Canon Warns Camera Prices Could Rise in 2027 as Memory Costs Bite

Canon, the world's largest interchangeable-lens camera maker, told investors this week that it no longer expects memory prices to fall in 2027 — and that if costs stay elevated, it plans to raise camera prices to cover the difference. The disclosure came in the Q&A summary following its third-quarter 2026 results, and it walks back guidance the company gave earlier this year, when it expected memory prices to begin easing in the second half of 2027.

For working photographers, that's a dated signal worth marking: gear bought in 2026 may cost meaningfully less than the same class of body bought a year later.

What did Canon actually commit to?

Not a price increase — yet. What Canon committed to is a policy: it will weigh price hikes against their effect on sales, and its stated approach is to offset higher component costs through pricing rather than absorb them. The company says it has already secured the memory it needs for 2026, which buys it roughly a year of breathing room. In 2027, it expects to pay more.

Note what's missing. Canon named no products, no markets, no percentage figures. It confirmed to investors in July that it had already raised some prices in response to rising costs, including memory, without specifying which. That vagueness cuts both ways — it may be modest, or it may be broad. We won't know until the company puts numbers on it.

Why memory, and why now?

Fast memory is not a peripheral component in modern cameras. High-speed continuous shooting, pre-capture modes, and subject-tracking AF all depend on it. AI data center buildouts have driven memory prices up across the industry, and camera manufacturers now compete for production capacity against buyers whose budgets dwarf the entire photo industry. Data centers are, bluntly, the 800-pound gorillas here.

Canon's early supply lock-in was smart tactics. It is not a long-term strategy if underlying costs persist — and Canon has now told investors it believes they will.

Is this Canon-only, or an industry shift?

It's an industry shift. Other manufacturers have flagged rising memory costs to investors this year, and some have already raised prices. Blackmagic Design has increased prices on cinema cameras and storage products in the US, explicitly citing memory costs. US buyers have also absorbed multiple rounds of tariff-driven increases since last year — a separate squeeze stacked on top of the component one.

When one manufacturer faces a cost shock, it might absorb it to defend share. When several face the same shock simultaneously, the odds that any one of them eats the cost rather than passing it through drop considerably. Canon's disclosure is simply the clearest public statement of a market-wide pricing story.

For photo businesses budgeting bodies, cards, and cinema gear across 2027, the working assumption should be upward pressure across brands, not a Canon-specific bump.

What's the next checkpoint?

Canon reports full-year 2026 results early next year. That call should reveal what Canon expects to pay for memory in 2027 and how much of it lands on invoice prices — and because Canon leads the ILC market by volume, its pricing decisions will be watched closely by competitors deciding how far they can push their own.

If your replacement cycle has any flexibility, the next two quarters of pricing may be the cheapest window for a while.