LEDE ON
Canon announced that they had the number one market share of interchangeable lens cameras in 2025, and this was for the 23rd consecutive year (since 2002). Source for this claim? "based on Canon survey." What Canon doesn't say is that at least 10% of that volume probably came from them still seeing low-cost DSLRs. Nevertheless, Canon is a bit of a juggernaut, selling nearly 3m units in a 7m unit overall market. I do note that Canon isn't claiming an overall market share value this time around, probably because it slipped to 41%.
Meanwhile, at the CP+ show, CIPA announced their prediction for 2026 camera volume: interchangeable lens camera volume is expected to drop 2.5% this year, while compact cameras will go up 15.5%. Good thing Canon is resurrecting those PowerShot models, huh?
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Commentary
The Odd Case of Sigma DN
Sigma was one of the early players in lenses for mirrorless lenses, with three DN lenses originally for the m4/3 mount, and later expanded to Sony E, Canon M, and then further expanded to Fujifilm XF and Nikon Z. (As a reminder, Sigma's DN lenses are for crop sensor cameras, particularly APS-C.)
This week, Sigma introduced a rethink of one of their wide angle options (now 15mm instead of 16mm). But it's only for Canon RF-S, Fujifilm XF, and Sony E mounts. What happened to the Z mount?
Nikon and Sigma have always had a bit of an antagonistic relationship, partly due to patent contestation. It's easy to hypothesize that this might have something to do with dropping the Z mount. However, I think it's something more basic: Sigma has tended to be running near or at capacity and the Z mount is, as far as I can tell, the fourth highest selling APS-C mount. I'd guess that Sigma simply didn't want to restrict their ability to serve the primary APS-C vendors in order to support a fourth. That's despite the fact that there are no Nikon DX prime options that come close to this focal length, so Sigma would have very few—and only Chinese—competitors for a 15mm f/1.4 in the Z mount.
Still, odd things are happening all over in the world of lens mounts these days. Canon clearly is trying to restrict full frame RF lenses produced by others, Nikon wants third parties to get approval for producing a lens in their mount, and Sony is finally starting to realize that their more open mount helps camera sales but is now hurting lens sales. Meanwhile, the Chinese competitors keep getting better, and they're providing lower cost options (despite the tariffs here in the US).
What I'm seeing is that every one of the Japanese lens manufacturers (including camera companies) is trying to hold niches and particular customers. This is making for odd disparities. So much so, I think it's time I resurrect my Buzz, Buzz shorthand. (Buzz Buzz was my way of acting like an annoying fly to Nikon's marketing and sales group.) With Nikon producing three DX camera bodies and only seven DX lenses, Nikon's attacking the crop sensor market with very few arrows in their quiver (Buzz, Buzz). The only bright spot for Nikon DX is that Viltrox is adding some other options, though now Nikon is suing Viltrox, so there's a bit of Buzz Buzz Shoot Foot happening in Tokyo at the moment.
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CP+ Lens Launch Lowdown
I earlier indicated that CP+ would be a pretty lens-focused show. That's turned out to be the case, particularly as there are no new (production) cameras being shown. Here's what was announced just prior to and on opening of the show.
7Artisans' 2Fer at CP+
The official release of their autofocus 40mm f/2.5 for the Sony FE mount was announced, with a Z-mount version in the wings. The bigger story (literally) is the autofocus 135mm f/1.8 for the L, Nikon Z, and Sony FE mounts. I'm told the likely price will be about US$800.
Brightin Star's Briefing at CP+
- 35mm f/1.7 for Leica M.
- 50mm f/2 Tri-Sight for Canon RF, L-mount, Nikon Z, and Sony FE. The "tri" refers to the ability to switch focus style (bokeh): smooth, prime, and foams (bubble) are the three choices. A bit gimmicky for me; I'm not sure I want to change bokeh using the same lens, but maybe that's just me.
Samyang's Sling at CP+
Korean lens maker Samyang showed up with a number of new lenses. developed in conjunction with Schneider-Kreuznach:
- L-mount: 14-24mm f/2.8 and 24-60mm f/2.8 (previously seen in Sony E mount)
- FE-mount: 20-50mm f/2, 28-135mm f/2.8, and 60-180mm f/2.8
- prototypes: 200mm f/1.8 and 300mm f/4
Those last three are completely new, while the others have been demonstrated before and are slowly leaking out into the world market.
Sigma's Salvo at CP+
Sigma had four lens announcements for the big Japanese Consumer Show (CP+).
First up, we have the 15mm f/1.4 Contemporary, which is a US$580 APS-C lens for the Canon RF-S, Fujifilm XF, and Sony E mounts (but not Nikon Z, see below). The Fujifilm and Sony versions have aperture rings, the Canon version has a Command dial. The big claims to fame here are excellent sharpness at a very low weight (7.8-8.5 ounces, 220-240g).
For the full frame crowd, Sigma introduced a redesigned 35mm f/1.4 Art II lens for the L-mount and Sony FE mount at US$1060. I like Sigma's pitch on this one: "The original Art lens, even better." The emphasis here is in optical quality, and the examples I've seen so far from this lens really do have a very nice overall quality to them (including what looks to me like better bokeh).
A development announcement and prototype showed up for an 85mm f/1.2 Art lens (L and FE mounts). This lens should get a real announcement in early fall (September, Sigma says).
Finally, Sigma finally announced a ship date (April 16th) and price (US$3399) for the Cine 28-105mm t/3 lens, which previously lived as a development announcement.
Voigtlander's Volley at CP+
The 40mm pancake announced earlier in the month wasn't the only quasi-wide Cosina decided to drop. We also get a 35mm f/1.4 Nokton for the Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts. Nothing particularly unique to this muffin-sized lens, but it does line up nicely with the Nikon Zf.
Zeiss's Zing at CP+
Zeiss announced the missing Otus, the US$2299 manual focus 35mm f/1.4 Otus ML. It will be available for the Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Sony FE mounts. This lens appears to be Zeiss designed, Cosina manufactured. Once again it's a APO Distagon optical design. The published MTFs aren't great at f/1.4 (nor are they at all bad, either), but stopped down this lens looks like an edge-to-edge winner.
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Other CP+ Announcements
▶︎ Panasonic 32-bit float microphone. This US$400 add-on for the Panasonic cameras shows just how much of a value the built-in audio functions on the Nikon ZR really are. The new Panasonic DMX-DMS1 adds a no cables (but kludgy) option that provides 32-bit float, directional pickup control, and a fair amount of tweaking (e.g. wind noise suppression). It's a nice option, but I prefer built-in, as it keeps the camera more gimbal friendly.
▶︎ Canon shows waist level. Looking a bit like a modernized Hasselblad film camera, Canon showed a prototype of a camera with a waist-level viewfinder. Surprisingly, the actual optical path is a "folded DSLR." You're looking down at the focus screen, but during exposure a mirror pops out above the screen to divert the optical path backwards to an image sensor that sits above the lens. I doubt this will show up as a real product, as the look-down form factor is deprecated (motion shows in the wrong direction), and looking down at the viewfinder on modern cameras really only requires a tilting screen ;~).
▶︎ Atomos gets raw. Yes, previous Ninja's can record raw video, but Atomos just announced the 5" Ninja RAW, which records Apple ProRes or ProRes RAW to CFexpress Type B or external USB-C storage. It's been awhile since I used a Ninja, so one thing I should mention is that the RAW and TX Ninja's support Z9 generation cameras (and a few older ones) with "camera control." That includes touch to focus, as well as changing adjusting basic exposure options on the Ninja instead of the camera. At US$700, this new 1500 nit monitor becomes another low cost option for connection to your HDMI port. Just note that it only goes to 6K/30P. If you need 8K/30P you need the more expensive Ninja TX.
▶︎ Where's Pentax? The Ricoh booth at CP+ (owner of Pentax) is all Ricoh. The last Pentax interchangeable lens camera was the K-3 Mark III Monochrome in 2023, which now seems to be discontinued (its image sensor is also used in the Ricoh GR Monochrome, so they probably see the GR as a better use of parts). So now we're down to eight year old K1's and four year old KF's. This "disappearance" is a bit strange to me, as in Japan Ricoh last year gained market share, so you'd think they'd be at the show with some real presence.
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Wrapping Up
And in other news
▶︎ Droning on in court. China-based DJI this week filed suit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming that the US violated due process and federal law in failing to assess the security of their products and then banning them. No one, including DJI, it seems, denies that the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 needed to be implemented in some way. Communications, like people and goods, should respect borders. In 2024 Congress dictated that a security review be done within 12 months. No such review appears to have happened for DJI drones, and in December a broad ban was made covering "all foreign-made unscrewed aircraft and their critical components."
I get DJI's point here. They offered to open their code and make any changes for any security-related items found problematic. The US government apparently not only didn't respond to that, but simply didn't do any review at all. Because of their use of radio transmission (e.g. Wi-Fi), any new drone sold in the US would need to be registered and approved by the FCC, but we now have a Catch-22: there's no way to do that because a foreign-made product is banned and the FCC won't examine it. This is one of those slippery slope problems. Once you start outright banning one product category, what's to stop you from doing so with others? Indeed, to be logically and ethically consistent, the government should be banning foreign mobile phones and a lot more product types until full security reviews have been passed. But people fear drones, while they don't fear mobile phones ;~). So the government thinks they'll get away with a targeted action.
This drone ban is just more Security Theater from an increasingly incompetent US government. I'm all for security, but I'd prefer my theater to be restricted to playwrights and actors, not government.
▶︎ Your iPhone wants to Safari. Sandmarc added another US$300 telephoto lens to their iPhone 17 lineup, this time a 72mm 3x option. If you can't make it through all the #'s and X's in the optical system, that works out to be 576mm equivalent by the time they're all added up. As with all the Sandmarc add-on lenses, this mounts to the supplied case to insure proper alignment. So, once you take your phone out of its usual case and get this installed, get ready to hold your phone really, really steady.
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This week's news was early, so next week's news will seem delayed.