Just over a year ago I began warning about card and storage prices. I detected the early pattern that was developing where the AI players were beginning to gobble up any and every bit (pardon the pun) they could. I rewarned early in 2026 when that became clearer and easier to measure in terms of price increase. We eventually hit the 100%+ inflation rate with no end in site.
Today I’m going to say that at least for cards, the end of the continuous inflation cycle in pricing may be mostly over. The smart players have been adjusting how and from where they’re obtaining their parts in order to better control their prices. I’m starting to see CFe cards plateau in pricing.
However, my new warning is a little different. What I’m hearing in the distribution chain for other photography products is not encouraging. I’m aware of at least three major players in other photography accessories that are having cash flow issues at the moment, and I’ve become aware of what appears to be upcoming closeouts on older accessories that have bottomed out in sales volume. My prediction is this: other than perhaps B&H—which acts a bit like an inventory buffer due to their large purchasing volume and their long-term stock warehousing—by the time next year rolls around, there will be products in the support, lighting, remote, and other accessory categories that start going away. Permanently. We may lose a company or two in the first quarter of next year, too.
Some of this is being caused by products just not moving and updating with the times. Some is being caused by Chinese copying and price undercutting. Some is caused by companies that were weakened by the pandemic and never fully recovered.
But a big part of what I’m going to call my predicted Accessagedon triggers from the camera companies themselves. When the constant parade of new and upgraded products ended in 2026, new camera introductions became few and far between, and the main (mirrorless) volume went into a small decline, the number of people walking into camera dealers went down. It’s at those local dealers that a lot of the photographic accessories get sold, but if you don’t have as many people coming in the front door, almost by definition your sales of those items will go down.
That isn’t quite as evident online, but consider this: if fewer people are rushing to Amazon to order the latest/greatest camera, then Amazon also isn’t serving up accessories to sell with that camera.
You see one big combination of all this in the flash business. Makers not updating products for the times. Chinese undercut. Weak companies coming out of the pandemic. Low new camera sales, particular to new customers, lowering the add-on sale possibility. But the same thing applies to tripods, camera bags, and more.
This has a further downstream issue, as photography Web sites that rely upon advertising are finding that their ad prices are falling and the number of companies placing ads is down. The Chinese aren’t doing ads for the most part, they’re doing affiliate links, so rewarding Web sites only on actual purchases.