When shopping for a higher-end digital camera, photo enthusiasts typically choose between Canon or Nikon.
But a cadre of electronics companies are posing a threat to that dominance by refashioning bulky professional cameras into sleeker, more affordable models.
Camera makers such as Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp. and Olympus Corp. have struggled to eke out profits from the highly competitive point-and-shoot segment, which, because the cameras are relatively easy to manufacture, has low barriers to entry.
To reverse those fortunes, they are waging war in the higher-end market against Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc., which sell about 75% of the world's single-lens-reflex cameras, the model of choice for professional and serious amateur photographers.
The challengers are hoping to gain market share from an emerging type of camera that packs high-end features into a compact design. Like SLRs, these cameras come with large sensors and interchangeable lenses that produce high-quality images. But they don't have the conventional mirror-based viewfinders that reflect the image to the photographer's eye. Instead, the image is digitized, allowing for a more compact body.
These mirrorless models range in price from about $300 to $1,700, compared with digital SLRs that vary from about $500 to several thousand dollars for professional ones, before costly lenses are added.
In an otherwise stagnant camera market hurt by the growing competition from smartphones, the mirrorless models are booming.
Shipments of compact cameras declined last year, but those of the new type nearly doubled from the previous year, with projections of a fivefold increase by 2015, according to market-research firm International Data Corp.
SLRs still are doing well, with shipments forecast to grow 18% this year to 16.76 million units world-wide, according to IDC. But shipments of mirrorless cameras are projected to increase 60% to 6.43 million units. Compact-camera shipments are forecast at 130.69 million units.
The new mirrorless cameras have gained the most traction in Japan, where they accounted for nearly half of all shipments of interchangeable-lens cameras in second half, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association trade group.
Mirrorless cameras accounted for 16.4% and 18.7% in North America and Europe, respectively.
The product transformation is evident at Pansonic, a 94-year-old electronics maker that entered the digital-camera market in 2001. The Osaka, Japan, company said sales of digital cameras fell 28% from a year earlier in the quarter ended Dec. 31, partly because of sluggish demand for point-and-shoot models. But, within the category, sales of mirrorless cameras rose 67%.
The new cameras especially are a hit among Japanese women. Budding female photo enthusiasts in the country are known as Camera Girls, and manufacturers are targeting them with nontraditional camera colors such as "fiery pink" and "sensual brown." The companies also offer accessories such as camera straps and cases meant to appeal to women.
Panasonic, which introduced the market's first mirrorless compact system camera four years ago, said it took lessons it learned then to the U.S. to sell its Lumix cameras.
Initially the company struggled, because it was targeting "everybody," said Shiro Kitajima, the head of Panasonic's consumer marketing in North America. Panasonic found in market research that women wanted to take better pictures without having to carry a bulky camera.
Panasonic targeted women in print and online advertisements on maternity and beauty sites. It also focused on selling the mirrorless cameras in stores frequented more often by women, rather than the male-dominated battleground of camera or electronics shops.
The strategy was a success. Panasonic said typically about 75% of SLR customers are male, but nearly 70% of the buyers of its mirrorless cameras are female.
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What are you using yours for Hammer? Hmmmm
Ouch, I forgot this mirrorless:
"His, uh... ideas... methods... became... unsound."
