Photography market just keeps on growing

Despite global economic problems the digital camera market is still going strong with sales estimated to be worth $155.0 (approximately 97.6 billion pounds) for 2008. And BCC Research believe the figures will grow to 230.9 billion dollars by 2013.

The BCC Research group looked at why the digital camera market is worth so much and what's happened to the market segments that are closely tied to digital photography.

Digital photography products, which includes equipment such as digital stills cameras and interchangeable lenses make up the larger market segment. Digital photography products generated $91.0 billion dollars (57.3 billion pounds) in 2007 and this is expected to rise to $101.3 billion dollars (63.8 billion pounds) by the end of 2008.

On their website the BCC said: "Since the publication in 2001 of the BCC Research report Digital Photography: New Opportunities for Old and New Companies, digital photography has become dominant in the photography market. Few people could have foreseen the impact that digital photography would have on related markets. Even fewer would have predicted the rise of the microstock photography market and the proliferation and growth in Internet photo sharing sites. While the impact on the photo processing market could have been predicted, most were surprised by how rapidly digital photography displaced film."

The ease and affordability of digital means more people are involved in photography now than there ever were when only film was available and the digital camera has also led to the invention of new applications such as online photo sharing, customised digital photo products and camera phones.

For more information visit the BCC Research group's website.