Digital SLR cameras growing strong.
In the United States of America, the point and shoot digital camera market is “slowing down after several years of very rapid growth,” stated Ross Rubin, who is the director of industry analysis for The NPD Group market research firm.
This is a highly penetrated category at this point, he said. However, that is more likely to do with slowing sales than cameras functionality being built into phones or other devices.
One area of strong growth, however, is the digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera category, in particular the cheap models. These are more sophisticated digital cameras that allow a great deal of flexibility for the photographer as well as higher quality when compared with a mainstream point-and-shoot camera.
The overall market for digital SLR cameras is growing over 25 percent a year, with over 2.7 million of them likely to be sold this year in the United States, and the cheaper models are growing even more quickly, said Chris Chute, IDC research manager, Worldwide Digital Imaging Practice.
It is not necessarily because more photographers are getting more serious about what they do, he said.
The appeal of these cameras is to people who have enough money to step up into high quality, digital photography because they are pleased with the photo experience that they got with their compact digital camera. And, the prices for digital SLRs used to be thousands and thousands of dollars, and now you can get a really nice, inexpensive product for below $800.
Chute said the average selling price of a point and shoot digital camera is now $150, and it is about $800 for a digital SLR camera.
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