2022: Photographic gear is still an active and rich market.

 Many have predicted the fall of the traditional photo equipment market often in profit of the multi-task mobile smartphone that have improved their photographic functionalities (but not obviously their ergonomics). In regard of what was happened in the year 2022, no such definitive decay has really been observed although there is a significative consolidation effort that has been done by the manufacturers. The latter trend is not a new one since we have seen such market tremors in the past for an industry (photo equipment) which is renowned for its perpetual technical evolution.

By definition, the photographic gear market is a niche one. For sure there is always over time a popular "instamatic" segment that is now fulfilled truly by the smartphone abilities and availabilities. For the specifically photo oriented devices, the offer follows a similar pattern as it has been the same since the event of the first Kodak introduced by Georges Eastman. Some (like smartphones) are intended for the mass market and the others for the specialized photo amateur and professional ones.

In 2022, there was an impressive arrival of new photo gear products. Technically most of them appear to be more upgraded camera and lens models than revolutionary ones perhaps with the few exceptions for the very higher and pricy examples. The camera manufacturers have also a better understanding of the market segmentations between populations, cultures and geographic repartitions. There is also a definitive trend to offer products that are ether video centric devices(vlogging oblige) or (still) photographic ones to accommodate these two user categories.

Among the other things we have observed this year is the apparent sensor format differentiation that has been maintained in terms of offer, between the Micro Four Third (MFT), APS-C and so-call Full Frame (ex 35mm-135-24X36mm). And about all manufacturers still introduced MFT and APS-C models which is a surprise considering the anticipated and proclaimed tendency to regroup all sensors into the 24X36mm format. It simply demonstrates that the compact design exigency cannot at this moment fully fulfilled by the so-call Full Frame technology (but it may happen in the near future with more nano technologies).

Today, buying a digital camera may appear expensive although, in comparative terms, it is in fact almost equal than fifty years ago if you base your calculation on how many working hours you have to cumulate to get it. What is changing is the obsolescence expected by the digital photo equipment compare to the past. It is due mainly to the actual tendency to clearly abandon (not maintaining) the hardware and the software involved into the camera and lens manufacturing. It is seen to be cheaper to simply replace instead of repairing which is certainly not ecological way of thinking and eventually not acceptable economically since the resources are limited on earth.

So, we can sleep well and be confident that the photographic gear market is not collapsing but still follows its own path of evolution for the years to come. We cannot predict an everlasting growing future for the photo equipment industry but for the next few years, there are a lot more important concerns we will have to address than this.

Happy 2023 New Year!

Photos Daniel M: #1: Montreal Stock Exchange Tower; #2 : Montreal's Convention Center / Olympus OM-D E-M5 II / ED 12-40mm F2.8 Pro