Sony gives up and quits camera business, CEO says they can no longer compete with Nikon and Canon


Today Sony officially announced that it will withdraw from the camera business. Sony's CEO was quoted saying that his company can no longer compete with Nikon and Canon:

In a shocking interview with Nikkei, Sony's CEO announced that his company is pulling out of the camera business. The main reason for the move has been the latest announcements of advanced mirrorless cameras by Nikon and Canon. The CEO said, “it was easy to sell mirrorless cameras when there was no competition, now the business environment changed and we at Sony feel that we can no longer make the profit we used to".

Sony fans around the world are in disbelief, but as a reader mentioned in an email to me: “how can people be surprised, don't they remember Betamax, DuoStick, A-mount..."

Olympus showed interest in buying Sony’s camera division. The company’s CEO said “We ran out of options to promote our products and we cannot create a bigger MFT sensor. We have to go full frame and we are too late to join the L-mount.

Executives from Nikon and Canon were spotted celebrating in a Tokyo bar late last night.

Even AIBO switched from Sony to Nikon:


Thanks for the screengrabs broxibear!

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New Fuji rebates in the US


Fujifilm started new rebates in the US  - all bundles include a free bag, memory card and slide/grip:

 

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Panasonic SR1 sensor measurements at Photons To Photos


Photons To Photos published their Panasonic SR1 photographic dynamic range sensor measurements for the new 47.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor (above comparison with Nikon Z7 and Sony A7R3).

Here is the read noise vs. ISO graph:

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Zeiss ZX1 camera additional information



Dpreview published their interview with Zeiss on their upcoming ZX1 full-frame fix lens camera. Here are the main points:

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Ricoh Korea and Ricoh Japan issue recalls about wobbly control dial pad on the new Ricoh GR III camera


Both Ricoh Korea and Ricoh Japan have issued notices (recalls?) about wobbly control dial pads on the new Ricoh GR III camera:

Ricoh claims that this is normal, but in some cases, the tolerance is not acceptable and the affected serial numbers will be fixed (Google translation):

"The basic specification is to set a slight rotation allowance width, but as a result of investigation, it has been found that some products with the following target serial numbers have combinations with large display inclinations."

The affected serial numbers are:

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Sony A6400 sensor tested at DxOMark



The new Sony A6400 mirrorless camera got tested at DxOMark:

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Another interview with Fujifilm senior executives


Dpreview published their CP+ interview with Fujifilm senior executives. Here is the recap from FujiAddict:

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Both Olympus and Panasonic confirmed again their commitment to Micro Four Thirds


In a recent interview with the Japanese SankeiBiz, Olympus executive (Yasuo Takeuchi) mentioned again that Olympus has no plans to sell their camera business as suggested by another Japanese publication (Business Journal Japan) - see the interview recap by digicame-info.

Here is another interview with Panasonic where they also confirmed their commitment to Micro Four Thirds:

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