CP+ 2026, officially the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2026, wrapped up over the weekend in Yokohama, Japan, and set a new record for attendance. Organizers promised an even bigger show than year, and they delivered.
Nearly every photo company attended this year’s show, and many of them announced exciting new photo products, including cameras, lenses, and accessories. Some big companies, like Canon, even teased potential future products. This year’s show featured 149 companies and organizations, including 45 new ones, both record high numbers.
The record-high number of exhibitors attracted record-high visitors. As CP+ organizers said today, 58,924 visitors checked out CP+ 2026 during its four days at the Pacifico Yokohama exhibition center, up from 55,791 last year. The show ran from Thursday, February 26, through Sunday, March 1. Unsurprisingly, the two weekend days were the most popular, with Saturday alone accounting for 19,499 visitors. As DC.Watch notes, all four days of CP+ 2026 had more visitors than the same days last year.
As PetaPixel‘s Jaron Schneider wrote last year after attending CP+ 2025, the show has become increasingly important in the photo industry following the demise of Photokina, which never recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and the shrinking camera industry.
“For 70 years, Photokina was the international photography exhibition on the planet. When it shuttered in 2020 due to what was blamed as a ‘massive decline in markets for imaging products,’ it left a gaping hole in the industry — and CP+ in Japan has firmly replaced it,” Schneider wrote in 2025.
The camera industry has shown signs of improvement over the past few years. Camera shipments in 2025 increased for a second-straight year, which is the first time digital camera shipments increased in consecutive years in nearly two decades. Lens shipments increased, too.
While there is almost no chance the camera industry will ever again reach its peak size and value, the market seems to be on the rise. At the very least, there are signs of stabilization, rather than continuous reductions. With growing attendance at CP+ over the past two years, and the popularity of B&H’s 2025 Bild Expo show, there is a lot of excitement in the photography industry right now. It’s not all doom and gloom anymore. Companies are sharing space to showcase their latest and greatest gear, and photographers are keen to show up and check it out firsthand.
CP+ 2027 is already on the calendar and will run from February 25 through February 28, 2027, at Pacifico Yokohama. Whether it will set new attendance records remains to be seen, but it’s just genuinely great news for the photo industry that CP+ 2026 was, yet again, a big success. There’s every reason to believe CP+ 2027 has a shot at being even bigger, and that’s a win for everyone, photo companies and photographers alike.
Image credits: CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show
