Canon delays the ship date for the upcoming Canon EOS Rebel T8i/850D

Ominous.

I think it's likely you'll see the new cameras such as this and the R5/R6 released first in China as they're now relaxing their lockdowns and bored people want to go out, buy things and do stuff again.

It wouldn't make sense for them to ship any to countries that are still under lockdowns. They'll sell what they can in China first, and the rest of the world will wait.

No surprise. The 1DxIII is only now starting to come into stock at authorized dealers and shipments appear to be pretty limited. Anyone who really, really wants an R5 before 2021 should probably be prepared to pre-order as soon as it's announced and expect to pay the early adopters' price premium.

Take your time Canon, we'll be here.

Not a problem. Canon is in a good financial position. even if they suffer losses, they’ll be able to overcome it. The same is not true for all other camera companies, and possibly, independent lens makers.

no problem at all. Who needs a "new", minimally iterated crop-sensor Rebel-class DSLR any longer in 2020. I would certainly not mind if they'd scratch Rebels altogether now and accelerated schedule for EOS M instead. I'd love to get a decent M50 II or "EOS M5 II / EOS M7" when lockdowns end.

picperfect said:

no problem at all. Who needs a "new", minimally iterated crop-sensor Rebel-class DSLR any longer in 2020. I would certainly not mind if they'd scratch Rebels altogether now and accelerated schedule for EOS M instead. I'd love to get a decent M50 II or "EOS M5 II / EOS M7" when lockdowns end.

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Canon do. The Rebel class has paid for all your L lens and FF camera R&D for many years, if it wasn't for Rebel sales there would be no R and no RF lenses. So indirectly we all need that Rebel to come out and sell in the numbers Canon project.

You might be a vegetarian but without all the burger sales you couldn't buy your McFluffy.

jolyonralph said:

It wouldn't make sense for them to ship any to countries that are still under lockdowns. They'll sell what they can in China first, and the rest of the world will wait.

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Well, that at least partly depends on the kind of lockdown. In Denmark there are no restrictions on going out as long as you keep distance, and are not staying in big groups somewhere.

Of course traveling is a bit more complicated (read: practically impossible) and professionals are probably very low on assignments and income. But still, I'm sure there would be some hobby or pro photographers that would be very interested...

picperfect said:

no problem at all. Who needs a "new", minimally iterated crop-sensor Rebel-class DSLR any longer in 2020.

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Rebels are Canon's best selling line of DSLR cameras.

jolyonralph said:

I think it's likely you'll see the new cameras such as this and the R5/R6 released first in China as they're now relaxing their lockdowns and bored people want to go out, buy things and do stuff again.

It wouldn't make sense for them to ship any to countries that are still under lockdowns. They'll sell what they can in China first, and the rest of the world will wait.

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Unlikely based on how the post-quarantine life in China is in reality.

While people are allowed to go out of their homes again, they are strongly deterred by the phone tracking measures the government put in place to try to prevent new outbreaks. Each citizen is forced to display the status of the government app when they walk into work, businesses, public transportation etc. which will identify whether or not they were in the vicinity of anyone who tested positive within the last 14 days. If the app identifies them as such, they will be denied entry to just about everything and forced to quarantine. Because of how damaged their economy is after the last few months, neither the government or employers are offering the average citizen paid leave anymore so anyone who finds themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time may see themselves out of work for 2 weeks at a time. Hence, even if the quarantine is "lifted", in reality everyone is still in prison.

picperfect said:

no problem at all. Who needs a "new", minimally iterated crop-sensor Rebel-class DSLR any longer in 2020. I would certainly not mind if they'd scratch Rebels altogether now and accelerated schedule for EOS M instead. I'd love to get a decent M50 II or "EOS M5 II / EOS M7" when lockdowns end.

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"I am the market. Everyone is just like me."

privatebydesign said:

Canon do. The Rebel class has paid for all your L lens and FF camera R&D for many years, if it wasn't for Rebel sales there would be no R and no RF lenses. So indirectly we all need that Rebel to come out and sell in the numbers Canon project.

You might be a vegetarian but without all the burger sales you couldn't buy your McFluffy.

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This. Except for the food logic which is seriously flawed.

The Rebel will take a back seat to the R5 and R6 because they need to clear inventory of the current rebels to make room for the new one. No such issue with the R5 and R6 as they are clearly both a cut above the R and RP. I expect a substantial (maybe huge) price reduction on the R and RP, not to mention most current rebels. The game over the next six months is going to be market share, market share, market share and Canon and Sony are the only ones in a position to play the game, but Sony hates discounting, so Canon may be the affordable buy going forward.

jolyonralph said:

I think it's likely you'll see the new cameras such as this and the R5/R6 released first in China as they're now relaxing their lockdowns and bored people want to go out, buy things and do stuff again.

It wouldn't make sense for them to ship any to countries that are still under lockdowns. They'll sell what they can in China first, and the rest of the world will wait.

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Very many shoot indoors. Very many.

slclick said:

This. Except for the food logic which is seriously flawed.

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I don't think it's that bad, mind you I was vegetarian for 20 years before stopping under medical advice and I also don't know if there is such a thing as a McFluffy! But, the point was just because you don't want or need a particular thing (camera, lens, type of food etc etc) doesn't mean there isn't an interdependence on that thing for the thing you do want that isn't initially obvious.

I like Dunkin' Donuts coffee, being able to get it depends on their ability to sell donuts, which I don't buy.

EDIT: It appears there is a McFlurry, but according to the urban dictionary a McFluffy is a cat that looks so cute you could eat it, so maybe my analogy is flawed!

biggiep said:

even if the quarantine is "lifted", in reality everyone is still in prison.

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This is a gross exaggeration of what is really going on. Prison? That's quite far from what I heard from my friends living in China. For the last month since the quarantine-lift, new covid-19 cases in China has been kept below a couple hundred cases a day. So besides an insignificant proportion of China's population receiving quarantine, everyone else in China are happily getting their normal lives back.

And if you read international news, you'd know that the vast majority of Chinese covid-19 cases found in the last month were imported from other countries, which further limits the quarantined cases to international travelers within a handful of Chinese cities.

About the tracking app, it works really well against covid-19, because it actually allows people live their lives while keeping the virus in check. So please, spare the evil China spin.. Also, South Korea government was the first one doing citizen tracking against covid-19 using APPs and big data, early in February, and it's been proven to be hugely successful. Now China recognized its effectiveness and adopted it. In the US, Google and Apple are both talking about doing something similar.

privatebydesign said:

I don't think it's that bad, mind you I was vegetarian for 20 years before stopping under medical advice and I also don't know if there is such a thing as a McFluffy! But, the point was just because you don't want or need a particular thing (camera, lens, type of food etc etc) doesn't mean there isn't an interdependence on that thing for the thing you do want that isn't initially obvious.

I like Dunkin' Donuts coffee, being able to get it depends on their ability to sell donuts, which I don't buy.

EDIT: It appears there is a McFlurry, but according to the urban dictionary a McFluffy is a cat that looks so cute you could eat it, so maybe my analogy is flawed!

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My wife has called me Mr. McFluffy for years.

Dragon said:

The Rebel will take a back seat to the R5 and R6 because they need to clear inventory of the current rebels to make room for the new one. No such issue with the R5 and R6 as they are clearly both a cut above the R and RP. I expect a substantial (maybe huge) price reduction on the R and RP, not to mention most current rebels. The game over the next six months is going to be market share, market share, market share and Canon and Sony are the only ones in a position to play the game, but Sony hates discounting, so Canon may be the affordable buy going forward.

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That seems like a lot of assumptions. How would the Rebel take a "back seat" to the R5 and R6? From a production standpoint, they are completely different lines and freeing up the production of crop sensor DSLR Rebel production lines would be unlikely to have any impact on the production of mirrorless full frame cameras. Are you suggesting that Canon would delay the T8i because they have a large inventory of other Rebels? That's unlikely. What evidence is there that they have a large inventory of Rebels on hand? Even if they did, there a lot of ways to reduce inventory without delaying a new release.

The "game" over the next six months is going to be getting supply chain and production levels back on track, restoring profitability and hitting (reduced) sales targets. The effects of putting world economies on hold will be felt well into 2021. Canon's bottom line is a lot more dependent on Rebels than on the R series, so I doubt they made this decision lightly.

sanj said:

Very many shoot indoors. Very many.

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Normal distribution channels aren't working at the moment, traditional camera shops are closed and the marketing effort required to launch and promote a new camera the traditional way isn't available - except that it's coming back now in China and a few other countries.

Canon have a problem here. They could ignore their traditional channels and ship stuff only to B&H, Amazon, etc in the west, but by doing so what damage will they do long term to their traditional distribution network? They may feel they have to hold back on releasing until there is a chance the bricks & mortar shop network is open.

Of course, releasing in China first would encourage huge grey market sales of such a popular camera.

So, I think what's likely is a VERY limited release, enough to satisfy pre-orders only, but not enough that the distribution network would consider to undermine them. They could get away with this by saying production is limited, delays, etc, and it would do nothing but increase the demand for the camera once it finally gets open distribution.

If I was a greedy person I'd put affiliate links in right now to pre-order on the major resellers, but I'm not, so find the links that CR has posted and use those if you want to pre-order.