At the beginning of December of last year we wrote encouraging data on sales of cameras globally, thanks to the information provided by CIPA (the Camera & Imaging Products Association). Now the association has released the new data concerning the month of November 2020, marking a trend positive, even if not completely yet.

Camera sales figures in November 2020

As we had highlighted in December, referring to the October data 2020, the sales trend of cameras was in decisive recovery after the period of May 2020, an all-time low in the period 2018 – 2020. Of course, sales compared to previous years are still lower, but at least there has been a recovery that could lead to an (almost) breakeven in the future.

Returning to the data of CIPA of November 2020 , issued in January 2021, a similar trend to that of previous years can be noted. The maximum was reached in October 2020 but September and November are still very close. The same happened also in 2019 and in 2018.

Among cameras with interchangeable lenses and those with integrated lenses, the first ones win, catching up more than in the past. The latter, however, remain stable. As written above, considering the overall numbers, there is still no tie with previous years, so much so that in November 2020 there was a drop in shipments that arrived at 72. 8% compared to 2019 (if you look at the value instead you get to 93, 2 %).

The mirrorless continue to gain ground with the sales being the 54, 5% of the total (in the mirrorless group is DSLR) when in the same period of time in the 2019 they were al 46, 3%. In addition, the average earnings also increased which now touches 71, 1% (in 2019 was 61, 5 %). In general it means that you buy slightly less but that you spend more on average.

Sales per unit have reached 1, 04 millions of cameras in November of which 278 thousand were DSLRs while 387 thousand were mirrorless (approximately 666 thousand units in total among those with interchangeable lenses). It will be interesting to see the December numbers 2020 which could lead to a draw for once, but it is obviously still too early to tell.