Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

[Birma]

Nostalgia Techno Fashion ?! Very strange. I suppose this is something akin to wrapping your laptop in stuff to make it look antique, which I believe is called "steam-punk". Whatever next - a tablet made to look like a ZX Spectrum ?

[bakubo]

Nostalgia Techno Fashion ?! Very strange. I suppose this is something akin to wrapping your laptop in stuff to make it look antique, which I believe is called "steam-punk". Whatever next - a tablet made to look like a ZX Spectrum ?

Or an Etch A Sketch.

[bakubo]

Hmm I personally find the Q a bit of a joke esp the tiny sensor size and "toy lenses" gimmick slapped all over it.
On the Nikon 1 models I don't have a problem with the sensor size (images are surprisingly good from what I have seen) but..these models leave quite a bit to be desired in relation to design and controls. The "double newbie" take on the Nikon's is a shame really, fine make a camera for women but that isn't your only market.

So we can safely dismiss the Q and the recent K-01 embarrassment as no hope products bar niche market. The 1 could be good it's just crying out to be packaged in a decent body (think P7100 or near there and we're talking interesting) But as of right now I can't say any of the ILC models grabs me or tempts me even remotely.

Here are the new sales rankings in Japan for mirrorless and DSLRs:

http://bcnranking.jp/news/1212/121228_24511.html

The Pentax Q ranks above the NEX 7, C3, F3, Olympus E-M5, Panasonic G3, etc. The top ranked mirrorless camera is the Nikon J1. The E-M5 and some others weren't available all year though. I didn't add up the total m4/3 vs. NEX vs. Nikon 1 share.

japan_2012.jpg

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[bakubo]

Some good commentary on the new figures:

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/bcn ... numbe.html

[pakodominguez]

Here are the new sales rankings in Japan for mirrorless and DSLRs:

http://bcnranking.jp/news/1212/121228_24511.html

The Pentax Q ranks above the NEX 7, C3, F3, Olympus E-M5, Panasonic G3, etc. The top ranked mirrorless camera is the Nikon J1. The E-M5 and some others weren't available all year though. I didn't add up the total m4/3 vs. NEX vs. Nikon 1 share.

japan_2012.jpg

Interesting to see the NEX 7, that start shipping late in 2012, sold better than the E-M5, that had better reviews and lots of specialist declared the camera of the year...

[bakubo]

Interesting to see the NEX 7, that start shipping late in 2012, sold better than the E-M5, that had better reviews and lots of specialist declared the camera of the year...

I don't have a NEX 7, but I could almost swear that I had seen people posting photos from their's for quite awhile. Has it really just become available in recent weeks? In Japan it was available from late 2011. Anyway, I know that it has been available in Japan throughout 2012 because I was there for 6 months from December 2011 to May 2012 and I saw the NEX 7 in Japan at the end of 2011 and for the next 6 months. You could go into most camera stores and walk out with one. Since these sales figures are for Japan the NEX 7 availability inside of Japan is what is relevant.

When I left Japan in late May 2012 the E-M5 was still not available for purchase at any of the stores. Olympus had a few available for order in April, but none available for purchase in any of the Japan stores. I know, because I checked often. Even in May if you ordered delivery dates were unknown. So, I think the E-M5 in Japan was mostly for sale in the second half of the year.

[pakodominguez]

Interesting to see the NEX 7, that start shipping late in 2012, sold better than the E-M5, that had better reviews and lots of specialist declared the camera of the year...

I don't have a NEX 7, but I could almost swear that I had seen people posting photos from their's for quite awhile. Has it really just become available in recent weeks? In Japan it was available from late 2011. Anyway, I know that it has been available in Japan throughout 2012 because I was there for 6 months from December 2011 to May 2012 and I saw the NEX 7 in Japan at the end of 2011 and for the next 6 months. You could go into most camera stores and walk out with one. Since these sales figures are for Japan the NEX 7 availability inside of Japan is what is relevant.

When I left Japan in late May 2012 the E-M5 was still not available for purchase at any of the stores. Olympus had a few available for pre-order in April, but none available for purchase in any of the Japan stores. I know, because I checked often. Even in May if you ordered delivery dates were unknown. So, I think the E-M5 in Japan was mostly for sale in the second half of the year.

Not recent weeks. there was a first (small) shipment in December 2011, then it became available at the end of February 2012 -by then all the reviews were out and the NEX is definitely a 2011's camera.

The E-M5 was announced early February 2012. My friend got it in the USA in the spring (she walked in at Adorama and just bought the camera, no pre-order or so...) before she went to East Africa with other friends for a Safari. I can not tell you about availability in the USA because is not a camera that I really follows (I can tell you about the NEX because I had to pre-order it from Sony early December and i didn't get it until February -and Adorama and other retailers didn't have it until the spring)

Anyways, the E-M5 had less production problems and better press than the NEX7, that haven't went down in prices until this Christmas, and still the NEX7 is ahead...

Note also, as Thom Hogan said, that most of the top 10 are entry level cameras and/or 2011 cameras sold during 2012 at heavily discounted prices -Thom is really critic about Olympus price policy because their aggressive sales depreciated the value of the PEN cameras int he second hand market.

Regards

[bakubo]

I have seen so many great reviews for the NEX 7 so I don't understand why you are so down on it. I have held it in my hands and played with it many times and always thought it was quite nice. Why do you think the reviews were not so good? Maybe check out the NEX 6?

[pakodominguez]

oh, do not misunderstand me, please. Reviews were good. And I love my NEX7. I do use my NEX7 all the time, even for work. I prefer it's ergonomics over the NEX6. I wish it had the menu system of the RX100/RX1/A99.

The problem was that it took too long between the announcement, the (very favorable) reviews and the availability, so there was a little cold on this camera. Then, the issue with some legacy lenses (specially Leica wide angle) and purple corners... The NEX7 had what bea8utiful cameras like the 7Hi or A2 had: lots of customization options make the learning curve harder.

And that cold was even worse when the E-M5 was introduced. That's why I'm surprised that the NEX7 sold better than the Olympus, that overall, sold more cameras (but now we know, at discount prices...)

[Greg Beetham]

I see the OM-D got voted at dpr as the best camera of 2012 http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/01/01 ... 12-results it beat the Nikon D800 and the Canon 5D MkIII in the process.
Greg

[bakubo]

oh, do not misunderstand me, please. Reviews were good. And I love my NEX7. I do use my NEX7 all the time, even for work. I prefer it's ergonomics over the NEX6. I wish it had the menu system of the RX100/RX1/A99.

I have said before that I would like a camera that had a body more like the NEX 7 with all the guts of the E-M5 and the m4/3 lens mount (so that the smaller lenses could be used). Probably would need to be a few millimeters thicker to accommodate the IBIS.

The problem was that it took too long between the announcement, the (very favorable) reviews and the availability, so there was a little cold on this camera.

Yes, the E-M5 was the same. It was announced several months before people could get it. I ordered mine and had to wait a long time, but finally got it right at the end of May. Even at that time though most people were frustrated and still waiting. I happened to find a small store in NY state that was able to get one so I canceled my B&H order. Even so, the small store still had to wait for more than a month to get one for me -- still a lot faster than B&H though. At the time Olympus had a promotion that added a free FL-300R flash so I got that, but it took an additional month to get it. It made paying full price for the E-M5 a bit easier to take since the flash was going for $170 at the time. It is a small flash and okay for travel so I took it to Nepal (along with the tiny clip-on flash that comes with the E-M5). Other than a couple of shots when I first got it to make sure it was working though I haven't used it.

Then, the issue with some legacy lenses (specially Leica wide angle) and purple corners... The NEX7 had what bea8utiful cameras like the 7Hi or A2 had: lots of customization options make the learning curve harder.

The E-M5 can be a bit confusing to setup because it has more customization than I have ever seen in a camera before. The menus are very extensive and I am surprised at all the stuff that can be customized. Once it is all setup then it is okay though since I rarely need to go into the menu again. I wish there was a way to save my configuration to the SD card though. Then I could back it up to my computer. It would be hard to get the camera all setup again trying to remember all the various configuration settings I have. Some of the settings interact so that by setting 2 things a certain way you not only get the effect of each of them, but the interaction causes a third desirable characteristic. It would be great to save the config and then if you have to reset the camera you could easily reload the config. When you send a camera in for service it almost always comes back reset so that is another time a saved config would be great. I wish I had kept careful notes about all the changes I made, but now it would be difficult to go through the menus and see what I changed because just by looking at each item in the multi-level menus you can't tell if the current setting is the default or a changed setting.

The manual descriptions of the settings isn't good and some of the menu item names are not all that clear, but there are lots of websites and posts that have very good explanations and tutorials.

And that cold was even worse when the E-M5 was introduced. That's why I'm surprised that the NEX7 sold better than the Olympus, that overall, sold more cameras (but now we know, at discount prices...)

As I said, I don't know about availability of the NEX 7 throughout the year in the U.S. In Japan though it was easy to buy pretty much all year. In Japan the E-M5 was still hard to buy as of the end of May.

[bakubo]

I see the OM-D got voted at dpr as the best camera of 2012 http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/01/01 ... 12-results it beat the Nikon D800 and the Canon 5D MkIII in the process.

I noticed that Thom Hogan chose the E-M5 as the Serious Camera of the Year:

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/san ... amera.html

All of these things are just the opinions of various people though. The only opinion that really counts is your own. Depending on what you like, what kind of photography you do, etc. then the D800 or another camera might be the camera of the year.

Happy New Year! Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2013!

[bakubo]

I see the OM-D got voted at dpr as the best camera of 2012 http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/01/01 ... 12-results it beat the Nikon D800 and the Canon 5D MkIII in the process.

I noticed that Thom Hogan chose the E-M5 as the Serious Camera of the Year:

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/san ... amera.html

All of these things are just the opinions of various people though. The only opinion that really counts is your own. Depending on what you like, what kind of photography you do, etc. then the D800 or another camera might be the camera of the year.

Although I mostly like the E-M5 I bought this year a lot I don't think of it or any other camera in terms of best camera of the year, but I have been surprised that several people think it is. The guy at this interesting website thinks so too:

TOP Camera of the Year 2012

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... -2012.html

There were several really interesting new cameras in 2012.

[Greg Beetham]

It’s hard to forecast the future for mirrorless cameras vs reflex DSLR cameras in the US and the rest of the world, SLT’s being neither type aren’t true reflex cameras because the ‘mirror’ plays no part in aiming and framing so they are a separate issue.
In any case they aren’t a major player in sales figures in the big markets outside Japan according to Amazon at least.
I don’t know what the market percentages for mirrorless vs DSLR’s in Australia or Europe or even the rest of Asia outside Japan might be, but according to what we do know they are half or more of the sales of ILC’s there (led strongly by the V, which says more about the people who buy it than the camera) and only about 10% for all brands and models in the US.

It looks like the OM-D with its fast AF and IQ is one that would make DSLR users take more seriously, rather than regard it as a novelty. The Panasonics apparently excel at doing video (a dubious distinction for me) and the Fuji is apparently good but the JPEGs are oh hum (apparently) which is something like Sony is with their JPEGs on occasion.

The NEX seems to be patchy in sales; it seems various models are strong it times and in different places and not so hot in others, its main claim to fame is that people who own sundry various brands of cameras frequently buy one plus a couple of adaptors to breathe new life into their old favourite lenses, and still others trade their DSLR’s for one, so its place in the market seems to be in its ability to create its own niche…one that didn’t exist before, whether by accident or design…due to slightly out of character Sony brilliance I’m going to go with accidental for now, mainly because of the frivolous interface and the frequent systemic changes.

Apparently Sony’s master plan is to move even further off planet with the A-mount and morph it into some kind of mirrorless system maybe with help from Olympus in the AF department. I guess all previous screw drive lenses will work ‘sort of’ with an adaptor but the new system will work much better if you buy the latest lenses and flashes…until they change their mind again and bring out something different.
(The agreement with KM regarding retrospective compatibility expired in 2011 so its party time)

Of course the above is just speculation based on rumour, but you never know what Sony is going to do next for sure, nothing would surprise me though if upon looking at the surging sales of mirrorless in Japan Sony might feel it’s a really good idea to go in that direction, they seem to take notice of and respond to the Japanese market first I think and expect the rest of the world to follow automatically and buy the latest widget, (fear not, it will still have the Alpha logo on it whatever it turns out to be, the NEX has always had it and it isn’t even an A-mount camera). 10% mirrorless sales in the US might not register on the Sony corporate mindset when the home market knows what’s best right now and is leading the way.

They might morph the NEX into an expanded line instead, make it in a couple of body sizes possibly a more SLR style one with IBIS maybe and FF sensor with a new slightly larger mount as well as the original APS-C E-mount, or discontinue the E-mount and just have the one slightly larger one and leave the A-mount with SLT’s.
Still another possibility is to leave the NEX as it is and morph the A-mount into a mirrorless with a built in detachable adaptor and sell that alongside the SLT’s for a while.

The major problem for Sony (or I should more correctly say those who have invested in the A-mount) in doing that is the possibility of the damage it might do to what’s left of the A-mount, at least in Japan. It might not affect the sales of A-mount outside Japan one way or another immediately because of the quantity of legacy lenses in circulation, but that could decline over time if no new screw drive lenses and support for that concept is forthcoming from Sony, (like now basically) what the outside market does then will probably be a gradual drift towards the other major DSLR makers for those who want a DSLR type camera, if the decline in A-mount system compatibility and reliability continues.
Greg

[bakubo]

Yesterday while walking next to the beach I saw a young Japanese woman carrying a Pentax Q (black body, silver lens). I think this is the first time I have seen a Q here.