‘Everything is too high-tech’: Gen Z discovers digital cameras

{"text":[[{"start":8.2,"text":"Digital cameras are staging an unlikely sales revival for the first time since the advent of the iPhone as Gen Z consumers shun the ultra-processed perfection of smartphone photos."}],[{"start":19.299999999999997,"text":"Shipments of standalone cameras more than doubled in five years to $5.5bn in 2025, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association, as young consumers snap up devices that often cost more than a smartphone."}],[{"start":33.599999999999994,"text":"Digital cameras are in the sweet spot of a retro boom among younger consumers. Many want to supercharge their social media with unique snaps while also finding refuge in distraction-free intentionality offered by standalone devices. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":50.199999999999996,"text":"The sales boom has provided much-needed relief after a dismal decade for camera makers as the advent of smartphones reduced a market that peaked at 121mn sales in 2010 to just 7.7mn in 2023, before rising to 9.4mn last year."}],[{"start":70.25,"text":"But the industry’s recovery is at risk from runaway price rises, while uncertainty remains over whether the boom is a fad or reflects a lasting rejection of smartphone ubiquity and AI slop."}],[{"start":82.65,"text":"Yujiro Igarashi, who is responsible for the wildly popular X-Series at Fujifilm, said that its customers — 70 per cent of whom are in their thirties or younger — were looking to slow down in an era of technological overwhelm and commoditisation of photography."}],[{"start":99.85000000000001,"text":"Smartphone images sometimes looked “artificial”, he said. “People are overwhelmed with all this technology and things you have to keep on doing; check your phones, what’s happening, respond. There’s a tendency to try to counteract that — and this is part of it.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":115.00000000000001,"text":"Despite more than tripling production of the X100VI, its best-selling $1,800 model that combines a vintage feel with modern technology, Igarashi said Fujifilm was still struggling to meet demand. "}],[{"start":127.60000000000001,"text":"Anj Mejia, a 30-year-old content creator in the Philippines, is one of hundreds of thousands who have bought the X100VI. “Everything is too high-tech and it makes me feel disconnected,” she said. “We want to feel more simple as everything feels so complicated these days.”"}],[{"start":144.60000000000002,"text":"Gen Z has also developed a love affair with film, with sales of Fujifilm’s Instax cameras that print out photos on the spot like their Polaroid predecessors now overtaking the entire digital camera market."}],[{"start":158.00000000000003,"text":"Ryuichiro Takai, who is in charge of Instax, said that its cameras have shifted from featuring as must-haves at weddings and other big events towards becoming part of teenagers’ everyday lives."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":170.15000000000003,"text":"To target TikTok users, it launched the instax mini Evo Cinema, a 3-in-1 camera, video recorder and instant printer, at the start of this year that produces 15-second clips with a retro aesthetic."}],[{"start":183.15000000000003,"text":"Together with digital cameras, revenues for Fujifilm’s imaging division rose 15.7 per cent to ¥627bn ($3.9bn) last year and have more than doubled over the past five years. Market leader Canon has recorded similar gains."}],[{"start":201.15000000000003,"text":"The second-hand camera market has also received a big leg-up from Gen Z coveting the cameras used by their parents and grandparents."}],[{"start":209.65000000000003,"text":"Pointing to a black Contax T2 — a digital camera first released in 1990 — Masaki Maeda, who owns the GT Camera shop in Tokyo, said: “Fifteen or 20 years ago, nobody would buy them even for ¥9,800.” Its price tag in the store showed ¥275,000."}],[{"start":228.75000000000003,"text":"The market for film cameras was “totally different” to when his shop opened almost a decade ago, he said. “Inventory is always short; if we always had plenty of stock coming in, that would be great.”"}],[{"start":240.50000000000003,"text":"The digicam boom has sparked debate on specialist online forums about whether camera manufacturers are price-gouging."}],[{"start":248.55000000000004,"text":"Producers said that smartphones forced them to shift their focus to higher-end models to survive, while price increases reflected surging raw material and memory costs, as well as the impact of US tariffs."}],[{"start":261.65000000000003,"text":"Camera manufacturers struggle to justify pouring funds into research and higher production for digicams after years of contracting and diversifying into high-growth areas using their core expertise."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":274.65000000000003,"text":"Ichiro Michikoshi, analyst at consumer electronics research firm BCN, believes digital camera prices are becoming too high, as an average digital camera goes for $600 compared with $455 for a smartphone. "}],[{"start":289.8,"text":"“For ordinary consumers, spending a million yen on camera gear is absurd. There’s a huge gap between what consumers want and what camera companies are offering,” he said. “I think that’s a major problem.”"}],[{"start":300.6,"text":"Michikoshi argued that consumers were not getting a good deal as the technology in cameras had not improved greatly and interfaces remained fiddly."}],[{"start":309.35,"text":"“Honestly, I think it’s difficult to believe that this strong momentum will continue indefinitely,” he said, predicting the greatest long-term threat could be a Chinese competitor such as Huawei or DJI putting its technologies into a standalone camera."}],[{"start":325.5,"text":"Igarashi of Fujifilm admits that predicting the needs of Gen Alpha — the first generation to grow up with AI — and integrating the right kind of technology will be crucial to sustaining the boom."}],[{"start":337.35,"text":"“They would think of AI as a friend, as a teacher, and so we have to think about how to accommodate AI within our proposition,” he said. “I don’t have a clear answer yet how, but that’s what we definitely have to keep in mind.”"}],[{"start":357.7,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781423234_5252.mp3"}