世論 What Japan Thinks

I hear a lot of good things about mirrorless SLR cameras as an entry point into the world of keen amateur photographer, so this survey from goo Research into the topic gives a good overview of why people are buying or wanting to buy them.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 18th of October 2011 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group aged twenty or older completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 19.9% in their twenties, 20.3% in their thirties, 20.1% in their forties, 19.5% in their fifties, and 20.1% aged sixty or older.

I used to be quite keen on getting one, as my point and shoot is getting a bit dented, but now I’ve got my smartphone with a passable camera and instant connectivity, my compact camera is now gathering dust, and a mirrorless SLR just feels like too much bother!
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I think the buzzword in the English speaking world is Micro Four-Thirds, but in Japan they use mirrorless to describe the new generation of SLRs that have no optical viewfinder. To find out more about them, iShare took a look at the merits and demerits of mirrorless SLRs.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of August 2010 1,114 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was prescreened to select those people who had used an SLR (either digital or optical) for more than three years and were familiar with the specifications for mirrorless SLRs. All the sample were over thirty years old, and 82.9% were male.

I’d like to get a mirrorless SLR, but as my wife doesn’t even trust me with our point-and-shoot, I’m afraid I wouldn’t get much use from it. Furthermore, as they don’t have at least 12 megapixels (or if they do, they don’t make a fuss about it) she won’t be interested.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research into digital cameras.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of April 2010 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 15.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.5% aged sixty or older.

I want to buy a digital SLR, but I’m not quite sure how I would get on with it, or whether I get enough opportunities to take photos. I’m always in awe of the skills of the numerous Japan photo bloggers such as Lee at Tokyo Times, Muza-chan, i, cjw (who needs to get a coffee table book deal!), and Danny Choo to name just a few. There’s also a flickr group for photos from Japan that hopefully should be embedded here:

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Given the high level of ownership of digital cameras reported in this survey from goo Research and featured on japan.internet.com, one has to wonder, as the question wasn’t answered in the article, why almost half the people manage less than 5 gigabytes of stored images.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of June 2009 1,042 members of the goo Research monitor group completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.8% aged sixty or older.

On the other hand, Q3 asks specifically about photographs one has taken oneself, and since it is the wife who usually uses the camera, probably less than 2 GB of the 20 GB or more is actually mine…
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In Japanese, an SLR is 一眼レフ, ichigan refu, very much a direct translation of Single-Lens Reflex camera. However, it can be a bit of a mouthful and the Japanese do like abbreviating things, and along with compact digital camera (which is a direct loan word from English), there are many abbreviations that people have adopted. To find out what they are, goo Research conducted a survey reported on by japan.internet.com into digital cameras.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 29th of September 2008 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor panel successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I usually call my point and click (a pink Lumix) a digi-camé in both Japanese and English. I’ve never really had the reason to call a digital SLR anything in Japanese, however.
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