Shop Talk: Chuck Westfall, Director of Media and Customer Relationship at Canon

“There are sweet spots for [pricing] cameras. We look at the average selling price for a compact digital camera being right around $200. So it’s not really that people want to drive down the price of cameras....they want to pay the same price but get more camera for their money. It has been a very similar situation the last 15-20 years. Back in the early 80’s, the price of a point and shoot autofocus camera was $250. That was in the beginning of the technology. In the late 90’s, the peak of the 35 mm, popular cameras would tend to be in the $150 range. We’re coming close to that with digital, but people are still comfortable spending $200-300 for a digital camera. That’s the sweet spot.”

- Chuck Westfall, Director of Media and Customer Relationship at Canon

(Watch for “Hot Commodity,” a coverstory about profit margins in digital imaging retail in the February edition of Dealerscope.)