Canon, Nikon profits jump on digital camera sales

Japanese camera makers Canon Inc and Nikon Corp both reported sharp rises in quarterly profits on Thursday.

Japanese camera makers Canon Inc and Nikon Corp both reported sharp rises in quarterly profits on Thursday, riding high on the popularity of high-end digital SLR models.

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Canon said net earnings rose 28.8 per cent to 105.91 billion yen (913 million dollars) in the three months to June, the second quarter of its business year, as revenue increased 12.8 per cent from a year earlier to 1.03 trillion yen.

Canon, Japan's top maker of digital cameras and office automation equipment, which was already predicting a record full-year performance, raised its outlook on the basis of another strong quarter.

For the six months to June, net profit climbed 22.2 per cent to 214.17 billion yen on revenue of 1.95 trillion yen, up 11.2 per cent year-on-year.

Rival Nikon Corp's net profit almost doubled to 14.75 billion yen in the June quarter from 7.75 billion a year earlier.

Operating profit rose nearly 74 per cent to 24.2 billion yen, as revenue increased 9.8 per cent to 172.8 billion yen.

Once debt-ridden Canon, which has won acclaim for its rapid turnaround, has been focusing its efforts on more lucrative single-lens reflex (SLR) digital cameras, as has Nikon.

"Within the camera segment demand for digital single-lens-reflex (SLR) cameras and compact digital cameras continued to realise healthy growth during the term," Canon said in a statement.