New BCN Report: EOS RP struggling in Japan

A new BCN report has been released where they tabulate their data for March and April, showing while the EOS RP had a strong start in March, it tailed off in April a month after release.

The BCN report goes on to suggest that the lens lineup and the fact that price is not the only consideration when it comes to purchasing a camera as being some of the main problems surrounding the EOS RP.  Also, looking at that graph, we can't be that critical about the EOS RP's sales, because the A7 III isn't a natural competitor.  The competitor for the EOS RP is, in reality, the A7 II which is priced lower than the EOS RP in Sony's lineup.  The EOS R or some combination of the EOS R and EOS RP would be the two products that are sitting above and below the A7 III as it's natural competition.

However, for those that feel that Canon should be dominating even the Sony A7 III at this time, with the EOS RP, there's plenty of good reasons why this simply won't happen.

The Sony A7 III is a great value, it is a technically advanced camera and it's surrounded by a deep and mature ecosystem in terms of lenses from Sony and also third-party manufacturers.  It seems not a day goes by that another manufacturer is creating something for the Sony E mount.  However, for the RF and the Z mount, you can hear basically a pin-drop.  Of course, there are some vendors making some manual focus lenses for the RF and Z mount as we write about here, but the vast majority of the third party lens manufacturers are still not present.  When you are the RF mount, or even the Z mount; that's a tough hurdle to be expected to overcome in literally 7 months of existence.

Many sites are going to put a dramatic spin on the results here however it should be noted that overall for the month of data shown, Sony had a 41.8% marketshare and Canon rather surprisingly had a 34.4% marketshare.  This uses the models of cameras that were shown here, as I assume that all other full frame cameras had insignificant volume for the month.  To be fair though, Canon is trending downwards through the month shown, the last week with only 26% marketshare versus Sony's 49% marketshare.  However, still, with only 2 camera bodies and 4 lenses, it's a remarkable achievement. It should be noted that Nikon, with what many are claiming are superior cameras, and more consumer ready lenses only has around a 7.5% marketshare for the month, and 10% for the last week.

Why isn't the EOS RP doing better? Many people seemingly think it should be doing better. I don't think so.

Canon rushed the camera out without even a credible ecosystem to support the camera. The M50 is pretty successful but it's also matched with a diminutive 15-45mm lens.  Looking at this comparison between the "kit lenses" of the EOS RP and the M50.  What seems to be the problem here?

There's an obvious mismatch in what Canon is attempting to do.  Create the worlds lightest and smallest full frame camera, and match it up with a lens that makes it neither.  A compact 24-70, or even 28-85mm 3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens, and then you have a compelling yet compact and most importantly cheap kit for people to explore and get into the RF mount with.  Time will tell to what Canon will do, but it could be well into 2020 before we see different kit options for the EOS RP.  Even the 24-240mm IS STM kit lens is possibly mismatched for the EOS RP.  To take advantage of the size of mirrorless, you're left with no small standard lens and no cheap options outside of the RF 35mm 1.8.  Speaking of which, why wasn't this made a kit option?

What Canon is hoping for is people with existing EF full frame kits "upgrading" to an EOS RP, however that makes little sense because these people would most likely have better cameras already than what the EOS RP actually is; unless they are still using the 5D or the 5D Mark II cameras. Canon may be taking the long road or simply looking at how well the EOS RP is doing against the lower end Sony full frame cameras such as the A7 II and the original A7 that Sony sells as their basic "consumer models".   The EOS RP despite all its problems mentioned still had a good month; it had an overall 23.2% market share in Japan for the month of April and certainly outsold the lower end Sony A7 II and A7 by a wide margin.

I feel that expecting Canon to overtake the market based upon two camera bodies and 4 lenses is an extremely premature goal.  Canon has always had a long view when it comes to dominating a market, and I'd expect that overtaking and being #1 for mirrorless full frame is a long term goal as well.  If we look back through Canon's statements, none of them have made strong claims over taking over the market quickly.

Canon clearly has some work to do, but Rome was not built in a day either.