Pentax 645NII and 67II medium format film cameras will both be discontinued, as well as a number of film and digital compact models.
| Industry News
This legislation has already caused the Hasselblad XPan to meet its end due to its lead solder content. Lead is one of several hazardous substances outlawed by the regulations because it is considered to be harmful to the environment when disposed of.
Pentax will be releasing a full list of affected products in the near future. Whether the products will simply be unavailable in Europe, or if production will end completely, has not yet been made clear.
Pentax's planned launch of a digital 645 medium format camera will still go ahead unaffected.
Pentax have released a statement concerning the circumstances which forced the end of these cameras here
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Comments
go after cars and heavy industry. those are the real culprits, not joe bloggs with his tiny camera.
people dont throw away cameras every day, cant the [email protected] see that? who makes these stupid laws - their heads must be screwed after centuries of inbreeding.
Alternative soldering methods - lead free solder - have been available for some time.
Forward thinking should have directed effort towards approved soldering process.
jas
I gave up eating solder years ago!
hopefully give global warming a kick start and get a warmer climate in this country!
I gave up eating solder years ago!
It's a real shame, but if these camera's were making a profit, then a solution would be found.
Mattw
Sad to see these cameras go, but is there a future for medium format?
(I hope so, but I fear not)
When I bought Film in the US, it came in the tub, no additional cardboard box, handier for me, cheaper for Fuji, better for the environment, yet no one does it over here.
Memory cards come with a heap of plastic packaging(much more wasteful than cardboard) which goes straight in the bin, less packaging is in everyones interests, but there is no urge to do it.
It has been known to be coming for a long time and most manufacturers have dealt with the issue by changing to new materials when new models are released, so they have minimal retooling costs. Where you have a model that is not replaced/upgraded every couple of years then you have a problem. Just to make it worse, these would normally be the slow selling models, where retooling would just simply not be cost effective. So look forward to more announcements like this in all sorts of areas.
Then will come the scare stories (we can't repair this it's got lead solder in it) - not true there is provision in the legislation for the servicing and maintenance of the old kit. But no doubt it will be used to try to sell you new kit.
anyone know where?
john
Mack
How many households are advised to run their cold water for several minutes, first thing every morning.
DaveO.
I fish in the sea and probably lose about a pound of lead on a bad day. What about shotgun pellets? There's more to this than just lead.
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