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Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs
It’s on everybody’s mind – and our photo & video industry is no exception: How will the US tariff measures (and those of responding countries) impact us all?
While the ink is far from dry and things are still changing on a daily basis, here are a few initial observations:
So far, the US import tariffs appear to apply solely to physical goods, not software or SaaS solutions (however, note that digital goods are not immune to other restrictive measures in an escalated tariff war). The most obvious physical photo or video products are cameras, smartphones, and photo print products.
Nearly all digital cameras are imported and face additional tariffs, as they’re primarily being imported from Japan (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, OM System/Olympus), Germany (Leica), China (DJI, Insta360) and Sweden (Hasselblad).
But even a US-headquartered camera vendor like GoPro manufactures its cameras abroad (Mexico and China) and also faces to tariff surges.
Smartphones are primarily produced in high-tariff regions, or carry components from these areas. For instance, iPhones are assembled mainly in China, India and Vietnam. And Apple’s valuation immediately dropped $450 billion after the tariff announcements last week.
While it’s much too early to speculate how eventually our market (consumers, vendors) will adapt, here are two initial questions to consider:
- Will the camera rental or pre-owned camera markets make a further comeback?
- Will camera and/or smartphone vendors start charging (more) for firmware updates if the demand for new – higher priced – cameras were to significantly drop?
For photo print product manufacturers there will be further incentives to manufacture print products close to their buyers rather than shipping them across the world – an acceleration of a trend that started long before the current tariffs bonanza. Print product manufacturers increasingly acknowledge the benefits of local print production: lower shipping costs, faster turnaround, and lower CO2 transport emissions. So, who could benefit in particular?
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Large photo print manufacturers that have production facilities in multiple countries?
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Global print-on-demand networks that route jobs to local printers?
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Smaller local photo print manufacturers in high-tariff countries (such as the US), that leverage these networks?
Printess. Launching “text-to-design” tool for web-to-print. Print on demand software developer Printess announces Printess-Make, a “Text-to-Design” tool, which helps users to easily create fully editable, print-ready designs. Users can describe their business, services, or any key details, and Printess-Make will then generate an array of ready-to-print designs. Each design is fully editable, allowing for as much (or as little) customization as desired.
WhiteWall. Upscaling and sharpening. High-end wall decor producer, WhiteWall launched SuperResolution upscaling and ultraHD sharpening features for all its photo print products, with the exception of its Coffee Table Book.
Amazon Photos. Shopping for memory. It’s Amazon Photos' new slogan, but what the heck does it mean? Amazon lets you use natural language to find the photos you're looking for among your collection stored on Amazon Photos. Nice, right? But wait, there’s more. Get your wallet out! Spot something in your photos that you loved at the Joneses house or a toy your kid was obsessed with? Yah! Amazon identifies the objects in your photos and shows a lens icon so you could buy these types of product on Amazon with just a click or two.
OpenAI. Yah, a new image styler – a highly viral one, that is. Unless you have lived under a rock last week, you’ve seen or created cool “artistic” treatments of selfies with OpenAI’s new AI image generator, which turns photos into “art,” styled after the likes of Studio Ghibli, The Simpsons or the Muppets. OpenAI’s ImageGen feature went viral last week, so much so that OpenAi had to temporarily delay the launch for free users and was forced to impose rate limits even on paid users because "our GPUs are melting," as the company stated.
At this point it’s too early to tell whether the interest in tweaking one’s photos with these art styles will stick or evaporate as fast as it started. It’s also too early to tell whether legal or ethical objections against OpenAI’s mimicking of art without compensating the original artists will prevail.
And then, another interesting factoid to monitor as to whether it will stick: so far, OpenAI’s new features don’t appear to hurt existing AI-based image generating art apps, in fact it has been the opposite for AI cartooning apps, who have seen their downloads surge since ImageGen launched.
Midjourney. Yah, finally a new image model. Midjourney introduces first new GenAI image model in over a year, incidentally 😀 rolled out in alpha a week after OpenAI debuted its new image generator. Midjourney V7 promises much higher coherence and consistency for hands, fingers, body parts, and "objects of all kinds." It also offers more detailed and realistic textures and materials, like skin wrinkles or the subtleties of a ceramic pot. Midjourney also introduces a Draft Mode that generates images at half the cost and renders images at 10x the speed, according to the company.
Runway. Yah, a new AI video model that can create consistent scenes and people. Consistent storytelling in AI-generated videos is notoriously difficult and AI video pioneer Runway until now has had a hard time generating consistent scenes and people across multiple shots. Its new Gen-4 video synthesis model is said to empower users to generate consistent characters, locations, and objects across scenes, maintain “coherent world environments,” and regenerate elements from different perspectives and positions within scenes.
TIPA. 2025 TIPA Award winners selected. Along with fellow delegates from TIPA member magazines and online publications – spanning professional, amateur, and business sectors in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America – I had the honor of attending TIPA’s annual General Assembly meeting in Istanbul recently to vote on this year’s TIPA Award winners. Stay tuned for the April 17 announcement of the winners in various categories: cameras, lenses, printers, imaging software, storage solutions, print-on-demand services, accessories, tools for content creators, lighting equipment, and more.
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Call for speakers: early innovators using AI agents! At Visual 1st this year, we’ll have a panel called, Agentic AI: From groundbreaking user apps to workflow optimizers and beyond, is it the next tech game-changer for the photo & video industry? If you are developing innovative workflow or other solutions for your photo or video products that are based on AI agents, I’d love to hear what you’re up to, and to see if you could possibly speak in this panel on Oct. 28 or 29 at Visual 1st – drop me a note!
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Best,
Hans Hartman
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