Camera major Nikon India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nikon Corporation of Japan, is eyeing 35-40% growth in 2009.

Hiroshi Takashina, division general manager (imaging division) of Nikon India, said: “We launched operations in May 2007 and actually doubled our revenues in a year. This year, we are looking at 35-40% growth.”

While almost 30% of Nikon’s production is sold in the US, Japan, its home country, accounts for the same volume. The rest is sold in Europe and Asia.

Around 1.1 million digital cameras are sold in India per annum. Of that, 20,000-25,000 are digital SLR cameras and the rest are compact ones.

Nikon India has increased its market share in the DSLR segment to 35% in 2008 from 22% in 2007. It has a 5% market share in the compact camera segment at present.

“We are looking at increasing our market share to 45% in the DSLR segment and 10% in the compact segment by 2009,” Takashina said. He was present in Kolkata to inaugurate the company’s first branch office in the east. Nikon is planning to open another such office in the south by July.

Almost half of the DSLR and 20-30% of compact cameras are sold through grey markets in India. “The duty component here is as much as 40%, this pushes buyers to grey markets,” said Sajjan Kumar, general manager (sales & marketing).

According to him, recession has not created much of an impact on camera sales in India as in other countries.

“Compact cameras will drive the market as well as our sales in near future,” Kumar said. While DSLR cameras have 10-12% first-time users, most of the buyers for compact cameras are first timers.

Nikon has 15 variants in the compact segment and 10 in the DSLR segment, including recently launched D3X.

While Nikon’s compact segment has been facing competition from cameras embedded in mobile phones, Takashina feels lowering the entry-level prices would not help boost sales. “Compact cameras cater to the culture of photography, which is not there in mobile phone cameras,” he said.

According to him, ‘megapixel-race’ would continue in the future along with choices like GPS-enabled cameras and those with wireless devices.