UK DSLR sales have fallen 10% over six months, mainly triggered by a shortage of cameras.
Though declining demand for compacts was largely to blame for a 13% drop in overall market sales revenue, analysts say that insufficient supplies of DSLRs hit the UK photo sector in the six months from September 2011 to February 2012.
Commenting on its latest sales data, Zhelya Dancheva from GfK Retail and Technology UK told us: ?Over that period? the DSLR market also struggled ? declining 10% in value, mainly triggered by shortages of stock in the fourth quarter that widely affected the market in Britain.?
The DSLR figures do not include sales of compact system cameras (CSC).
Though CSC sales fell 3% in value, the number of units sold grew 7%.
As we reported last year, camera makers were badly hit by flooding in Thailand, forcing the closure of Nikon?s DSLR plant at the Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya on 6 October 2011, for example. The factory is now reported to have returned to full production capacity.
Dancheva added: ?This [DSLR market] is now beginning to recover. So we can expect March to look more positive for this segment.
?Another positive sign is the latest February results where compact cameras, despite a 10% volume decline, have only lost about 5% of the value of sales achieved in February 2011.
?This is clearly an indication of the increasing importance of higher-priced bridge and super-zoom cameras for the overall fixed lens market.?
Total camera sales revenue dropped by 9% in the six months to February 2012.
