YouTubers give a fillip to camera sales

HYDERABAD: Camera used to be one of the prized possessions to capture precious moments in one’s life. Digital cameras democratised access to photography. As it became more affordable, its global sales hit a peak in 2010, with a record sale of 12 crore cameras. Then came the disruptive gadget — smartphone. It made many pre-smartphone gadgets and accessories go extinct and threatened the utility of a standalone camera.

In just 10 years from the record sales, camera sales across the world have plummeted to 10 per cent of the record sales. However, another disruption — the Covid pandemic — appears to have shown a new sales avenue to camera manufacturers — the budding amateur filmmakers focused on making videos for OTTs, YouTube, Facebook Shorts, Instagram among others.

“The OTT market is huge here in India. We have been receiving overwhelming inquiries from these people for our exhaustive line up of Cinema EOS series and RF system. Vloggers, YouTubers and home-based video makers have realised some shortcomings to their equipment and want to upgrade to better cameras,” Manabu Yamazaki as the President & CEO for Canon India, told Deccan Chronicle, as his company celebrates the 25th anniversary of its entry into the Indian market.

Canon, he said, was getting inquiries from preachers. “Preachers from temples and churches are enquiring about better cameras. They are picking up these cameras quite well.”

According to Yamazaki, his company is not facing demand issues though it grapples with the world-wide issue of shortage of components.

"India's demand is so overwhelmingly large… But the shortage of components, transportation is causing supply-side issues… So we are working on both sides of the issue,” he explained.

The company categorised the Indian market into four zones — north, south, west and east.

While the south is the largest contributor with one-third of the total sales, the West is the second, followed by north and east.

Speaking about the USP of Canon, he said the company’s products, people and its nationwide service network are key differentiators in the imaging segment.

For Canon India, the imaging component contributes the most followed by the printing division.

In the printing segment, the Canon president said digital printing is gradually becoming a new norm.

“There is a migration from offset printing. Massive scale printing is still dependent on offset printing. But digital printing is kind of a norm today, which is helping people to cater to the needs of different customers,” he said.