Camera giant, Canon, is set to launch a new NFT marketplace at some point this year, according to an announcement at NFT.NYC earlier this week. ‘Cadabra’ is set to be a creator-focused space where the company’s US arm will control and select photographers whose work will feature on the platform.

Quick Takes:

• Canon is launching a new Ethereum NFT marketplace called Cadabra for photography-based tokens.
• The marketplace will feature different categories of photography and allow featured photographers to print their art.
• Some in the traditional photography community have expressed skepticism about the announcement.

Introduction to Canon’s Cadabra

Canon USA are going to be introducing a brand new Ethereum NFT marketplace called Cadabra which will be dedicated to photography-based tokens. This isn’t their first rodeo in the space, as in 2022 they dropped an NFT collection on Solana, Immutable Image, in partnership with Magic Eden and others, which has had a variety of drops.

Now, after launching an initial preview at this week’s NFT.NYC event, the camera company will launch ‘Cadabra’ later this year. The marketplace will offer different categories of photography, including wildlife, sports, lifestyle, landscapes and more.

At the moment, it is unclear as to the photographers they will ask to contribute to their invite-only platform, however they have been getting a lot of replies on Twitter from people within the photography community looking for an opportunity to feature on the platform, that is sure to garner a fair amount of eyes onto their work. Every artist must be approved by Canon before getting a coveted spot.

As well as the digital copies of images, the company will allow featured photographers to print their art, fulfilling orders for them.

Currently, the product will only be available in the US, with goals of expanding worldwide eventually. It is also important to note that Canon will accept both crypto and debit/credit card payments. Initial drops will also be supported by a secondary marketplace where users can buy and sell their tokens.

For those who are within the small sector of the photography NFT community, this will sure be great. It will provide solid exposure to an otherwise niche community. Especially in comparison to the likes of fine art and profile pictures (PFP) NFTs.

Plenty of positive comments followed the Twitter announcement, especially from this kind of community:

However, as always, not everything was positive. The traditional photography community have not taken well to the announcement, or NFT community in general.

An article from Digital Camera World titled “Uh oh – Canon just got into the NFT business”. Within the piece, they questioned “Is Canon a little late to the party here?”. As well as this, “is there really nothing interesting to share yet in the way of specifics and details?”. They said things like “We thought NFTs were old news” and “understanding cryptocurrency is still super confusing”.

However, in the end, it’ll be up to Canon to prove their worth and show off how they can make a solid product in the web3 space.