Canon cuts forecast on high-end camera sales drop

Japan's Canon Corp cut its operating profit outlook for the second quarter in a row, below analysts' estimates, warning that sales of its signature high-end cameras will fall this year for the first time since their launch in 2003.

The world's largest camera-maker said it now sees global economic gloom squeezing sales of its digital interchangeable-lens cameras to 8 million through December from 8.2 million in 2012.

Demand from camera buffs will stay weak in Europe, and fail to recover as quickly in China as Canon had expected.

While the company's sales of point-and-shoot digital camera have been adversely affected in recent years as consumers increasingly use smartphones to take casual photos, the high-margin interchangeable-lens camera format that is favored by professional photographers and enthusiasts has seen growth in every year up to 2012, company officials said.

Despite a rebound in operating profit for July-September from a weak quarter a year earlier, Canon lowered its full-year operating profit forecast to 360 billion yen ($3.70 billion).

"Until recently, interchangeable-lens sales' growth was close to double figures even when the economy was bad. But now people are postponing consumption of luxury items such as cameras," Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka said during a briefing in Tokyo, adding that consumers had become more sensitive to price.