Canon’s second-quarter financial results are out, and they are stupendous news for the giant Japanese company.

Canon’s overall operating profit increased by 35.2 percent compared to its second-quarter performance last year, helping push Canon’s first-half operating profits for FY2026 up 7.6 percent in total compared to last year.

That’s good enough news as it is, but the outlook is even rosier in the company’s substantial imaging division. In fact, imaging is the star of Canon’s latest finances. Second-quarter net sales in imaging increased by 17.7 percent, year-over-year, while operating profit rose a staggering 78.7 percent.

With the news, Canon has increased its projected net profit for FY2026 overall from 456 billion yen to 465 billion yen. The company has also revised its projections for imaging, increasing expected profit for FY2026 from 176.5 to 191.5 billion yen. In supplemental presentation material, Canon described its Imaging business as “highly profitable,” noting that its sales of higher-priced camera models increased during the second quarter.

“Sales increased significantly, driven by strong demand for compact cameras, which continued from the first quarter,” Canon says of its Imaging business. “For interchangeable-lens cameras, revenue increased as sales of full-frame models, led by the EOS R6 Mark III launched last November, grew compared with the first quarter, resulting in a higher average selling price.”

Canon adds that with the recent launch of the R6 V, it expects revenue growth to continue and sales to increase. Canon has increased its projections, aiming for full-year FY2026 revenue growth of 11.6 percent for its camera business.

In total, Canon says it expects the digital interchangeable-lens camera market to reach 6.45 million units this fiscal year.

Interestingly, after playing things safe with compact cameras and keeping a close eye on whether the recent sales surge is just a flash in the pan or a signal of long-term changes in consumer preferences and behavior, Canon is taking compact cameras very seriously again.

“For compact cameras as well, we will further increase production volumes in the second half of the year and aim to achieve full-year sales growth of more than 50 percent,” Canon explains.

Japanese sales charts, which while not necessarily reflective of global market forces are the best data available, have shown continued interest in Canon’s compact cameras. Models like the PowerShot G7X Mark III and SX740 HS are particularly strong sellers.

PetaPixel hopes to see Canon invest not only in more production of existing, relatively older models, but hopefully meaningful development of brand-new compact cameras. As Ricoh and Fujifilm have shown, among others, there is a real potential for profit in the premium compact camera space.

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