DSLR Sales on the Rise

According to NPD Techworld, sales of digital SLRs continue to grow rapidly as more advanced amateurs and professional photographers switch to digital. From 2003 to 2004 unit sales more than doubled to reach approximately 578,000 units.

Sales are on track to set further records in 2005, through April 2005 they already surpassed 200,000 units. As digital SLRs continue to improve and become more affordable, sales will maintain growth.

The 2005 PMA U.S. Consumer Photo Buying Report contains information to help retailers better understand the current profile of digital SLR users. First of all, as with compact digital cameras, males have adopted DSLRs at a faster rate than females, representing about 60 percent of users.

The average age of a DSLR user is a few years older than the compact digital camera user (48 versus 44 years), but younger than 35mm SLR users (52 years). The average household income of an SLR user is above that of a compact camera user, which makes sense considering the higher investment involved with SLRs.

A high percentage of DSLR owners print their photos. They also use their camera more often and take many more pictures than owners of other types of cameras. They print a smaller percentage of their photos than other segments, but due to the high quantity of pictures they take, they still print more photos.
According to Photo Bridge, Canon is by far leading the domestic digital SLR market in Japan, supported by powerful ads and promotions.

Nikon is a top runner in the high-grade segment and the D2X is in short supply on the local market. The camera maker also expects to see the new popular model D50 slated for debut late June will get a chunk of market share in the popular SLR segment Canon presently dominates with its EOS Kiss series models.