Mirrorless Models Bring New Growth

By Editors of TWICE -- TWICE, 8/30/2010

TWICE: How is the new mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera segment progressing?

Dennis Eppel, Panasonic: That area is exploding for us, including the lenses, so the attachment there is a nice piece of business for us and a little bit of a surprise. We didn’t think it would see that kind of growth this year, but it’s really doing quite well.

Mark Weir, Sony Electronics: The repeat customer for compact cameras is becoming the majority of the market, but we also see the emergence of the repeat customer in interchangeable-lens cameras as well. It’s really quite surprising when you consider the life cycle of an SLR that we would see quite as many repeat customers in the market. One thing about the repeat customer is they certainly know what they’re looking for.

Also, we see a greater engagement in photography from those customers not only in terms of what they can do with a camera but also new ways to use a camera. We saw this originally with the emergence of video, and we can see this with the emergence of new form factors of cameras, particularly compact interchangeable lens, but also the emergence of new feature and new shooting styles that you can realize with panorama, emergence or the soon to emerge presence of 3D as well as new approaches to shooting in low light that really change the way that, you know, people can take pictures. That repeat customer I think is really going to fuel the business.

Richard Campbell, Samsung: The growth in mirrorless interchangeable lens systems has us pretty excited about the prospects for the second half.

Mark Sherengo, Pentax Imaging: We’re going to bring to the market a different product, as we mentioned, mirrorless Four Thirds category. We’re going to bring something that is just a little bit more individual, flexible, and to really penetrate different kinds of markets from the early adopters of young female, 13 to 23, to maybe the mother segment, maybe to corporations, so it’s just something different.

David Lee, Nikon: We always look to the consumer response, and while there has been some uptick in the United States, mirrorless adoption has not been as big as it is in other parts of the world.