CIPA’s 2022 outlook suggests lens sales will increase while interchangeable lens cameras will slightly decrease: Digital Photography Review

CIPA has published its annual outlook, wherein it shares its outlook on the shipment of cameras, lenses and other photo-related products for the 2022 year.

CIPA starts off by sharing the data for 2021, which showed total digital camera shipments, which include both compact cameras and interchangeable lens cameras, were down 5.9% year-over-year (YoY) in terms of units shipped. Isolate interchangeable lens cameras, however, and we actually get a .8% increase YoY in units shipped.

While positive, it’s important to realize that the previous year, 2020, saw a dramatic decrease in camera sales YoY, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors. Specifically, total camera shipments for 2020 were down 41.6% by units and 28.4% by value YoY, while interchangeable lens cameras were down 37.3% by units and 24.8% by value, compared to 2019. So, although a .8% increase is better than a decline, it’s still only marginally better than what was the biggest YoY decline in over a decade.

A screenshot of the total shipment forecast CIPA published today.

Looking towards 2022, CIPA says it expects total shipments of digital cameras will be down by 6.1% by volume, YoY. Interchangeable lens cameras, however, are only expected to decrease 1.1% by volume, YoY. If we look at interchangeable lens camera shipments by region, CIPA says it expects an increase of 5.1% by volume for Japan and a decrease of 1.6% by volume for ‘countries other than Japan.’ Interchangeable lenses follow the same trend, with CIPA saying it expects a .7% decrease by volume for total lens shipments in 2022. Similar to camera units, CIPA expects lens shipments to increase 8.9% by volume in Japan and decrease 1.6% by volume to ‘countries other than Japan.’

CIPA concedes and concludes that it’s ‘not easy to summarize the “outlook” in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 disasters,’ buts notes ‘shipments of interchangeable lenses are expected to continue to grow at 1.8 times the scale of interchangeable lens digital cameras and to stimulate the market with such cameras.’