I’ve been observing the ebb and flow of the photographic industry since the turn of the millennium. The early 2000s felt like the boom times – even if those in the trade more senior than me insisted the 1980s were the truly good times. In the ‘noughties’ it was common for major players to launch six new cameras at Christmas, another six in the spring and a further six in September.
OK, so a lot of the time it might be a compact zoom in a different colour with a different focal range, all to maximise market share, but, flicking back through my notebooks to 2004, some months I wrote 10 camera reviews.
My flat resembled a retailer’s stockroom; one I’d occasionally escape if accepting the two or three overseas press trips each month – each month! – that unveiled another new camera.
Fast forward to now and it’s a rather different, sobering picture. As Bjork might sing, “it’s oh, so quiet.” Or, to misquote a KLF/Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu album title: ‘2026: What the f*** is going on?’
Calm before the storm?
Yes, OK, we’ve witnessed the appearance of the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome (and GR IV HDF) this year – but that model’s development was announced in 2025. We’ve also had a play with Fujifilm’s bonkers Instax Mini Evo Cinema; but that’s not really aimed at photographers.
So why nothing new three months into the year? Well, it surely stands to reason that reduced camera announcements directly corelate with reduced demand.
And yet, if it’s true that 2025 was the best year for camera sales since 2019 (even if camera shipments were almost half what they were in 2019), how can that be the case? Fixed lens compact camera sales alone were up 30% year on year.
It remains to be seen whether demand in this sector lasts – and certainly Canon, Nikon et al appear to be approaching with scepticism. Hence no new announcements.
What is true is that gaps between wholly new models, as opposed to minor updates, have widened in recent years. And what is released tends to be priced at a premium, therefore restricting appeal to an increasingly niche, if loyal and engaged, audience.
Given the cost of a photo enthusiast-targeted mirrorless camera these days, whoever buys it has factored in that they’re going to be using it for a long time. Hence a three, four or even five-year gap between updates of that same camera is no issue for them at all.
Inevitably, the second I submit this piece some joker is going to unveil a spectacularly exciting new camera that sets TikTok ablaze.
But, even so, it’s very unlikely I’m going to witness a boom time like the early 2000s again in my lifetime. At least if the wheels really have come off, I was there and enjoyed the ride.
And yet what I’m really hoping is that all we’re experiencing is the calm before the storm.
Related reading
- Have we already reached ‘peak camera’ technology?
- STOP! Don’t ditch your old cameras yet for this one KEY reason
- Is this the end of the Action Camera as we know it?
The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Amateur Photographer magazine or Kelsey Media Limited. If you have an opinion you’d like to share on this topic, or any other photography related subject, email: ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk
