Nikon may be restructuring, but its full-frame cameras are showing some serious growth. On Tuesday, January 23, Nikon shared that the company earned the number one spot in both market share and revenue for the full frame category for the month of December. The growth was in part fueled by the company’s new high-resolution D850 DSLR.
Based on sales figures from the NPD Group, Nikon was the top-selling brand for December, a month often marked by increased sales for the holidays. According to that data, the company sold 69 percent more full-frame cameras and earned 59 percent more on those same cameras than in December of 2016. The single month sales is almost identical to the company’s sales in the same category from the first three months of 2017. Those numbers include both full-frame DSLRs and full-frame mirrorless cameras.
“Nikon has returned to an emphasis on high-end products for advanced and professional users. These users appreciate Nikon’s full-frame offerings because of their amazing image quality, reliability, low-light capability and high-speed performance,” Nikon CEO Bo Kajiwara said in a statement. “Nikon is an innovative, diversified company with a clear, long-term strategy to thrive into 2018 and beyond.”
The biggest cameras helping Nikon achieve those numbers were the Nikon D750 and D850. The D850 is Nikon’s latest full-frame and mixes a 45.7-megapixel sensor with speeds up to 9 fps. Despite the lower price, the D850 even ousts the company’s flagship D5 in some areas. The D750, on the other hand, was announced in 2014 but is still selling well for the company.
“We want to sincerely thank our customers and fans for making this achievement possible,” Kajiwara added.
The announcement is good news for Nikon fans after the camera giant announced a restructuring plan at the end of 2016. At the time, the company said it would direct its focus toward more of the higher-end cameras and the full-frame sales, while only for a single month, suggest that strategy is a good approach.
Canon and Nikon have traditionally held the top spots for the full-frame market, but last year, Sony’s a7 mirrorless line led it to the second spot. At the time, the same data showed a five percent growth for full-frame cameras as a whole.
