Are Cameras delayed because of the EU?

[YuengLinger]

These EU laws/regulations have been in the making for years. I find it very hard to believe that corporations like Canon, Nikon and Sony have not anticipated these laws. Blaming these laws may be easy to hide other reasons for not being able to release new products.

Regulations can have extreme effects, as here in the States, Honda decided to stop selling gas powered lawnmowers because of too many restrictions, including one state, California, banning them altogether. Sad, because Honda lawnmowers have been better than the competition for years. Now the only units available are old stock that is being cleared out.

Honda still sells in other countries, and a few slightly cheaper brands are still beings sold new here.

But, I agree with this thread's consensus that power specs and AI regs can't be the whole reason.

Hard to know unless one really drills down. For example, in the southeastern part of the USA, a major factor delaying housing starts is infrastructure and labor problems with railroads. Not enough new train engineers and other workers are available to fill the ones retiring. Supplies such as asphalt and concrete are often delayed because of these issues.

I wouldn't give Canon a complete pass, but surely the current regulatory and supply-chain challenges are factors.

 

[Del Paso]

Is that what Nikon used on their cameras years ago?

No idea. My last Nikon was the F2.
But, if after a few years, newer Nikons felt like they were covered with sticky glue: YES, this was the culprit!

 

[charly1d]

Regulations on how a product should be manufactured and what features it should have do not improve competition. This will turn into a market of mediocre products and without innovations that generate changes in the markets.

 

[Del Paso]

Regulations on how a product should be manufactured and what features it should have do not improve competition. This will turn into a market of mediocre products and without innovations that generate changes in the markets.

You seem to forget that EU regulators enjoy not only a nice income, but usually don't even pay taxes. So, they love their jobs, and, since they are paid to regulate, the do regulate. No matter how stupid some laws can be. The EU emission and fuel consumption standards are so far away from reality, and lead to cars with a more than restricted durability and reliability.
And you are right, this can often generate inferior products. Bureaucrats, or should I say Eurocrats, are so often estranged from reality. Example: how curved is a salad cucumber allowed to be...

 

[David - Sydney]

Scraping the barrel to find reasons for canon’s lack of (non golf related) announcements

Craig and I have some theories. I think he's writing something up on it.

So you are giving us a rumour about a potential rumour post about the lack of Canon (non golf related) rumours?

 

[john1970]

I am more likely to believe it is a part shortage, which would also explain why we have not had any lens announcements since early November 2023. At this rate, I will not be purchasing any equipment until Q4 2024. Fine with me when interest rates are high.

 

[David - Sydney]

You seem to forget that EU regulators enjoy not only a nice income, but usually don't even pay taxes. So, they love their jobs, and, since they are paid to regulate, the do regulate. No matter how stupid some laws can be. The EU emission and fuel consumption standards are so far away from reality, and lead to cars with a more than restricted durability and reliability.
And you are right, this can often generate inferior products. Bureaucrats, or should I say Eurocrats, are so often estranged from reality. Example: how curved is a salad cucumber allowed to be...

I love the one about cars needing more buttons for safety testing. Voice commands don't seem to count. The one about over-speed limit warnings including Hyundai mandating audible chimes are the worst though. I cancelled a new car purchase because of that one. It isn't that I speed but the SW can't handle time-of-day speed limits or only during school days.

They are not alone with food standard shapes/sizes leading to a huge amount of wastage. Carrots are a good example. We now have "odd ones" that you can buy and the shapes are much more fun and taste the same. A small win though.

GDPR has a huge impact on consumer privacy and has global positive impact albeit with a lot of cost to companies. At least the fines have some impact on companies. Small ones are shrugged off as cost of doing business for big companies. Trying to even get Meta/X to the table for things like government requests to take down stabbing videos is ineffective let alone paying taxes locally for massive revenues generated locally.

 

[Richard CN]

So you are giving us a rumour about a potential rumour post about the lack of Canon (non golf related) rumours?

rumors about rumors in regards to rumors. or something like that.

 

[Richard CN]

Regulations on how a product should be manufactured and what features it should have do not improve competition. This will turn into a market of mediocre products and without innovations that generate changes in the markets.

Yeah that was Apple's excuse why they didn't want to join 2020 and use USB-C even though they had already adopted it for their tablets.

Standardization is a good thing. In a lot of these cases the EU does the world a solid. Getting all devices to the USB-C standard for charging is an easy win globally.

 

[Jethro]

rumors about rumors in regards to rumors. or something like that.

Oh, it's still a good rumour by any standards:

 

[koenkooi]

I love the one about cars needing more buttons for safety testing. Voice commands don't seem to count. […]

And NCAP isn’t even a government organization, it’s an independent non-profit!

 

[LDS]

There could be some issues if the camera can store biometric data, for example to recognise specific faces. I didn't follow much the latest camera AF features, but if they are capable of that, it could be an issue under GDPR - you can't store people's biometric data at will.

 

[LDS]

Regulations on how a product should be manufactured and what features it should have do not improve competition.

EU doesn't that - EU rules are aimed at hindering artificially created lock-ins, and avoid user having to replace fully functional devices just because. Would you like every electric device coming with a different plug, or having plug standards back then in the 1920s-30s was a good idea that actually improved competition allowing more companies to produce and sell electic devices? Companies like Apple are still free to design their products as they like, manufacture them as they like (using cheap chinese workers, of course) - just they need to have an USB-C plug just like your charted in the US on the other side needs a standard US plug and not an EU one (and viceversa). Too late now to have standard plug worldwide - but not too late to have a standard one on the other side.

 

[koenkooi]

There could be some issues if the camera can store biometric data, for example to recognise specific faces. [...]

There's a massive difference between "face detection" and "face recognition", the latter is a big can of worms! When I worked for a big silicon vendor a decade ago, it was made extremely clear that any recognition features would be done by third parties, but we should emphasize that detection could be done in hardware.

 

[Sven66]

Some active conversations are happening that cameras are being delayed because of EU regulations that went into effect this year. The two regulations that people are speculating as the cause of delays are the EU USB-C and AI laws. Common Charger Directive 2022/2380 According to the Common Charger Directive 2022/2380 approved by the Council of

See full article...

That happens when ideologies gain to much power. Of course, well meant, protecting the environment and resources…. But technical development is not to be regulated by politicians. In fact, this USB-C la hinders development, as a change to a future more modern solution has to be certified by politicians. And we all know how prograssive, well informed, foreseeing and fast in action our politicians are… politicians should be slapped on their fingers for trying to control everything.

 

[charly1d]

Yeah that was Apple's excuse why they didn't want to join 2020 and use USB-C even though they had already adopted it for their tablets.

Standardization is a good thing. In a lot of these cases the EU does the world a solid. Getting all devices to the USB-C standard for charging is an easy win globally.

Allow me to disagree, as a user of Apple and computer devices, the EU regulations did not do me any favors, they complicated the working lives of most people outside of Europe, where USB-C devices are only now becoming available. Europe is no one to tell me how to live or what my work environment should be like.

 

[photo212]

Yeah that was Apple's excuse why they didn't want to join 2020 and use USB-C even though they had already adopted it for their tablets.

Standardization is a good thing. In a lot of these cases the EU does the world a solid. Getting all devices to the USB-C standard for charging is an easy win globally.

If standardization is so bloody good, why cannot the EU reg the outlets for their electrical plugs? Why have 5-6 designs when one will do? Heck, standardize their language. If there is anything costing the consumer money is having 24 different languages in the EU. Pick one for all commerce.