Camera prices are set to climb again as memory crisis continues to bite

Fujifilm has already announced camera price rises from September 1, and with Canon, Sony and Nikon all flagging the same memory-cost pressure, rises elsewhere may not be far behind.

While the earnings calls from the major camera companies have all hinted at prices to come as RAMageddon bites, Fujifilm is the first out of the gate. From September 1, prices on the X-S20, X-E5, X-T50, X100VI, and GFX100 II rise by €100 to €500 in Germany, with the company explicitly blaming memory costs for the increase.

Back in May, Fujifilm expected the DRAM crunch to cost it about ¥11 billion this fiscal year. Three months later that estimate had more than doubled, to ¥25 billion, with ¥14 billion of the damage landing squarely on the Imaging division. That is $89 million. The smart money would be on those price rises to spread.

Earnings and forecasts

Fujifilm posted far and away the best earnings of the major camera manufacturers of the last quarter as its Instax range continues to tap into the Gen Y / Gen Alpha zeitgeist. That probably gives it more headroom to talk about price rises than others, at least as far as headlines go. But buried in the earnings data, it’s a subject that everyone touched on at some point or other.

Sony's Q1 FY2026 briefing put a number on its group-wide exposure. It reckons that it will rack up roughly ¥30 billion in memory-related costs this year, described in masterfully understated fashion as a "technological disruption" hitting the imaging and displays segments. No pricing decision has been announced as yet, so we don’t know how much of that ¥30 billion will be absorbed. Saying that, the Alpha 7 V and Alpha 7R VI have already launched at prices that suggest an unwelcome uptick.

Canon looks to be in a stronger position to sit tight. Its Q2 results (reported in late July) showed camera sales up 12.9% year on year and record first-half profit, with compact cameras doing much of the heavy lifting here. Canon has quantified its own DRAM exposure at ¥6 to ¥7 billion ($38 million to $45 million), two-thirds of which hits Imaging, and has said in investor Q&A that it "hasn't written off" further price increases. These will be weighed product by product rather than applied across the board.

Nikon has given the softest commitment of the big four, telling investors it "may consider passing on price increases depending on the situation." While that seems a very bland statement, the phrasing matters. Nikon's margins are thinner than Canon's or Sony's, and it probably has the least room to absorb a cost spike of the big four. This isn’t helped by the fact that its recent figures have also been poor, and there are numerous rumors that everything coming out of the company, from new cameras to firmware upgrades, is delayed.

Elsewhere, Panasonic has flagged the issue on an earnings call but hasn’t done much about it, adjusting one compact camera's price without touching mirrorless list prices in the US so far.

The difference a year makes

Camera buyers saw this exact seasonal move last year too: in September 2025, Canon, Fujifilm, and Nikon all raised US prices, driven that time by tariffs after Japan's reciprocal trade rate with the US went from 10% to 15%.

That hasn’t gone away either, and is helping amplify any rises the market is seeing due to the memory issues. Luckily, unlike, for example, smartphones, where iPhone memory costs have risen 34%, camera manufacturers are in the habit of offloading significant amounts of storage onto removable media. So, while SD cards are up about 70%, and some external SSDs have risen 30%, it could have been worse.

Fujifilm has jumped already. Canon and Sony have both hinted that their exposure is an issue, but are cushioned by strong results and are deemed most likely by analysts to hold list prices through the holiday season unless costs spike further. Nikon is the major unknown here. But if you’re thinking of buying a new Nikon camera (hell, if you're thinking of buying any camera), chances are that prices will only be heading north at some point soon.