Canon May Raise Camera Prices Due To Increased Memory Costs

In August, Fujifilm mentioned the impact of rising raw materials prices in its routine financial reporting, and PetaPixel speculated that Fujifilm would be far from the only camera maker affected. It was the first domino to fall. Sure enough, Canon mentioned it during a Q&A on its FY2026 Q3 financial results, and the company will not be the only one to cite rising costs over the next few weeks.

As Digital Camera Life reports, Canon held its usual Q&A session after publishing its latest financial results. While the results themselves are fine and not especially noteworthy — overall operating profit and net income increased quite a bit year-over-year — the tangential analysis and information are very interesting and, frankly, concerning.

Someone asked Canon how the “shortages of circuit boards and electronic components” are impacting various segments, and Canon responded that Printing and Imaging are both facing “component shortages.”

These supply shortages typically raise costs, as seen across the flash memory space amid increased demand from AI data centers. Companies are bidding for a shrinking supply, driving prices up. Fujifilm alluded to this months ago, and now Canon is discussing it.

“For components that are in short supply, we are using every possible means to secure the quantities we need for next year. As a result, we expect higher procurement costs, but our policy is to offset those increases through price increases from next year onward,” Canon says.

“We have already been making pricing adjustments in response to cost increases as they occur, and we will continue to make decisions on passing on costs from a long-term perspective, while considering the potential impact on sales volumes and balancing that against profitability.”

So there are two really important things to pull out of this quote. First, Canon expects its costs to increase next year. And second, Canon’s modus operandi is to offset increased costs by passing them to the consumer, ergo, increasing product prices. It’s shrewd business, if the market will support it.

It’s not always possible to fully offset increased costs by raising prices. Sometimes markets won’t tolerate the necessary price increases, or a company may be willing to absorb some costs for its long-term prospects. For example, selling more cameras is good for Canon long-term, as it maintains more market share, sells more lenses, etc.

Canon says it will be a balancing act, but, notably, the company is coming right out and telling investors that yes, its policy is to pass increased costs to consumers. This makes perfect sense, but photographers need to hear the news and prepare accordingly.

Canon adds, in response to another question, that it doesn’t expect memory and raw material prices to decline in 2027, so this may be a long-term problem in the photography industry. Much like SSD and memory card prices have continued to increase, cameras may be the next victim.

Canon projects a significantly lower operating profit ratio in its Imaging business in Q4, which the company says is primarily due to higher memory costs and cost increases following the geopolitical strife in the Middle East.
“At this point, we have not been able to fully pass these higher costs on through pricing,” Canon says. “If these higher costs persist next year, we will absorb them through price increases.”

As DPReview observes, photographers have seen many price increases in recent years. Beyond higher memory card and SSD prices, even more obvious hikes have hit cameras and lenses because of President Trump’s tariff policies. These price increases may prove prescriptive, as that was effectively a company passing higher operational costs directly to their customers.

Earlier this year, Nikon discussed “higher costs” resulting from higher memory prices. Sony blamed increased memory costs for hurting its bottom line in the Imaging business. Canon may be the most open so far about how it will deal with these rising costs — passing them on to consumers — but it will very likely not be the only company to use this strategy. It’s basically the go-to strategy across the technology space.

“Photographers, many of whom were exhausted by the seemingly unending tariff-induced price increases last year, must unfortunately brace themselves for the impact of memory prices. They are coming,” PetaPixel predicted in August.

Memory is integral to digital cameras, and there’s simply no way to get around using it. Manufacturers need the memory, and it is getting pricier. More expensive cameras are, frankly, inevitable.

Image creditsCanon