Canon USA, the American division of the global camera and imaging giant, announced today that it will launch an Ethereum NFT marketplace dedicated to photography later this year, dipping further into the Web3 world after an NFT drop in 2022.
Cadabra, described as a curated marketplace for tokenized photographs, is set to roll out later in 2023 following an initial preview at this week’s NFT NYC conference. According to a press release, the marketplace will offer photos across various categories, including wildlife, sports, lifestyle, and landscapes, among others.
Canon has yet to reveal which photographers will participate in the platform, but Cadabra will feature both initial drops of photo collections as well as a secondary marketplace for reselling the NFTs.
In addition to digital images, Cadabra will also let participating artists offer physical prints of the images that Canon will fulfill. Cadabra will initially launch only in the United States, and will support both credit/debit card and cryptocurrency payments.
Canon previously launched a series of photo NFTs on Solana in July 2022, in collaboration with Immutable Image. The Solana-based collection included tokenized shots from photographers such as Sam Abell, Barbara Bordnick, Melvin Sokolsky, and Joyce Tenneson.
The Tokyo-based firm makes an array of consumer and professional-grade products, including cameras and camcorders, printers, scanners, photocopiers, and medical equipment.
The photo NFT space has been relatively niche compared to larger segments like profile pictures (PFPs) and generative art, but it has yielded photographers with highly valuable collections—including Justin Aversano (“Twin Flames”) and Isaac “Drift” Wright (“Where My Vans Go?”). Other dedicated photo NFT platforms include Quantum Art and Sloika.