>>4035487Little history lesson for the zoomers.
2003 to 2007 was when early digital cameras AND computer memory were just starting to get good and affordable. Point-and-shoot digital cameras were inexpensive enough for casual shooters, and since they were so inexpensive, people would re-buy them every couple years (driving the numbers in that graph). DSLRs were just OK. I remember my dad got a Canon 20D, which served him for almost a decade until he replaced with a 6D, but he is a lifetime shapshot shooter. Cameras from this era were still only marginally better than shooting film.
2008-2013 was when a lot of people who had bought into digital cameras previously were upgrading to something nice. The camera generation of the 5D Mark II (2008) was a major upgrade--camera companies were finally figuring out what features needed to be put on one of these things, and you could definitively say it was superior to film. Then you had the early days of mirrorless, with the Sony NEX cameras (2011), and between those types of cameras, there were a lot of people upgrading, trading up, trying new gear, etc. IMO, the Nikon D800E ended this generation with its super high resolution, high dynamic range sensor that forced all the SOOC people to take post processing more seriously, and I think new camera releases have just been diminishing returns since then...
From 2016 on, there haven't really been any revolutionary changes, just incremental updates. IBIS is nice, but we have had OIS for years. Mirrorless full frame is nice, but mirrorless APS-C isn't new. Since 2016, many people probably feel like they don't need to upgrade, and since smartphone cameras have gotten better, you also don't have the casuals buying point-and-shoots to drive sales.
There is a lot of blame that can be attributed directly to camera companies also. They dug their own graves by fragmenting their product lines so much and failing to create a value proposition for an to a camera phone for casuals.
