Nikon made a wide range of announcements in its financial results today, including the cancellation of the DL series of compact 4K cameras.
Originally planned for release in June last year, issues were found with the integrated circuit for image processing in the three DL series cameras which initially led to indefinite delays.
“Everyone involved has worked very hard to develop products with which our customers will be satisfied. However, it has been decided that sales of the DL series will be canceled due to concerns regarding their profitability considering the increase in development costs, and the drop in the number of expected sales due to the slow-down of the market,” Nikon said in a statement.
Nikon’s DL18-50, DL24-85 and DL24-500 would have competed with similar products from other camera makers like Sony and Panasonic. The DL cameras shared the same 20.8-megapixel sensor from Nikon 1 series cameras, and featured 4K video shooting, 20 frames per second shooting using continuous autofocus and up to 60 frames per second with fixed focus.
Along with the unusual cancellation of a forthcoming camera product, Nikon also issued a “Recognition of Extraordinary Loss” due to a company-wide restructuring that is expected to cost about 53 billion yen ($610 million) for the financial year ending March 31.
As part of the restructuring, approximately 1,000 Nikon employees will leave the company in a voluntary retirement program. Nikon also issued revised financial forecasts for the year, downgrading expected net sales by 50 billion yen ($575 million) to 750 billion yen ($8.6 billion).
