A lot of market transition is going on in the domain of digital cameras, particularly since the inception of compact system cameras. Integration of efficient cameras in smart phones has also played its role as more and more people are taking photos with their mobile and upload them to instagram, facebook, to name a few. Since smart phones these days come with cameras that can, other than taking impressive images, also shoot HD videos, the demand for compact cameras is constantly decreasing. This has compelled the manufacturers to develop mostly high end compact cameras. Due to that fact, the price of DSLR cameras is also fluctuating due to the same reasons. The price gap between low end DSLR cameras and high end compact cameras is constantly declining. As for the price of compact system cameras, there is still a lot of variation and disagreement among the camera manufacturers.
While the size factor of compact system cameras compels many people to go for them, there is still some difference although diminishing fast between those cameras and DSLRs when we consider the image quality or dynamic range. However, there are compact system cameras that can cost even more than DSLRs, an example being the Nikon V1 which costs even more than the Nikon D5100 even though the later costs more to produce. On the other hand, compact system cameras like the Panasonic G3 with kit lens cost less than a Canon G1x compact camera. Besides, tech giants such as Sony and Canon have been overlapping two smaller main mirrorless sensor sizes such as that of Nikon CX and m4/3.
The most proper price range, and the range in which everyone wants to squeeze their cameras, seems to be from $499 to $999 USD. This means that the cost of producing the cameras should be kept in the range of $250 to $600. Although this competition has led to decrease in prices of some very fine cameras, particularly DSLR and compact cameras, there are still many that have fairly high prices. This is particularly true for many compact system cameras, some of which are priced even higher than entry and mid level DSLRs. For example, the price of a Canon G1x is almost equal to a mid-range DSLR but its performance certainly does not compete with mid-range DSLR cameras. So it basically means that consumers are only paying for larger sensor in smaller body, otherwise the performance of the camera is not that great.
However, since with the passage of time, more and more compact system cameras are entering market, we can expect prices to eventually drop. At present, there are several high quality compact system cameras in the market such as, Fujifilm X100, Leica X2, Sigma DP1/2 and Sony RX100. But this number would considerably increase in near future since we are expecting more cameras from other manufacturers. Among them, Canon is yet to introduce a compact system camera, and others will continue evolving their models. With all these cameras, the new battlefield of competition is going to be the compact system cameras market and so far it is almost impossible to say who would emerge as triumphant in this battle. It all depends on the technical specs, availability of lens, user facility and of course, price of the camera.
