Canon to Stop Making SLRs

Joe Lipka · May 30, 2006

"Canon will continue making film cameras already on the market as long as their demand remains. Whether to withdraw from the film camera business will be "decided appropriately by judging the market situation," said Canon spokesman Hiroshi Yoshinaga." - from the article.

A couple of reasons I think that this is not a real big deal. One, how much more technically advanced can a film slr be? At this point, Canon (and others) would have to spend a lot more money for a marginal improvements to a very sophisticated established design. Doesn't really make economic sense to spend a lot on a small improvement.

Secondly, there are all sorts of film cameras out there now for all the film photographers. In previous posts I have drawn the analogy of film cameras to the market for American Cars in Cuba. All the American Cars in Cuba are already there (and been there for about fifty years!). The drivers and mechanics just keep those old cars running. So it is with film cameras. As pointed out by previous posters, used gear is quite reasonably priced. The real worry is qualified repair technicians to keep the film cameras working.

Like all good things. You will be able to find good film cameras, you just may not be able to do it easily.

Peter Williams · May 30, 2006

david b said:
they sold 5 MILLION FILM CAMERAS!!!! And yet they are still bailing out.

Those are the combined totals for all Japanese camera makers, not just Canon.

Lee Shively · May 30, 2006

There's not a helluva lot of research and development that will improve the film cameras already available. I mean, really, has there been a better 35mm SLR film camera built since the Nikon F2 or Canon F1 or Olympus OM1 or Pentax Spotmatic or Minolta SRT?

Lopaka · May 30, 2006

Since Nikon has given up the race and is selling only 2 film cameras as is, there is no point in Canon pouring money into the race. My guess is that Canon will also trim the product line. I just hope they have enough sense to keep 3 levels. Nikon hurt themselves, I think killing off the F100. They probably did so because they felt it was stealing sales from the much more expensive F6. Arrogant, IMO.

I agree with the stated opinions that the film cameras are as good as they need to be anyway, perhaps too much technology. I don't use much of the stuff on my Canon EOS10 as it is. And that's an old body, a cut-down economy version of the EOS1. All it has to do is handle the film - the lens and the photographer does the rest!

Bob

Uncle Bill · May 31, 2006

I am a user of well cared for pre-loved camera gear as anyone who met me at the APUG Conference will attest. The camera manufacturers love digital for its rapid obselescance, I have a friend who shoots weddings and some editorial work and she is pissed that she has to upgrade every two to three years. Me, I am content to play with my Nikon F2, f, Nikkormat, Leica M3, OM-1, Spotmatic II/F, you get the idea.
I am content as long as there are techs who can fix the stuff.

Bill

reub2000 · May 31, 2006

DBP said:
Film SLRs, any chance they will start making rangefinders again?

I'm not sure why would want to go away from the WYSIWYG viewfinder of an SLR for a non-TTL viewfinder of a rangefinder. Maybe for something like street photography lack of the mirror-slap sound would come in handy.

Like all good things. You will be able to find good film cameras, you just may not be able to do it easily.

Just walk into Central Camera and take your pick of any non-current EOS body. Or run a search on eBay for whatever camera you want. People dumping their 35mm bodies for digital bodies has created a market of cheap bodies.

braxus · Oct 12, 2006

I would still be using my T90 had it been repaired properly, and now you can't even get parts for it. My worry is the same will happen to the other film cameras I have. You can't repair something if you cant get parts for it. Its making think of replacing some parts (like shutters) before they actually fail, to jump the gun before the shutter parts dry up. Im debating to do this with an EOS 1N as we speak.

isaacc7 · Oct 13, 2006

Lopaka said:
Since Nikon has given up the race and is selling only 2 film cameras as is, there is no point in Canon pouring money into the race. My guess is that Canon will also trim the product line. I just hope they have enough sense to keep 3 levels. Nikon hurt themselves, I think killing off the F100. They probably did so because they felt it was stealing sales from the much more expensive F6. Arrogant, IMO

Bob

No no no. They discontinued the film cameras because no one (relatively speaking) wanted one. The F100 was selling new between 900-1000 bucks at the end. We couldn't sell like new ones used for half that price. The market just isn't there. Arrogance has nothing to do with it, it's all about consumer demand and dollars and cents. There is no conspiracy, people just do not want film cameras in the quantities that they used to.

Isaac

Paul Howell · Oct 13, 2006

My best guess (and hope) is that once the glut of used equipment dries up Cosina or an after market lens company will offer new bodies with different mounts for Nikon or Cannon. One body for several mounts may be profitable.

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 13, 2006

Paul Howell said:
My best guess (and hope) is that once the glut of used equipment dries up Cosina or an after market lens company will offer new bodies with different mounts for Nikon or Cannon. One body for several mounts may be profitable.

The only problem with that is the proprietary patents on those lensmounts, and the near-total mechanical incompatibility of Nikon, Canon, Minolta and other lensmounts. As long as the above companies continue to make 35mm-sized DSLRs that can use their existing lensmounts, they will have no incentive to license out the patents on their lensmounts and connections to someone making bodies that fit their systems.

copake_ham · Oct 13, 2006

TheFlyingCamera said:
The only problem with that is the proprietary patents on those lensmounts, and the near-total mechanical incompatibility of Nikon, Canon, Minolta and other lensmounts. As long as the above companies continue to make 35mm-sized DSLRs that can use their existing lensmounts, they will have no incentive to license out the patents on their lensmounts and connections to someone making bodies that fit their systems.

This is not, however, beyond the realm of possibility. Cosina already makes the FM-10 for Nikon.

isaacc7 · Oct 13, 2006

TheFlyingCamera said:
The only problem with that is the proprietary patents on those lensmounts, and the near-total mechanical incompatibility of Nikon, Canon, Minolta and other lensmounts. As long as the above companies continue to make 35mm-sized DSLRs that can use their existing lensmounts, they will have no incentive to license out the patents on their lensmounts and connections to someone making bodies that fit their systems.

But there really isn't any patent issues to speak of. Zeiss, Sigma, Cosina, and maybe even Tamron make lenses without Nikon's "permission". The patents have expired long ago. There may still be some lingering issues with the newer EF and Minolta AF mounts, but there is nothing stopping companies from backwards engineering them, especially if they are only looking for a manual focus lens.

Isaac

Paul Howell · Oct 13, 2006

I would think that if I were Nikon, Canon or another manufacture and I could made money on a licensing agreement without any risk I would do it.

Dave Parker · Oct 13, 2006

The Minolta A mount is now owned by Sony and Sony has contracted with Zeiss to manufacture many of their new lenses in the A mount. And reality, the lenses made by the sencondary manufactures, such as Tamron, Sigma, etc are in fact lic from the various manufactures, not only to ensure mount compatibility with the correct tolerances, but electronics compatibility, that is why there are some older Sigmas that are not 100% compatible, cause they tried to do it on their own and were unable to ensure the compatibility issue.

Dave

Bromo33333 · Oct 13, 2006

TheFlyingCamera said:
...they will have no incentive to license out the patents on their lensmounts and connections to someone making bodies that fit their systems.

Are good up to 20 years. Anything pantented to do with a mount before about 1986 is in the public domain.

Anyone can make a Leica M mount camera without paying a dime to Leica, and the manual focus Nikon F mount the same way. Almost any manual mount would solidly be in the public domain, though I doubt it would have been patentable anyway!

Dave Parker · Oct 13, 2006

Virtually all of your bayonet mounts were in fact patented, but I imagine, the manual focus ones have been expired for a few years...

Dave

Canon to Stop Making SLRs

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