Canon, Sony and OM Digital Solutions excel in Japan, per the BCN Awards
posted Monday, January 23, 2023 at 3:00 PM EST
The annual BCN Awards have been published in Japan, showcasing the most popular camera brands among Japanese retailers in 2022. While not a perfect representation of the global camera market, the BCN Ranking data comes from about 40% of all Japanese retailers, so it's a large sample size that offers interesting insights into the state of the photography market.
Before diving into the specifics, BCN Rankings says that total interchangeable lens camera sales were up compared to 2021. Sales in 2022 were 106.9% of the prior year's sales. The total sales amount – money spent versus individual cameras purchased – increased to 122.1% of 2021's results.
The ILC camera market is divided into two categories: SLR and mirrorless. It will come as no surprise, given the industry trends in the last few years, but mirrorless cameras remained more popular than SLR cameras in 2022. Mirrorless cameras accounted for just over 77% of camera sales in the BCN Ranking data.
Looking at specifics, for DSLR camera sales in 2022, Canon accounted for 76.8% of the market, up from 59.8% in 2021. Nikon captured the second spot with 17.2%, down from 33.9%. Ricoh Imaging, the maker of Pentax DSLR cameras, is in third position with 5.7%, which is nearly identical to their 5.8% share in 2021.
For mirrorless ILC sales, Canon is on top again, albeit with a much smaller share than in the DSLR segment. Canon accounted for 31.7% of mirrorless camera sales, up from 28.2% in 2021. Sony is in second place with 29.4%. In 2021, Sony was the top mirrorless camera in the BCN Awards with 32.0%. OM Digital Solutions earns a strong third-place position with a 14.3% market share, up from 12.7% in 2021.
In the digital video camera category – it's not clear precisely how BCN Ranking differentiates between SLR cameras and video cameras – Panasonic is in first with 42.4%. Sony is in second at 34.7%. DJI rounds out the top three with 9.4%.
BCN Rankings also captures lens data. Sony has the highest share at 16.4%, followed by Canon (15.9%) and Sigma (14.5%). We can see additional information in the chart below, including Tamron in the fourth spot and Nikon in the fifth. Safari's translate tool didn't work perfectly on the chart below, but the blue wedge in the bottom left is Tamron and the green wedge titled "Wealth + Film" is Fujifilm. The light gray wedge to the left of Sony is "other."
Again, there's no way to know precisely how the BCN Rankings data corresponds to camera sales in other markets. Still, it's always interesting to see how different manufacturers are performing. For more information, visit the BCN Awards website.