Canon Officially Ends Sales Of Film Cameras

It's the end of an era over at Canon today, as the company has announced that it's ending sales of film cameras. More specifically, it's ending sales of the final film camera it offered commercially, the EOS-1V. Of course, most of us knew this day was coming, but the mainstream's migration to digital cameras wasn't the only indicator of Canon's eventual plans to stop selling film cameras.

In fact, Canon announced that it had stopped producing new EOS-1V cameras eight years ago. For the better part of the past decade, Canon has been selling down remaining stock, and now that stock has gotten low enough to warrant ending sales entirely. That it took eight years for stock to run out just serves as further evidence of film's decline.

Canon briefly (and apologetically) announced the end to film sales in a new statement published to its website. The company notes that it will continue repairing the EOS-1V until October 31, 2025. However, after October 31, 2020, it reserves the right to decline repairs if it doesn't have the parts on-hand.

As Digital Trends points out, Canon's decision to halt film sales doesn't mean the death of film in general. There is, of course, still a healthy secondhand market for film camera bodies out there, as many professional photographers still prefer to work with film. Even though Canon is calling it quits, competitors like Nikon are still producing and selling film cameras as well (at least for now).

So, if you've been thinking you want to pick up an EOS-1V for yourself, you might want to do that quickly – once current stock is sold out, it sounds like that's it. We'll see if any competitors ramp up their efforts in film now that Canon has announced its departure from the space, but considering how long it took Canon to sell through EOS-1V stock, that probably isn't likely.