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Confusion over Canon film cameras

Confusion over Canon film cameras

Phil Ryan
Reuters is reporting this morning that Canon has ceased development of film cameras in order to focus on the digital market. A handful of hyperbolic bloggers, including the folks at Engadget and Gizmodo, have seized the opportunity to call this the end of Canon film cameras, though this may not actually be the case. In fact, the Reuters report goes on to state that "Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models."

A company spokesperson we spoke with from Canon USA said, "At this time, we don't have any information, and we are communicating with Canon Inc. We will know something soon."

Coming on the heels of KonicaMinolta's exit from the market and Nikon's elimination of all but two of its film cameras from its line early this year, this does seem like an ominous sign for the film market. But considering that there hasn't been any earth-shattering product development for film cameras since I was in junior high (unless you count image-stabilized lenses) and that the film cameras on the market are more than adequate for any photographer on the planet, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Canon just kept on selling the models it has and let the engineers make better use of their time.