Even the biggest camera manufacturers had to watch their sales slowly drop as the pandemic continues. However, that didn’t seem to stop them from producing millions of cameras and other photography equipment.
Sony Produced More Mirrorless Cameras Than Any Other Manufacturer
Japanese business publication Sankeibiz, with data from research firm Techno System Research, detailed the 2020 production numbers of numerous camera manufacturers. Last year, a total of 5.65 million interchangeable lens cameras were produced: 3.26 million mirrorless cameras and 2.39 million DSLR cameras.
The “big three” photography giants—namely Sony, Canon, and Nikon—are reportedly collectively responsible for 75 percent of the 3.26 mirrorless cameras. Sony produced the most units with 1.15 million.
Canon almost matched that amount with 1.05 million units, while Nikon was far behind them with 250,000 units.
The remaining 810,000 mirrorless cameras produced in 2020 were courtesy of manufacturers that aren’t as widely recognized. This includes Fujifilm, Leica, Panasonic, OM Digital Solutions (formerly known called Olympus), and Sigma amongst others.
For DSLR cameras, Canon and Nikon topped production with 1.71 million and 650,000 units respectively.
How Many Produced Units Were Actually Sold?
When going over this data, it’s important to remember that the number of units produced does not necessarily equate to the number of units sold. It’s possible for the demand of a product to fail to meet the manufacturer’s expectation in that regard.
That said, if you look at the financial reports of Canon [PDF] and Nikon [PDF], it would appear that both companies have sold as many units as they produced. Sony’s financial report, unfortunately, doesn’t detail its number of camera sales.
