Here’s a nice cherry on top of all the full-frame news this week which includes the arrival of the a9 (pictured above), the newest mirrorless powerhouse from Sony that was announced on the heels of them overtaking Nikon in the US. If it weren’t for Sony and their full-frame camera efforts, the US market would have detracted by 2% as you can see from the graph below.

Michael Zhang from PetaPixel:

 Sony is also saying that the growth of its full-frame cameras has helped the U.S. full-frame market see an overall growth of 5% — without Sony, the market would have experienced a 2% decline in sales across all brands. 

While good news for Sony, especially because of the higher price and, in turn, margins full-frame cameras hold, the overall camera market continues to be in a nose dive.

 The slight growth of the full-frame interchangeable lens camera market may be a promising sign, but the sale of digital cameras across all types has been plummeting double digits every year over the past half decade, mainly due to the collapse of the compact camera thanks to the rise of the smartphone. 

This of course is due to the rise of smartphones which have made owning a compact a moot point. The interesting takeway from all this should be that Sony is perhaps succeeding where others have failed – to attract a segment of the consumers who otherwise wouldn’t purchase a camera of such caliber which isn’t an easy thing to do, considering the price point of full-frame cameras.