DSLR camera sales plummet 20%

The latest camera and lens sales data for August 2024 has been released by Japanese camera and lens manufacturers' trade body, Camera Imaging Products Association (CIPA). The monthly report shows that while the figures show a slight dip compared to July, they are up in terms of both volume (5.4%) and value (14.3%) compared to the year-to-date figures for the same period last year.

August is traditionally a slow month, whereas shipments tend to ramp up during September and October before tailing off at the end of the year. Only time will tell if the same is true this year.

The figures show that 750,206 cameras were shipped worldwide in August 2024. Of these, 511,530 were mirrorless cameras, 91,334 were DSLRs, and 147,342 were cameras with a built-in lens. The shipments had a combined value of ¥ 72 billion ($484.6m / £370.6m / AU$713.9m).

Poring over CIPA's data ( you can see it for yourself here ) shows that, interestingly, August had the highest shipments of the year to date for DSLRs, but everything else was below the peaks of 2024. Taking a cumulative view, however, DSLR units are down 20% compared to 2023, while mirrorless is up by 16% and fixed-lens cameras 8% up.

Despite shipping in greater numbers through most of the year so far, the lens data for August 2024 shows the number of units (896,627) dipping below the corresponding month for 2023 (961,218) and 2022 (931,408).

Based on this data, CIPA has revised its predicted shipments for 2024 to 5.89m interchangeable lens cameras (DSLRs and mirrorless combined), 1.52m compact cameras, and 9.57m lenses.

Note that these figures only represent shipments of cameras and lenses from Japanese manufacturers who are part of the CIPA organization – but that's most of the big players (Canon, Cosina, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sigma, Sony, Tamron, Tokina, Ricoh and Zeiss).

Take a look at our guides to the best mirrorless cameras , and the best compact cameras . We've also go guides to the best Fujifilm cameras , and the best retro cameras .