an interim status, only a few concrete conclusions can be drawn about the causes of the jump in the statistics. However, a more detailed breakdown reveals that the increase in shipped mirrorless cameras (a total of 578,690) is particularly significant - here the increase is a good 36% compared to April 2024, while DSLRs are, unsurprisingly, less and less in demand.
A further distinction is also made with regard to sensor size for the 624,082 interchangeable lens cameras (although the figures apply to models with and without mirrors combined). These included 265,379 cameras with a full-frame sensor (or larger) and 358,703 models with a smaller sensor. Unfortunately, there is no comparison to April 2024 here, but with the full-frame models there is a large increase of almost 60% compared to March (for APS-C and below it is "only" around 17%). The increase in sales in this category is even over 70%.
It therefore appears that particularly many DSLMs with at least a full-frame sensor were shipped worldwide. Since such spikes in sales figures are often due to particularly popular new products, the Nikon Z6III, which was presented in April, for example, is being traded as a possible explanation. However, this cannot be specifically proven with special sales figures. There were also a few other, quite new cameras, such as the Panasonic LUMIX S1R II, which was launched in March. Sony had already presented its Alpha 9 III at the end of last year, but due to poor availability, it was sometimes delivered very late.
It remains to be seen how the figures for the next few months develop. Whether this is an outlier in the statistics or whether we are experiencing a small trend reversal cannot yet be assessed.
;)
;)