Incessant flooding in Thailand is affecting many people, as well as another area of consumer electronics in addition to hard drives: Sony's upcoming high-end NEX-7 and A65 cameras, as well as some lens kits.
Sony's manufacturing plant in Ayutthaya has stopped production after torrents of water damaged the facility, the company said in a statement. The situation is so bad that the company is shifting production to another Sony factory southwest of Ayutthaya in the Chonburi province. Crave Asia visited the Ayutthaya facility last year and shot several pictures.
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Currently, according to Sony, the NEX-7 and its zoom lens kit (NEX-7K) have an undefined release date until production can resume in Chonburi.
Sony also said the A65 camera body, zoom lens kit (SLT-A65VK), and double zoom lens kit (SLT-A65VY) have an unknown release date. A "to be determined" release date is in effect for the NEX-3 (NEX-C3Y) and NEX-5 (NEX-5NY) double zoom lens kit.
This is bad news for fans of Sony's A65 camera, which had been delayed previously due to production problems that were not explicitly identified as flood-related.
Japanese site Digital Camera Watch is also reporting that Cybershot production from Ayutthaya, Thailand, could move to Sony's China and/or Japanese facilities. In a note earlier this month, Sony said they have donated 30 million yen ($394,417) to recovery efforts aiding the aftermath of extensive flooding in Thailand.