Nikon is going to leave the SLR camera market and focus on mirrorless models

Nikon, a Japanese camera company that manufactured single-lens reflex cameras for decades, will cease making SLRs and move to digital alternatives in the midst of increasing competition from smartphone cameras, Nikkei reports. Nikon's SLR cameras have long been popular among professional photographers, coming to be associated with the Japanese firm. It has now decided to concentrate its efforts on mirrorless cameras, which are becoming increasingly common thanks to more sophisticated digital technologies.

While digital cameras have gradually improved, Nikon's cameras have been losing ground to smartphones that feature more powerful camera systems. Nikon wants to surpass them by offering items with additional innovative features. Since June 2020, when Nikon debuted its flagship D6 SLR, no new SLR models have been released. Compact digital cameras are no longer being developed by the firm. Digital mirrorless cameras will take precedence for now, but existing SLR versions will continue to be produced and distributed.

Nikon is the world's second biggest SLR equipment firm after Canon. An SLR camera uses a mirror to reflect an image seen through the viewfinder to the photographer. Nikon was founded in 1917 and took on its current name in 1946. It first introduced an SLR camera in 1959, and it has long been recognized by professional photographers and journalists for providing high-quality alternatives to German manufacturers like Leica that previously dominated the market.

Nikon went digital SLRs in the late 1990s. Last year, it sold more than 400,000 SLRs, competing head-to-head with worldwide leader Canon. Pentax is a brand used by Ricoh to make SLRs. Mirrorless cameras employ image sensors that transform light into electrical signals and a different viewing system. They, like SLRs, may accept interchangeable lenses with greater focal lengths than the fixed focal lengths employed in most smartphone cameras. Nikon's F-mount was first introduced in 1959 and has allowed photographers to use a wide range of old lenses on contemporary SLRs.

In 2020, mirrorless cameras outsold SLRs for the first time, with 2.93 million and 2.37 million units sold respectively, according to Japan's Camera & Imaging Products Association. Overall sales have decreased, however. The combined market peaked at 11.67 million cameras in 2017 but had fallen to 5.34 million by 2021.

The spectacular decline has necessitated Nikon's attention being redirected to the sector that still has potential for development. Even as the market for SLR cameras fell 6% to 91.2 billion yen, the market for mirrorless cameras expanded 31% to 324.5 billion yen in 2021. Mirrorless cameras feature a wide range of features. Facial and pupil recognition are possible through artificial intelligence. They can also identify people, vehicles, and buildings.

The Nikon Z9, which was launched in 2018, can shoot 120 frames per second, which is almost ten times faster than most SLRs without the wear and tear of a flying shutter. This makes them ideal for sports and wildlife photography. Mirrorless cameras are lighter, smaller, and quieter than their predecessors without using a shutter. Mirrorless cameras have also been getting cheaper over the last year or two, with prices starting at approximately $730 (around 730 Euro).

The superior viewfinders and reduced lagging speed aid photographers in fast-moving situations. Nikon's imaging products division already accounts for 50% of the company's income, compared with 30% for SLRs. Sales of imaging goods totaled 178.2 billion yen in the year ending March 31, or 33% of total group revenues. Canon also intends to follow Nikon and discontinue making SLRs within a few years.