Out of Memory: Canon Warns Camera Prices Will Climb in 2027

The cheapest camera you buy for the next few years might be the one you buy this year.

On its October 27 earnings call, Canon told investors it no longer expects memory prices to fall in 2027. Earlier this year, Canon predicted relief in the back half of next year. That forecast is gone. Its plan now is to cover the higher cost with price increases starting next year.

Fujifilm, Sony, Nikon and Blackmagic have all flagged the same squeeze, and several have already raised prices. The culprit is spelled: AI.

What Canon Said

Canon locked in the memory it needs for 2026, so this holiday season is safe. That cushion runs out around New Year’s Day. In the company’s words, its policy is “to offset those increases through price increases from next year onward.”

The hit is now real. Higher memory prices cut Canon’s third-quarter operating profit by 19.8 billion yen, and the company projects 61.9 billion yen for the full year. Canon also admits it has passed only part of that on through pricing so far.

And 2026 had one more cushion. Tariff refunds padded Canon’s results this year, and those disappear in 2027. Stockpiled chips and tariff money both run out at the same moment.

Canon stayed vague on models, amounts and dates, and says it will weigh the effect on sales first. Still, when a camera company tells its investors it plans to raise prices, we take it seriously.

Blame the Data Centers?

Your camera is full of memory. DRAM (dynamic RAM, the fast working memory) runs the buffer and the image processing. NAND flash holds the firmware. 

Pre-capture, deep burst buffers, subject tracking and 8K video all lean on fast memory, and the most advanced bodies carry them the most.

Here’s the problem. The factories that make those chips now feed AI data centers, and the cloud giants pay more. TrendForce projects that memory will make up 68% of major cloud providers’ capital spending in 2027.  

Chipmakers are steering capacity toward high-margin server memory, and consumer gear gets the leftovers.

The price charts have gone up drastically. DRAM contract prices rose 55% to 60% in a single quarter early this year.  Micron says supply will be tighter in 2027 and 2028 than it was in 2026, and SK hynix has reportedly said its memory is sold out through 2029.  

New fabs take years to build, and meaningful new output arrives in late 2027 at the earliest.

Tariffs are a policy cost, and that policy can change overnight. A memory shortage is physical. A chip fab takes years to build, whatever happens in Washington.

Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty put the scale in plain terms. His suppliers told him memory demand now runs about double the peak of the COVID shortages.

Who’s Already Raised Prices

• Fujifilm raised prices in Japan by up to 23% on October 1, across cameras, lenses and Instax.  European dealers report increases of 100 to 500 euros, with the X100VI climbing from 1,799 to 1,999 euros.
• Blackmagic raised prices on 36 products on October 20 and named memory costs directly. Some of its IP converters jumped about 80%.
• Sony told investors it will adjust pricing and expects about 30 billion yen in memory costs this fiscal year.
• Nikon said it may pass on increases depending on the situation, and trimmed its camera sales target to 850,000 units.

Your Memory Cards Get Hit First

 A SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB SD card ran about $30 in January and about $60 by late September. Lexar raised SD and microSD prices more than 25% in June. Sony paused orders on most of its SD and CFexpress lineup back in March.

There’s a sliver of hope here. TrendForce expects NAND flash, the memory inside your cards, to loosen up in the second half of 2027, ahead of DRAM. Angelbird’s founder sees high prices lasting until 2028 or 2029, so treat that relief as a maybe.

CFexpress and high-capacity cards took the steepest hikes.

So, Should We Freak Out?

A little.  But let’s make a plan.

Start with the good news. Canon’s warning is conditional, and it’s vague on products and dates.

Most 2026 pricing is already locked in, because camera makers stockpiled memory before the surge.

Demand is soft, too. Canon’s interchangeable-lens camera sales fell 16% last quarter, and raising prices into a slump is a fast way to lose more sales.

When increases do arrive, they may show up as higher launch prices on new models, leaving the cameras already on store shelves alone.

Now the harder part. On January 1, 2027, the stockpiled chips and the tariff refunds run out together.

The chipmakers expect the shortage to get worse before it gets better.

And the cameras that need the most memory, the fast stacked-sensor bodies, the high-resolution bodies and the 8K video machines, are the ones F.O.M.O. photographers want most.

What to Do Now

• If a body or lens is on your list for the next year, 2026 is the cheaper year to buy it.
• Watch Canon’s full-year results in late January. That’s when its 2027 plans should get specific.
• Buy the card capacity your upcoming shoots need now, at today’s prices.
• Settle on fewer card formats. Offload, back up and reuse the cards you already own.
• Look at the used market for bodies and glass, before everyone else does.

Shoot What You Have

The camera in your bag works today as well as it did yesterday. Prices may climb. If you were holding out for a deal next year, perhaps this is your signal.  

If you’re happy with your kit, go make something great with it.

Sources

• DPReview: Canon says camera prices could rise in 2027
• Canon Q3 2026 results presentation (official PDF)
• Digital Camera World: Canon hasn’t written off price increases as the AI memory crisis worsens
• PetaPixel: Fujifilm Increases Japanese Camera Prices by up to 23%
• Newsshooter: Blackmagic Design raises prices on 36 products
• CIO: Memory squeeze set to tighten through 2028, Micron says
• TrendForce: DRAM and NAND flash to account for 68% of major CSP capex in 2027