How many new LF cameras/year are sold?

[Bill_1856]

There seems to be more-or-less a dozen manufacturers of Large Format cameras scattered throughout the world. I believe that (except maybe for Phillips) no one wants to release actual production figures, but I wonder if there is any accurate estimate of how many new cameras are sold each year. I would guess that the amateur market is probably stable or even increasing, but that studio and commercial/industrial sales are drying up.

[Louie Powell]

I count a couple of dozen (Zone VI, Wisner, Canham, Phillips, Horseman, Lotus, Wista, Shen Hao, Tachihara, Osaka, Linhof, Walker, Ebony, Sinar, Arca, Fatif, Cambo, Toyo, Toho, Gandolfi, Deardorff, Layton and Gowland - and there may be a few more). There are also a number of private label variants - Calumet, Fine Art Supply and Badger Graphics come to mind. In addition, there are folks like Richard Ritter who produce custom fabrication of speciality cameras. According to the rumblings on this and other forums, some of these these folks have a significant production backlog - Wisner is notorious for this, I think it was Phillips who announced that to manage backlog, they would not be accepting new orders, and I read something recently about long deliverty from Shen Hao. What that suggests is that while the market may not be expanding dramatically, it is healthy enough for a fair number of people to have reasonably successful businesses.

I agree that the amateur/art segment is probably growing. but I really wonder if the studio and commercial/industrial segments are "drying up" - my argument is mainly with the choice of words. These segments may not be growing as rapidly as the amateur/art segment, but my sense is that they aren't in a death spiral either.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Even if commercial studios are going digital, I don't think the half-dozen or so PC lenses available for DSLRs and a couple of PhotoShop tricks can replace a real LF camera with a digital back or scanning back for tabletop work. I would think that for that reason, the commercial segment may not be drying up as fast as one might guess.

[Bill_1856]

Okay, so I just felt like Trolling this morning. Sorry. I'll try not to do it again (for a while).

[Mike H.]

Ok, so let's not let the thread end there. The original question about how many large format cameras are sold each year is interesting. Given that each purchase is normally in the multiple thousands of dollars, you can probably assume that the buyers are serious. And, if you assume (right or wrong) that the majority may be first time buyers, you could get an estimate of the numbers of serious people taking up large format photography each year. I'd be interested in the estimates.

[Kirk Gittings]

In a discussion about 4 years ago with a marketing person from Calumet. He told me that they were selling in the neighborhood of 6 8x10's per year per brand. I think at the time they had two 8x10 brands so that would be 12 8x10's per year for Calumet 4 years ago.

[Bill_1856]

What would you guess was the ratio of 4x5s to 8x10s? 100:1 1000:1? More? Less? Does anybody have an "in" with Badger Graphic and could ask for their input?

[Ted Harris]

Over the past two years I have had several discussions with both dealers and manufacturers. Based on reasonable extrapolations from that information I would make a rough preliminary guess that industry-wide annual sales of large format cameras in all formats does not exceed 4500 units. Again, that is a very rough number but I would be surpriesed if it is too far off. Then again, even if it doubled it is sill very much a niche market.

[martin_4668]

I know for a fact that the total amount of mediumforamt cameras sold last year was 12.000.
This is hasselblad, contax, mamiya, pentax, alpa, rollei, bronic, fuji and propably a few others...
from this figure, my guess 4x5 and up up is what.....500-800 new cameras in total ??!!

[Bob Salomon]

I'll give you a clue.

One of our largest market segments for 4x5 monorail Linhof cameras is for cameras used on very large copy stands with high end digital backs. That is a market segment that you don't seem to be considering and it is a market that is growing.

Not all 45 cameras are used for product or landscape work today.