Speculation has been rife over the future of Samsung cameras since the firm revealed plans to pull out of the camera and camcorder markets in the UK and Germany.
Yesterday, AP’s deputy technical editor Michael Topham embarked on a search for the elusive cameras on the Samsung stand at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Afterwards, he said: ‘I asked three members of staff on the stand about whether there were any Samsung cameras on display, to which they all replied there were not.’
He added: ‘I walked the stand myself and couldn’t see any.’
Samsung declined to comment on the matter when AP sought a response from a representative in the UK.
In November, Samsung said it planned to phase out sales and marketing of digital cameras and camcorders in the UK due to a fall in demand.
The news followed reports that Samsung planned to discontinue the NX1 in Europe.
It is now almost 12 months since the South Korean giant announced an NX camera.
In December, Samsung denied that Nikon was buying its NX technology, saying that media reports were untrue.
This followed reports that Nikon had acquired Samsung’s NX camera technology in a move that would enable Nikon to make a professional compact system camera.
In a statement, sent exclusively to AP last month, a Samsung spokesperson said: ‘Media reports that Nikon is allegedly buying our NX technology are not true.’
At the time, Nikon UK said it does not comment on rumours.
Speaking at this week’s CES, Dirk Jesper, product manager for Professional Products and Product Planning at Nikon Europe, gave his reaction.
Jesper told AP: ‘As you learn from the media, and also from official feedback, that was a hoax.
‘There was never anybody really talking about it.’
Samsung first announced its own brand of DSLRs in January 2006 following a tie-up with historic camera maker Pentax.
Samsung’s first DSLR was the six-million-pixel GX-1S – its own version of the Pentax *ist DS2.
The 10MP Samsung GX-10 followed later that year, based on the Pentax K10D.
In 2009, Samsung used the PMA Show in the US as the launchpad for its NX series of hybrid-digital cameras.
The NX was billed as a new concept, offering the performance and image quality of a DSLR but with the portability and convenience of a compact point-and-shoot model.
A UK-based Samsung spokesperson last night said the company was unable to comment on which countries have stopped the sales and distribution of cameras and/or camcorders, adding that ‘it’s up to each individual market’.
Neither would Samsung divulge whether the company still makes cameras.
[Photo credits: © Michael Topham]
