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| Edited By: Mansi Taneja |Source: DNA |Updated: Oct 10, 2018, 06:25 AM IST
Japan’s Fujifilm is betting big on digital mirrorless cameras in the Indian market, where currently DSLRs (digital single lens reflex) are enjoying a dominant position. Globally, the demand for mirrorless cameras is expected to exceed DSLRs by next year. Fujifilm India Managing Director Haruto Iwata in an interview with Mansi Taneja talks about how smartphones can not replace the professional cameras market and the company’s focus on medical devices and mirrorless cameras. Edited Excerpts.
Smartphones are impacting the overall camera industry and sales. The evidence of this change is found in the point-and-shoot market, which has been rapidly declining during the past few years.
However, all this does not establish the fact that the smartphone industry is capable of competing against professional large sensor cameras. For an average smartphone user, it doesn’t matter how the size of the physical sensor would correlate to pixel pitch, resolution, dynamic range and high ISO performance, or how the physical size and optical construction of a camera lens could influence the look of their images. These are features that a serious photographer relates to and a smartphone certainly does not have these capabilities as of now.
In professional and advanced amateur photography, sensor size indeed matters to achieve great quality images and mirrorless cameras offer just that in a more compact body.
We have our instant cameras range -- Instax which was launched in 2015. Since then, it has seen a sturdy growth in its sales and in FY 2017, we recorded over 100% growth in sales and expecting same in FY2018 as well. Instax has now become popular not only among teenagers, but also youth in the 20- 30 age groups.
Globally, last year, we sold over 7.7 million units of the instant camera. While smartphones do provide the ease of use, Instax delivers instant prints of your memories, rings in nostalgia and is an excellent tool for self-expression. The youth today are fond of nostalgia and self-expression.
In an age when Instagram has altered the photography world, instant-print cameras are conquering the digital era. Instant printing is both a reaction and complement to an overly digitized life.
Both cameras and smartphones will coexist. At macro level mobile phone cameras might be preferred among customers, that said, the charm of using a film camera still has scope to gain momentum in the days to come.
In 2011, Fujifilm released the X-series, which is now one of the most widely accepted mirrorless camera worldwide. In India too, this segment has been growing continuously which is the reason why we see so much potential here. Globally, the demand for mirrorless camera demand is expected to exceed DSLRs by next year. However, in India, we expect mirrorless camera demand to take over DSLRs cameras by 2022-23. This segment just has 10 per cent market in India currently.
Currently, over 50 per cent of our revenues comes from the medical device business and rest from other businesses including imaging, graphics and others. We expect 10 % growth this fiscal. Last year, we recorded revenues of Rs 1,100 crore. And in the next five years, we expect India to be in the top 10 markets for Fujifilm globally.
