Hasselblad is reportedly joining Canon and Nikon in phasing out DSLRs. Third-party vendor Capture Integration broke the news, saying on its blog that it received notice that the entire Hasselblad H system lineup is officially discontinued. The move leaves Pentax and Ricoh as the biggest remaining names in the rapidly diminishing DSLR space. Hasselblad hasn’t yet confirmed the news.
“While we have been feeling this sting for over the last 18 months with lack of product, today we received official notice that the full product line of the Hasselblad H system has been officially discontinued,” Capture Innovation wrote. “All [H system] products are now officially out of stock and Hasselblad will no longer take orders for anything in the H line.” The article continued, “The H system is still very strong and working in so many studios today. However, it’s time to look at replacements. We can’t even order new battery grips today.” The vendor notes that future repairs will likely take longer and grow in difficulty.
Many professional photographers have migrated to mirrorless cameras (including Hasselblad’s terrific X2D), leaving DSLR purists without many options. Mirrorless models have grown in popularity since their quality began improving around a decade ago. In addition to being smaller, lighter and quieter than DSLRs, camera manufacturers’ signaled intentions could also influence the field as pro photographers see the writing on the wall and try to stay ahead of the curve. Hasselblad’s last H series launch was the H6D system in 2016.
Canon announced in 2021 that the EOS-1DX Mark III would be its final flagship DSLR, although it would keep producing current models for the time being. A report from last July said Nikon would follow a similar approach. (Nikon denied the report without rebutting that it would indeed launch new DSLR models; one can speculate the company was being strategically cagey to avoid diminishing sales of its remaining models.) Either way, it’s nearly certain we won’t see another new DSLR model from three of the biggest names in high-end photography.
This story originally appeared on Engadget
