Halfway through 2025, the camera industry is poised to have its best year since 2019 according to the latest data from the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA). The increased numbers in cameras shipped for the first half of the year are driven largely by mirrorless and compact cameras.
In the newly released data for June, the total number of cameras shipped worldwide for the first half of 2025 sits at 116.6% of shipments for the same time period last year.
Digging back through the CIPA archives, the 4.3 million cameras shipped in the first half of 2025 beat the first half numbers for the last few years, up until 2019, when 7.3 million cameras shipped during the first half of the year.
Of those shipments in the first half of 2025, around 75.6% were interchangeable lens cameras, a category that includes both mirrorless and DSLRs, while around 24.4% were fixed-lens cameras, a category that includes compact cameras and bridge cameras.
The numbers show continued growth for the compact camera, a category that surged in popularity in part due to social media trends, with shipments at 120.1% of the shipments from the first half of 2024.
The first half of 2025 saw 1.05 million compact cameras shipped; the last time numbers were that high was in 2021, when 1.5 million compact cameras shipped during the first half of the year.
While trends have pushed compact camera numbers up, the 1.05 million compact cameras shipped in the first half of 2025 is still a far cry from the compact camera’s heyday.
In the first half of 2010, 49.95 million compact cameras shipped worldwide. At the time, compact cameras made up 90% of the cameras shipped, with interchangeable lens cameras at 5.39 million.
As the smartphone became more photo-capable those numbers have gradually flipped, with the interchangeable lens category shipping far more than compacts.
While the 2025 numbers are a far cry from the glory days of compacts, the numbers indicate a resurgence in sales for the smaller camera format, as compact camera shipments sit at the highest number since 2021, at least for the first half of the year.
Mirrorless remains the most-shipped category for the first half of 2025, responsible for around 2.9 million shipments, a number that is 122.5% of the previous year’s first six months. By value, however, the amount is 112% of last year’s numbers.
On the flipside, DSLRs continue to decline at 352,773 shipped during the first half of 2025, a number that is 78.5% of the same time period last year.
You may also like
Browse the best compact cameras or the best cameras for beginners.
