Nikon to ditch its DSLR business for good, to focus on mirrorless and smartphones

In what can only be described as the end of an era, Nikon has decided that it will be exiting the DSLR market soon, and will focus on developing imaging systems for smartphones and their mirrorless cameras. 

Along with their DLSRs, they will also be reducing their point-and-shoot and other compact cameras. Nikon has already stopped the development of compact digital cameras.

Nikon has been in the camera business for over 60 years and dominated the 35mm film era. Ever since the digital photography revolution, they lost a chunk of their market to other manufacturers like Canon, and then Sony. 

Nevertheless, they were a favourite among amateur photographers for their offerings like the D3000 series, and the D5000 series. Professional photographers too loved their Nikons, especially for their ability to work flawlessly with Nikon’s old legacy glasses and their longevity.

The writing has been there on the wall for Nikon for some time now. Thanks to the growth in smartphone camera tech, camera companies have witnessed a drop in sales. Nikon, for the same reason, plans to focus resources on mirrorless cameras, which have become mainstream products on the back of more advanced digital technologies.

The last full-frame flagship DSLR that Nikon launched was in 2020 and was called the D6. The D6 was set to be upgraded in about 4 years, but that is unlikely to happen now. Ever since Nikon introduced its line of high-end mirrorless cameras in 2018, they have been aggressively taking on the market, launching cameras in its Z-series at different price points. 

The Nikon Z30 was the most recent offering in India, which joins the likes of the Nikon Z50, Z70 and flagship mirrorless cameras like the Nikon Z7 and Z9 series.

Nikon will continue to sell their existing range of DSLRs for the time being, and will phase out production slowly. They will soon stop some developments for their DSLRs, and move certain developments over to their mirrorless side.

Despite the higher price, mirrorless cameras overtook SLRs in terms of sales in 2020. The report stated that over 2.93 million units of mirrorless cameras were sold in 2020, compared to 3.37 SLRs. There has been an overall decline, however. The combined market peaked at 11.67 million cameras in 2017 but had fallen to 5.34 million by 2021.

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