Canon Hopes New EOS R1 Will Help it Maintain a Tenuous Market Lead

As many know, Canon announced two new cameras this week, the Canon EOS R1 and the R5 Mark II. Canon Vice President Tsuyoshi Tokura spoke to Nikkei about what a camera like the R1 means for Canon and opened up about competition within the industry. In the interview, spotted by Canon Rumors, Tokura called Sony its biggest competitor, noting that Canon’s first 1-series flagship mirrorless camera, the R1, is designed in part to help Canon maintain its purported lead over Sony. The two companies have been battling to be number one in camera market share for years, with each company recently making competing claims. Last September, PetaPixel reported that Canon held nearly 50% market share, about double that of Sony. Earlier this year, Canon claimed that it was the #1 mirrorless camera brand for the third straight year. Sony quickly disputed the claim, telling PetaPixel that actually, it was #1 based on the same data Canon used. Of course, neither company shared all the raw data it used to claim the top spot, so it’s impossible to know precisely what is happening. The point is that while plenty of companies are seeing success — Nikon is performing well and Fujifilm is setting records — Canon and Sony are at the top, in one order or the other. Per Nikkei, according to data from research company Techno System Research, Canon is, in fact, in first position for global mirrorless camera shipments, accounting for a whopping 41% of them, while Sony has 32%. Even if Canon maintains the number one market share, which, again, Sony disputes, it’s indisputable that what was once a dominant Canon lead in the professional camera market has dissolved in the mirrorless age. Sony has relationships with Reuters, Gannett, and the Associated Press, and has been the camera of choice for capturing many significant social, cultural, and sporting events in recent years, including the recent assassination attempt of Donald Trump. The places where Canon’s professional 1-series cameras once dominated now feature many more Sony cameras than before. Canon’s Tokura believes — or at least hopes — that the R1 may help reverse that trend. However, the R1 has arrived a bit undercooked and is a far cry from delivering the speed of the Sony a9 III or the resolution of the Sony a1. “Can the flagship model carrying the brand capture a moment that will be passed down through the ages at the Paris Olympics?” Nikkei asks. It stands to reason that Canon is asking itself this question, too, and it may not like the answer it finds when 2024 market analysis is ready to digest.