Canon Continues to Stay on Top of the Global Market

The stats don’t lie, Canon has once again proven itself to be leader of the pack by celebrating its 19th year of holding the biggest share of the interchangeable lens digital camera market.

Canon’s interchangeable-lens digital cameras have maintained their place at the top of the global market between 2003 and 2021. From top-spec flagship models to reasonable entry-level systems, Canon’s diverse range of cameras has always catered to the diverse needs of photographers and videographers, so it’s little surprise it has maintained the number one spot

The Canon EOS 300D released in 2003 was a revolutionary camera that was competitively priced, even if it did only have a 6MP sensor. This market breakthrough heralded the beginning of Canon’s reign in the consumer market.

Since then, Canon continued to grow its range of ground-breaking products. Its launch of the professional-model EOS-1D series and the EOS 5D series marked a new age of high quality SLR video recording as well as high-resolution photos. The launch of the Canon EOS 1D and 5D series marked a new age of SLR, with these systems capable of recording high-quality, professional-looking video as well as high-resolution photos.  

In 2018 the first Canon EOS R series was born, along with a brand-new lens mount to fit the new cutting-edge Canon RF lenses. Since then, Canon has continued to expand the range of mirrorless cameras designed to be faster, more powerful and perform better and faster than ever before. This can be seen most recently in the launch of its EOS R5 and EOS R3 systems. With new features such as Eye Control AF, In-Body Stabilisation, up to 8K video capabilities, Deep Learning AF, continuous burst modes up to 30fps and more, Canon remains at the forefront of tech advances, continuing to push itself in its quest for image quality excellence.

Canon added eight new RF lenses in 2021, and we can hopefully expect another eight this year, which means if they continue at such a stable pace, we can see as many as 32 lenses in four years’ time.

Even during Covid-19, Canon saw sustained growth despite its 1% dip in sales. As per Canon’s financial report, its interchangeable lens camera sales maintained over half (52%) of the global ILC market in 2021, which is a remarkable achievement when the world of tech was beset by lack of parts and other effects of the pandemic. Clearly Canon is doing something right.

This continued market domination is not Canon’s only priority. The company continues to steadily advance its cinema range while further expanding its line-up through new launches such as its EOS VR lens. With such an impressive résumé, we’ll find out if this camera giant can make it to two decades at the top next year.