Canon has released its annual report for 2023, showing some very promising sales figures. While we’ll never get back to pre-smartphone days, Canon showed ¥861.6 billion (~$5.8 billion) in sales in its imaging division.
This is a 7.2% increase from the previous fiscal year, which showed net sales of ¥803.5 billion (~$5.4 billion). Operating profit, too, has increased from ¥126.6 billion (~$860 million) to ¥145.6 billion (~$990 million)
It seems that the DSLR to mirrorless transition is finally complete for Canon. Since introducing the EOS R mirrorless system shortly before Photokina 2018 Canon has pretty much killed off its old EF-M mirrorless system, as well as most of its EF mount DSLR ecosystem.
The EOS R camera system has been widely adopted by the camera-buying public, and Canon’s latest financial results prove it. Again, it’s not quite the numbers we were seeing a couple of decades ago, but still very impressive.
In the Imaging Business Unit, sales of interchangeable-lens digital cameras, in particular mirrorless cameras like the EOS R6 Mark II, a full-frame mirrorless camera released the year before last, and the new entry-level EOS R50 and EOS R100 mirrorless cameras launched last year, remained solid.
Sales of RF-series interchangeable-lenses remained solid as well. Sales of network cameras increased thanks to solid demand and enhanced sales activity against the background of diversifying applications. These factors resulted in total sales for the business unit of ¥861.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%.
Canon specifically cites the Canon EOS R6 Mark II (buy here), EOS R50 (buy here) and EOS R100 (buy here) as the main driving force behind the sales. That’s one consistency with DSLRs. Lower-end and consumer cameras are pushing the most sales.
Of course, they haven’t really released a good pro body in a while. The Canon EOS R3 (buy here) was announced in 2021. The Canon EOS R5c (buy here) doesn’t really count, as it’s just an iteration of a camera body released in 2020. And we’ve still no idea what’s going on with the Canon EOS R1.
It will be interesting to see if/how things change in the next few years, once we start to see an EOS R5 II, the EOS R1 and eventually EOS R3 Mark II. Will they be as big a hit for Canon as its consumer bodies are today? Or will the lower-end continue to drive the most sales?
You can see Canon’s complet report here.
