Market Watch - Cameras

It’s almost Diwali and some of the hottest product categories around are cameras. Manufacturers have been launching new models and there are promotions and freebies being given away everywhere. Like any other product, there’s always the urge to upgrade to something newer and better. We’ve collated a long price list of point and shoot cameras being sold in the market today. We’ve also spoken with a few shopkeepers to get some information on some of the trends in camera sales. These may not be the best cameras around but they’re certainly most attractive to consumers for a number of reasons. If you’re looking for prices, scroll right to the bottom of the page. Like with any other consumer electronic products, there’s a tendency for customers to go purchase products from their favorite brands. In the case of cameras, the most popular brands tend to be one of the three - Nikon, Canon or Sony. There are also some brands that vendors claim customers aren’t so fond of. Samsung might be popular in the TV, mobile and home appliances segment, but when it comes to cameras, they haven’t been around nearly as long enough as brands such as Nikon and Canon. This makes them not-so popular, along with some other brands such as Fujifilm, Casio, Kodak and Olympus.  Most customers purchase products primarily based on their budgets. There are also a few models that do very well as far as cameras go. For example, Canon’s IXUS 220 HS and Nikon’s S6200 are two of the more popular models in the market that seem to sell a lot. Both of them are compact cameras with reasonably powerful pieces of hardware. The IXUS 220HS for example, comes with a 12MP sensor and a 5x optical zoom lens. The Nikon S6200 is a 16MP camera with a 10x optical zoom lens. The Sony WX7 is another product in the similar price range. All of these cameras fall just under the Rs. 10,000 range. It’s a clear trend that customers are looking at products in that price bracket. Also, style and portable designs are more favorable than more advanced features found on prosumer and DSLR cameras. One of the slightly more expensive but popular cameras is the Sony HX9V. Of all the cameras, the shop keeper suggested that the Sony HX9V and the Nikon S6200 were very successful. Like all kinds of consumer electronics, the fear of components getting spoilt always exists. Sony is one of the companies, according to the shop keeper that offers a good three-year warranty. Customers have reported good support from Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus. This year, Canon has been really popular for DSLRs and Nikon for point and shoot cameras.  Popularity of DSLR cameras has been on the rise steadily as consumers get more and more familiarised with point and shoot cameras. Sales also have improved and they are flying off the shelves. The Nikon D5100 and Canon EOS 550D are some of the more popular models even though they’re not the cheapest ones around. The cheaper Nikon D3100 that sells for just under Rs. 30,000 is in the list of popular DSLRs too