Amid the popularity of models like the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III, Canon has been steadily increasing production to try to keep up with demand – but now Japan’s largest camera maker says that component shortages will likely dampen those efforts and impact the number of compact cameras created.
The insight comes from Canon’s third-quarter financial results, which the company shared on October 27. Financially, Canon remains in a position of growth, posting a four percent increase in net sales and an 8.4 percent increase in operating profit as a whole.
While Canon still expects to finish the year with growth, component shortages, ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and a sluggish market in China are expected to have an impact, prompting the imaging giant to lower its predictions for the final quarter of the year.
Canon says that its compact camera sales increased by more than 50 percent in the third quarter alone, driven by a continued trend for point-and-shoots, which the company says is particularly strong among younger generations.
However, Canon has lowered the number of compact cameras it expects to sell before the end of the year. Last quarter, the company said that it would increase compact camera production again in the second half of 2026 in order to keep up with demand, as viral cameras like the PowerShot G7 X Mark III remain backordered at many retailers.
Now, the company says that component shortages will make that planned production increase fall short of the company’s original expectations.
While compact camera sales grew by more than 50 percent, Canon says interchangeable lens camera sales are lower than last year’s numbers. The company says that conflict in the Middle East and sluggish spending in China are impacting those numbers, but that demand for interchangeable lens cameras remains high outside those regions.
While Canon has sold fewer interchangeable lens cameras this year, the price of those cameras has increased, leading to a four percent growth in revenue so far this year and a prediction of 8.1 percent revenue growth by the end of the year.
Canon attributes this growth to full-frame cameras, including the EOS R6 Mark III and R6 V. The company expects the newly announced R8 Mark II to further push the mix of sales balance between crop sensor and full-frame towards the larger sensor, higher-end cameras.
In interchangeable lens cameras alone, Canon expects to sell 2.75 million bodies before the end of the year. The company expects an 8.1 percent growth in camera sales, while growth in the company’s network cameras is expected to push Canon’s imaging segment as a whole to a 12.9 percent increase.
While Canon is experiencing component shortages for compact cameras, the company says that it has already secured the memory components that it needs for the rest of the year, with prices remaining in line with what the company expected amid the AI-driven memory shortage.
Canon also says that it has built up inventory ahead of the holiday shopping season, including within the camera and printing divisions.
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