An account on the Chinese social media site Weibo has shared a rare glimpse into the country's camera market, and it’s surprising: Canon sold twice the number of cameras as Sony, and four times as many as Nikon.
"The '2024-2029 Digital Camera Industry Market In-depth Analysis and Development Strategy Research Report' released by the China Research Institute of Industry pointed out that the competitive landscape is still mainly dominated by well-known brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fuji," reads the post, by Weibo account Camera Obsession.
"With its strong technical research and development capabilities and brand influence, Canon continues to lead the market with a market share of nearly 50%. Sony and Nikon ranked second and third, with market shares of 26.1% and 11.7%, respectively."
Sony Alpha Rumors, which shared the report, added that, "Moreover Canon's full-frame micro-single camera market share (number of units) has been leading for eight consecutive months since December 2023, ranking first."
While it's tricky to make sense of that statement, it sounds like Canon has been leading the way in full-frame sales since December – which is interesting, given the PR back-and-forth throughout 2024 with each brand claiming to hold the sales edge in various regions.
Information on the Chinese cameras market is very elusive, and insight like this can be difficult to come by. While we have regular and open access to CIPA sales and shipping figures, the data from China is not nearly as free-flowing – and given what a big and increasingly important market it is, we would love to see more of this information.
We know from Canon's financials that the EOS R6 Mark II and R50 are both major sales pillars for the company. With the R5 Mark II now on sale, and the R1 set to ship in November, Canon's share should only get stronger to close out the year.
Take a look at our guides to the best Canon cameras, along with the best Canon lenses for DSLRs and the best Canon RF lenses for mirrorless.
