Sony tops full-frame camera market in US ahead of Nikon’s big announcement

Sony has officially surpassed Canon to lead the full-frame camera market in the United States. The company claims to have taken a lead “in both dollars and units” sold. But it likely won’t have too much time to rest on its laurels, given that Nikon is expected to be looking to muscle in on Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras next week.

Additionally, as DPReview points out, those numbers are probably a little unfairly skewed toward Sony, given that Canon (the old, longtime leader) hasn’t actually released a full-frame interchangeable lens camera in over a year. And Nikon, which Sony passed in April 2017, hasn’t released a major device since the D850 in August 2017 either (and stock can be hard to come by), while Sony has been able to ride the sales of more recent releases.

Still, it’s an impressive result for Sony, which has steadily been increasing market share for interchangeable cameras for some time. And it sets the stakes even higher for Nikon, given that Sony (according to its own reports) has lead the mirrorless market for the past six years — meaning that Nikon will certainly have an uphill battle to face with its new cameras.