Doomsday: Sony A7C, A6600, A6100 all cancelled and other good news

Reading this article I was thinking about the investments by all the underwater housing manufacturers.

https://www.eoshd.com/news/is-this-the-end-for-affordable-sony-cameras-a7c-a6600-a6100-all-cancelled/

Quote

 

Here’s the full list of items Sony has stopped making:

• Sony ZV-E10 VLOGCAM
• Sony A7 II
• Sony A6100
• Sony A6600
• Sony A7C
• Sony A6400
• Sony PXW-Z190 professional camcorder
• Sony shotgun mic B1M

Sony says there is “no prospect of future parts supply” for the A7 II and A6100, so those are permanently gone. It remains to be seen when Sony can bring the rest back to life.

 

Some rumors about the availability of the new Nikon Z9 also don't bode well. Do you have any info on pre-order wait times?

Most of those are paused rather than outright cancelled, and keeping A7 II in production made no sense anyway. A6100 didn't make much sense alongside ZV-E10 either. I don't see Sony abandoning APS-C camera market completely; most likely when the parts shortages alleviate, they will either restart production of existing models, or release some new ones. I would dearly love to see an APS-C camera with A1 autofocus tech.

Yes of course, but technology is advancing and if the lack of chips goes on for a long time (some sites talk about 2 years for some components used by Sony) it will not make sense to put back on the market an A7C in 2024. So we may have a new line of cameras.
Anyway, even though no one has the crystal ball, the news makes me think about a few things:

• The smartphone market has now thrown off the entire industry. Hardly anyone buys a camera for non-professional use anymore. We've written about this before, but reflect on how many times you've taken a camera with you on a weekend or trip to take pictures with your family. Try to remember how many people you saw on vacation with a camera: a number that tends to zero. Everyone uses phones today. Devices that do 8K video, take raw photos and prores video. Even many journalists and reporters have been using phones for work for quite a while. There are an infinite number of books, tutorials and products for this specific use.
   
• This is to say that the camera market is now confined to professionals or little more. On one hand we have a very advanced technology that requires huge design and economic investments. On the other hand, a very small market that can't pay back the investments.
   
• So in the end there is a reshaping of the market in which only the top models dedicated to professionals and with higher profit margins survive.
   
• The numbers of cameras produced have always been muddy. News like this makes me think that many announcement numbers have always been greatly overstated.
   
• Provided you have a nice budget at your disposal, maybe these market settlements in the medium to long term are not bad news. The catalogs of many manufacturers (Sony first) are crowded with models with similar features with artificially limited functions to try to avoid cannibalization between segments. Maybe it's the good time to have few models with clear features.

3 hours ago, Davide DB said:

• The numbers of cameras produced have always been muddy. News like this makes me think that many announcement numbers have always been greatly overstated.
•  

I honestly never understood why Sony kept so many camera bodies on the market at the same time. They have (on B&H) available to purchase 13 different models of camera, that's a lot to keep in the manufacturing pipeline. It makes sense why they are stopping the camera lines that have the FW50 battery packs since they are so small and drain really really quickly and they have the A6600 that has the FZ100 battery that is way better than any of the other APSC bodies.

To me it makes sense for them to either focus on the Point and shoot line (RX100iiv and ZV-1) OR the APSC line with the A6600 as well as keeping a few of the bodies from the current full frame line up (A7iv, A7Riv, A7iiis, A9ii, A1).

Also, who knows if they are still making the RX-10 live of cameras as it also takes the FW50 battery.

3 hours ago, Davide DB said:

• Provided you have a nice budget at your disposal, maybe these market settlements in the medium to long term are not bad news. The catalogs of many manufacturers (Sony first) are crowded with models with similar features with artificially limited functions to try to avoid cannibalization between segments. Maybe it's the good time to have few models with clear features.

Olympus also does this and they should also think about limiting their line up; they have 6 camera lines (TG, PEN EPL, EM-10, EM-5, EM-1, EM1x).  The PEN -EPL, EM10, and the EM5 are so similar they should consolidate them into one camera line for the entry level user. The EM1 and the EM1x are just different enough it makes sense to keep them both; unless there isn't going to be an update to the EM1x then just give the EM-1 the firmware update to make it like the EM1x. Olympus promised a new WOW camera soon so hopefully they aren't spreading themselves too thin across several camera bodies in a quickly shrinking micro4/3 market, unless this WOW camera is taking the place of the EM1x.

I don't really follow other camera brands so I can speak to them but 2022 should be an exciting year for camera companies and we shall see how they respond to more and more cell phone camera users.

23 minutes ago, Dann-Oh said:

Olympus also does this and they should also think about limiting their line up; they have 6 camera lines (TG, PEN EPL, EM-10, EM-5, EM-1, EM1x).  The PEN -EPL, EM10, and the EM5 are so similar they should consolidate them into one camera line for the entry level user. The EM1 and the EM1x are just different enough it makes sense to keep them both; unless there isn't going to be an update to the EM1x then just give the EM-1 the firmware update to make it like the EM1x. Olympus promised a new WOW camera soon so hopefully they aren't spreading themselves too thin across several camera bodies in a quickly shrinking micro4/3 market, unless this WOW camera is taking the place of the EM1x.

Actually Olympus went out of business and the new company is called OMD, I believe.

They announced a flagship camera but who can say if it was a stock targeted announcement?

6 hours ago, Dann-Oh said:

I honestly never understood why Sony kept so many camera bodies on the market at the same time. They have (on B&H) available to purchase 13 different models of camera, that's a lot to keep in the manufacturing pipeline. It makes sense why they are stopping the camera lines that have the FW50 battery packs since they are so small and drain really really quickly and they have the A6600 that has the FZ100 battery that is way better than any of the other APSC bodies.

To me it makes sense for them to either focus on the Point and shoot line (RX100iiv and ZV-1) OR the APSC line with the A6600 as well as keeping a few of the bodies from the current full frame line up (A7iv, A7Riv, A7iiis, A9ii, A1).

Also, who knows if they are still making the RX-10 live of cameras as it also takes the FW50 battery.

 

Olympus also does this and they should also think about limiting their line up; they have 6 camera lines (TG, PEN EPL, EM-10, EM-5, EM-1, EM1x).  The PEN -EPL, EM10, and the EM5 are so similar they should consolidate them into one camera line for the entry level user. The EM1 and the EM1x are just different enough it makes sense to keep them both; unless there isn't going to be an update to the EM1x then just give the EM-1 the firmware update to make it like the EM1x. Olympus promised a new WOW camera soon so hopefully they aren't spreading themselves too thin across several camera bodies in a quickly shrinking micro4/3 market, unless this WOW camera is taking the place of the EM1x.

 

I don't really follow other camera brands so I can speak to them but 2022 should be an exciting year for camera companies and we shall see how they respond to more and more cell phone camera users.

I would think that the EM-1, EM-5 a PEN model (more compact) and the TG would be sufficient, I never really understood the EM-1X defeats the purpose of the small sensor by building that huge body around it.

20 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Actually Olympus went out of business and the new company is called OMD, I believe.

Well not quite true.  Olympus is still a business they just are not a photography business any more.  The Photography is now Run by OM Digital.

20 hours ago, Davide DB said:

They announced a flagship camera but who can say if it was a stock targeted announcement?

Only time will tell, good thing I'm happy with my current Olympus / OM kit.

14 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

I would think that the EM-1, EM-5 a PEN model (more compact) and the TG would be sufficient, I never really understood the EM-1X defeats the purpose of the small sensor by building that huge body around it.

I agree. It would be neat if there was a way to add a second processor to the battery handgrip.  You could have the EM1 (without the grip) install the grip and now you have the horsepower (second battery and processor) of the EM1x.

Re the next OMD camera, rumours in the m4/3 world are that it will be the size of the E-M1 with the processing power of the E-M1x and (perhaps, hopefully) a new sensor. Howeve, the supply chain issues will hit them worse than others given their relatively small market power so I'm not holding my breath waiting. 

The decreasing demandon the market, together with the chip shortage, will slow down the release rate of new models and also will decrease the number of models available. This is bad news for us, but good news for our wallets...

Wolfgang

13 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

The decreasing demandon the market, together with the chip shortage, will slow down the release rate of new models and also will decrease the number of models available. This is bad news for us, but good news for our wallets...

Wolfgang

this just mean I can finally upgrade my diving gear