Official Sony statement confirms their FF mirrorless cameras are onthe raise on the US market

Today Sony issued an official press text which is going to worry the two companies that still are more or less ignoring the professional mirrorless market:

Here is the Press text:

SAN DIEGO, April 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Electronics – a worldwide leader in digital imaging and the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, has announced today that their continued growth has vaulted them into the #2 overall position in the U.S. full-frame interchangeable lens camera market. 1

Sony’s interchangeable lens cameras and lenses have seen record sales in 2017, in particular within the U.S. full-frame camera market, where they have experienced double-digit growth (+23%) 2 compared to the same period last year.  The popularity of key models including ?7RII and ?7SII has been paramount to this success.

Additionally, Sony’s rapid growth has helped to drive growth of the overall full-frame interchangeable lens camera market compared to the same period last year.  Without Sony’s contributions, the full-frame market would be facing a slight decline. 3

“Our commitment to the industry is stronger than ever,” said Neal Manowitz, VP of Digital Imaging at Sony North America. “We are always listening to our customers, combining their feedback with our intense passion for innovation to deliver products, services and support like no other.”

A variety of exclusive stories and exciting content shot Sony ? products can be found at www.alphauniverse.com , Sony’s community site built to educate, inspire and showcase all fans and customers of the Sony ? brand.

Notes to Editors

1The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan- Feb 2017
2The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan/Feb 2016- Jan/Feb 2017
3The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S., Detachable Lens Camera, Full Frame, Based on Dollars, Jan/Feb 2016- Jan/Feb 2017

Plenty of announcements coming next week: April 19 (Fuji) April 20 and 23 (Sony) and April 23 (Panasonic)

Next week it’s going to be very busy! Here is what to expect:

  1. Fuji will launch two new GFX lenses (23mm and 110mm) and the new Instax camera on April 19
  2. Sony has a press conference on April 20. Still not sure if there will be a new product there. But there is a chance we might see a new RX or A7 camera
  3. Sony and Panasonic do have a press conference on April 23. Expect new camcorders.

That’s it for now!

Ricoh officially denies the rumors saying it’s “shrinking” the camera business

Today Asian Review posted a surprising “rumor” about Ricoh-Pentax:

Ricoh is shrinking its money-losing camera business to concentrate resources on commercial applications as smartphones continue to crowd out long-established names in photography.

But Ricoh quickly reacted and said that the info posted by Asian Review is “not a fact”. That said Asian Review has quite a good track on insider info. So maybe while Ricoh is correct in saying this is not a fact yet it may be that it it’s under consideration and could become a fact soon :(

UPDATE: Ricoh announced that it will revise downward forecasts for the fiscal year. They also announced that it will focus resources on high value added products such as PENTAX and GR.

These are the most popular cameras, settings and seasons for taking photographs (based on 44 million EXIF data)

My name is Daria, I’m with Depositphotos. I wanted to share an infographic that may be useful for your stories.

We’ve analyzed 44 million commercial photos and created an infographic dedicated to the most popular cameras, settings and seasons for taking photographs:
Top 15 cameras for the commercial photography
Top 10 countries where most of the stock photos are being created
Most popular camera settings ( focal length, aperture, flash settings, and exposure time)
We used the EXIF data of our library to extract this data. Please see the detailed description in these images:

Samsung source admits they “recently stopped producing and selling digital cameras”

Anonymous Samsung sources from The Investor confirmed that they stopped producing and selling digital cameras. The source said that smartphone cameras killed their business. At the same time Samsung is seeking for new opportunities: “We will create a new camera product category to continue the business.” The new category may include cameras for smartphones and other mobile devices and the Gear 360 camera that captures high-resolution images and videos in 360-degrees.