There’s nothing worse than having an issue with your camera only to contact the manufacturer and find that they can’t repair it. It’s a lot more common an issue than it used to be, purely because of the number of older and used bodies out there still being put to regular use. I’ve still got DSLRs here that are at least a decade old but also fantastic for timelapse, so they get used. But what if they die?
Most manufacturers don’t announce when a product is reaching end of life and support is going away. Canon, however, does. The good news is that your shiny new EOS R bodies have a good amount of life left in them. They’re even supporting the original EOS R until 2029. The bad news, however, is that most of your DSLRs and some EOS M mirrorless cameras won’t get support for much longer.
Support ending in less than a year for some cameras
You can see the complete list here, but here are some DSLRs with support ending within the next year. This is a list published by Canon Japan for cameras sold in Japan, but given that Canon is based in Japan, these dates should also hold pretty true for the rest of the world. Fortunately, most of the cameras with support ending over the next year are fairly low-end and entry-level cameras, with the exception of the 5D Mark III, which is still in use by a great many people for more serious and paid work.
- Canon EOS Kiss X70 (Rebel T5/1200D) – July 2023
- Canon EOS Kiss X7i (Rebel T5i/700D) – November 2023
- Canon EOS 70D – November 2023
- Canon EOS Kiss X7 (Rebel SL1/100D) – February 2024
- Canon EOS 8000D – February 2024
- Canon EOS 5D Mark III – March 2024
In fairness, despite how good the Canon EOS 5D Mark III is, it was released in March 2012. So that’s a good 12 years of support from Canon. It’s not surprising that Canon would choose to stop manufacturing such old technology and parts when technology has been improving so rapidly, especially in the last five years. Some cameras, like the 5D Mark IV, 6D Mark II and 1DX Mark III, don’t currently have an expiry date and are labelled “TBD”.
EOS R is safe, EOS M is on the way out
Fortunately, for the EOS R mirrorless systems, you’ve got a while. Obviously, it helps that the system as a whole is fairly new, with the first models being announced less than five years ago near the end of 2018. Most of these are also listed as TBD due to their newness, but there are three that have dates attached…
- Canon EOS Ra – January 2028
- Canon EOS R – November 2029
- Canon EOS RP (Gold) – June 2026
The Canon EOS M cameras all seem to have support ending at various points between July 2024 and March 2029. The only exception to this is the EOS KissM II (otherwise known as the EOS M50 Mark II) which is also TBD. Interestingly, Canon actually still has a couple of film cameras on the list. The Canon EOS 1V and the Canon EOS 1V HS, both of which see support ending in November 2025.
You can see the complete list on the Canon Japan website, but if your camera isn’t on it, then unfortunately, it can not be repaired by Canon. You might get lucky with a local camera shop that happens to have some spare parts lying around, but you might just have to hit up eBay, find a spares or repairs body and have to cannibalise it for a DIYP repair.
But now you know the dates when some of Canon’s cameras will start to lose support. So, you can start to plan ahead for your upgrade path over the next few years. As well as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, the list also covers many of Canon’s cinema cameras, camcorders, lenses, speedlights and other accessories, including both current models and those that have been discontinued over the past few years.
Are you worried about support ending for your cameras?
[via Canon Rumors]
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