Data story
What popular digicams cost when they were new, 2006–2016
Across 52 popular digital compacts we have reviewed, the median US launch price was $399 for cameras launched in 2006–07 and $175 for those launched in 2014–16, which is $646 against $248 in September 2026 dollars. The most expensive at launch was the Canon PowerShot G7 X (2014, $699.99); the cheapest was the Canon PowerShot ELPH 180 (2016, $119.99). Every price below links to the page that states it.
US launch price of each camera, by launch date
One mark per camera. Switch to September 2026 dollars to see what the same sticker would be today.
CCD sensor (42 cameras)CMOS sensor (9 cameras)Sensor not confirmed (1)
CCD sensor (42 cameras)CMOS sensor (9 cameras)Sensor not confirmed (1)
Hover, tap or tab to a point to read it here. The table below lists every camera.
Data: 52 cameras, prices from the pages cited in the table; inflation from US BLS CPI-U. Digicam Atlas, checked 2026-10-20.
How much did a digicam cost when it was new?
In this set a mainstream compact launched at $399 (median, 2006–07) and the median had fallen to $175 by 2014–16, a drop of 56% in the sticker price and 62% once inflation is removed. The cheapest launch price in 2006–07 was $200; in 2014–16 it was $120.
The fall is not a smooth slide. The bars below show the spread inside each two-year period: the cheap end dropped from $200 to $120, while the dearest launch price never fell below $400 in any period and reached $700 with the Canon PowerShot G7 X. Enthusiast compacts such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 kept a premium price while budget models got cheaper, which is why the median understates how cheap the cheapest cameras became and how little the dearest changed.
Spread of launch prices by two-year launch period
Each bar runs from the cheapest to the dearest camera in the period; the black tick is the median.
Hover, tap or tab to a point to read it here. The table below lists every camera.
Data: 52 cameras, prices from the pages cited in the table; inflation from US BLS CPI-U. Digicam Atlas, checked 2026-10-20.
| Launched | Cameras | Range at launch | Median at launch | Median in Sept 2026 $ | With CMOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | 17 | $200–$450 | $399 | $646 | 0 |
| 2008–09 | 14 | $180–$500 | $325 | $519 | 0 |
| 2010–11 | 9 | $150–$500 | $250 | $389 | 2 |
| 2012–13 | 6 | $140–$400 | $265 | $389 | 4 |
| 2014–16 | 6 | $120–$700 | $175 | $248 | 3 |
Periods with few cameras are thin: read 2012–13 (2013 has no camera in our set) and 2014–16 as indications, not trends.
What would those prices be in today's money?
Adjusted with the US consumer price index to September 2026, the Fujifilm FinePix F30 (2006, $399) comes to about $664, and the Canon PowerShot ELPH 180 (2016, $119.99) to about $171. The most expensive camera in real terms is the Canon PowerShot G7 X at about $993.
Method: launch price × CPI-U for September 2026 (336.940) ÷ CPI-U for the camera's launch month. CPI-U is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' index of all consumer prices (US city average, not seasonally adjusted).1 It tracks the general price level, not electronics: it says what the same amount of general buying power cost, not what the same technology would cost today. Camera prices fell for reasons that CPI does not capture, so the adjusted figures show what a buyer gave up in general purchasing power, nothing more.
Which digicams were the most and least expensive when new?
The five highest launch prices in the set run from $450 to $699.99; the five lowest from $119.99 to $150.
Five highest
- Canon PowerShot G7 X (2014): $699.99, about $993 in September 2026 dollars
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (2008): $499.95, about $769 in September 2026 dollars
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 (2010): $499.95, about $772 in September 2026 dollars
- Nikon Coolpix P7000 (2010): $499.95, about $771 in September 2026 dollars
- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T9 (2006): $450, about $765 in September 2026 dollars
Five lowest
- Canon PowerShot ELPH 180 (2016): $119.99, about $171 in September 2026 dollars
- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W830 (2014): $120 approx., about $173 in September 2026 dollars
- Nikon Coolpix S3700 (2015): $139.35, about $201 in September 2026 dollars
- Nikon Coolpix S3300 (2012): $140 approx., about $207 in September 2026 dollars
- Nikon Coolpix S3000 (2010): $150, about $232 in September 2026 dollars
Did CCD cameras cost more than CMOS ones?
Not in a way this set can show. The CCD cameras have a median launch price of $349 and the CMOS ones $280 ($566 and $411 in 2026 dollars), but the two groups come from different years, so that gap mixes sensor type with date. Inside 2011–2016, where both appear, the 5 CCD cameras have a median of $139 and the 9 CMOS cameras $280, too few to call a difference.
What the set does show is the timing: the first CMOS camera in it is the Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS (Feb 2011); every camera launched before 2011 with a confirmed sensor type has a CCD, and CCD cameras kept launching alongside CMOS ones through 2016, the Canon PowerShot ELPH 180 ($119.99) being the latest in the set. Our set is a sample of the cameras we chose to review, not a count of what each maker sold, so it cannot say when a maker "switched".
Which maker's digicams launched at the highest prices?
By median launch price in this set, Panasonic is highest among makers with at least three cameras, but a maker's median mostly reflects which of its lines we reviewed (a premium compact or a budget one), so treat the table as a description of the set.
| Maker | Cameras | Launch price range | Median at launch | Median in Sept 2026 $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon | 20 | $120–$700 | $265 | $402 |
| Sony | 9 | $120–$450 | $300 | $479 |
| Nikon | 7 | $139–$500 | $200 | $296 |
| Fujifilm | 5 | $299–$400 | $399 | $635 |
| Panasonic | 4 | $350–$500 | $450 | $701 |
| Olympus | 3 | $350–$400 | $400 | $595 |
Not shown, fewer than three cameras each: Casio, Kodak.
All 52 launch prices, with a source for each
Click a column heading to sort. Each price links to the page that states it; the camera name links to our review, where the same price carries its own footnote.
How the numbers were checked
- Where the prices come from. Each camera's review carries a "Launch price" fact with numbered sources (Imaging Resource, PhotographyBLOG, maker press releases and similar). We took those figures for the cameras whose reviews are published.
- Re-check. On 2026-10-20 a script re-fetched every cited page and kept a price only if that dollar figure appears in the page text. 52 cameras passed. Two figures differ slightly from their review's wording and the page says so: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is plotted at its exact list price of $499.95 (the review says "about $500"), and the Canon PowerShot SD600 at $349 as the cited page states it (the review says $349.99).
- Dates and sensors. The launch year must appear on the cited date source; sensor type must appear in a cited page. A month is shown only where the source page also confirmed it, otherwise the table shows the year and the chart places the camera at its recorded month within that year.
- Left out. 10 cameras that have a review or draft are not in the set. 6 have reviews that are not published yet. The other 4 were dropped because a figure could not be confirmed: Canon PowerShot A640, US price ($399.99 estimated) rests on a MacTech page we could not open to re-check; the other cited page gives UK/EU prices only; Ricoh GR Digital, no US launch price in our sources (UK price only); Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77, launch year not found on the date source; Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, launch price not confirmed.
- Inflation. See above; the CPI file is stored with the data.
What this data cannot tell you
- It is not what the cameras sold for. Launch prices are the list or announced prices; shops often discounted quickly. One cited review notes the Canon ELPH 110 HS debuted at $249.99 but was already being sold at $179 by retailers. 6 of the 52 figures are "about" or estimated prices and are marked approx. in the table.
- US prices only. Many pages give UK and euro prices as well; we did not convert currencies, and we list no price for a camera whose sources give no US figure.
- It is a sample. The set is the compacts we chose to review for used buyers: 20 of 52 are Canon, and the years are uneven (none from 2013, one from 2015). It is not a market survey.
- Dates are approximate. A "launch" date is the announcement or first-sale month as the source records it, which can differ by a month or two. Positions within a year on the chart are placed at the recorded month.
- Launch price is not today's price. We publish no used-market prices: for what a camera sells for now, look at sold listings on a marketplace. The cable and memory card guides cover what else to check before you buy.
Can I reuse the data?
Yes. The table is one CSV, digicam-launch-prices.csv, with the source URL and the words of the source for every price. We license our compilation under CC BY 4.0: link to this page when you use it. The underlying prices were published by the makers and the reviewers named in the sources, so cite those for the original figures.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted (series CUUR0000SA0), via FRED series CPIAUCNS; monthly values stored in our data file, retrieved 2026-10-20. See also bls.gov/cpi.
- Launch price, launch date and sensor type: the page linked in each row of the table (retrieved and re-checked 2026-10-20).
Related: Canon release dates by year · Canon CCD vs CMOS · All reviews · Digicam terms explained · Open data