discontinued gear

Well, it looks like it’s true. The Nikon D500 is officially discontinued. After it was spotted as being out of stock, on backorder or whatever, with Nikon Singapore even having “discontinued” in the URL of their page for the Nikon D500, there hadn’t yet been any word from Nikon HQ in Japan. Now, though, it’s actually listed as discontinued on the main Nikon Japan website.

It shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise. The Nikon D5, with which the D500 was launched in 2016, was discontinued when the Nikon D6 was released in 2020. We didn’t see a D500 replacement at the same time then and it seemed unlikely that we ever would. What is perhaps surprising, though, is that they’ve killed it off before announcing a mirrorless successor – or even the development of one.

It’s been six years since Nikon released the Nikon D500. The camera that will likely be their last “pro” model APS-C DSLR. It was just over six years between the releases of the D500 and its predecessor, too. We’re still waiting on a mirrorless equivalent to the Nikon D500, but it appears that Nikon might have killed it off before announcing a replacement in its new mirrorless lineup.

Retailers around the world are listing the Nikon D500 as discontinued or out of stock with no hints of getting more. Even Nikon Asia’s shifted the D500 over to the discontinued list. Could that mean a mirrorless equivalent is on the way? Well, maybe. But knowing Nikon, it’s entirely possible that we might never see a true “pro” level APS-C mirrorless camera. But right now, it seems that the D500 is done.

Nikon has discontinued its Coolpix B600 bridge camera due to parts supply uncertainty, released in March 2019. The camera wasn’t particularly high end, typically selling for around $350, housing a 16-megapixel 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor and only capable of shooting 1080p video, but at only just over two years old, it seems a bit soon for a camera that boasts a 60x optical zoom.

As well as killing off the Coolpix B600, Nikon has also announced the “temporary suspension” of several other accessories, including the EH-5D AC adapter, the SU-800 infrared on-camera commander and its RC1C ringlight kit along with the SB-R200 speedlights.

I’ve been saying for years that the “Death of DSLRs” will come when the manufacturers give up on them and not before – no matter what people on YouTube or in Facebook groups might say. And, well, the time finally seems to be upon us where that’s happening. Canon is killing off EF mount lenses, Nikon probably isn’t planning to replace its DSLRs and they just killed off more lenses.

With just the AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR APS-C kit lens being killed off a few days ago and the 200mm f/2G ED VR II last month, it now seems Nikon has expanded the list of discontinued lenses. Nikon has said that they’re going to be bringing out more lenses, but they’re all going to be Z mount lenses, not F mount.