Sony Suspends Orders for the New ZV-E10 as Chip Shortage Continues
Sony has announced that it has suspended orders for the ZV-E10, a camera it only announced this past summer. The company has added it to a list of products it has ceased production for as the chip shortage continues.
The ZV-E10 was announced this past July and positioned by Sony as a follow-up to the ZV-1. At the time, Sony told PetaPixel that the ZV-1 sold very well and because of that, a more robust offering for the vlogging market was released in the ZV-E10. The camera is mainly a reconfigured a6100 and features a set of hardware changes that specifically target vlogging: a swing-out screen to self-monitor from in front of the lens, the removal of the electronic viewfinder to make the camera even more lightweight and compact, a directional three-capsule microphone for good audio pickup without adding an external microphone, and a one-touch mode button that replaces the dial to switch from stills for video.
The camera was met with mixed reception. While some found it to be a solid addition to Sony’s camera line, PetaPixel’s Ryan Mense was less enthused.
“From an ideological standpoint, the Sony ZV-E10 has the potential to be a great content creation camera. There are some simplifications made that for the right person, can be seen as losing distractions rather than losing features,” he wrote in his review. “However, when it comes to execution I did not find the camera to be special in many areas. Except for the most basic of well-lit shots, the autofocus is not as reliable as I would want, and worse, filming with the camera feels like I need to rush to beat the overheating.”
That opinion might be more widely held than perhaps anticipated, as Sony has decided to cease orders for the camera and is prioritizing other electronics over it, not even six months after it was announced. As spotted by Sony Alpha Rumors, the company published a notice on its website, citing the lack of availability of parts.
Currently, with regard to digital imaging products, parts procurement is delayed due to the effects of global semiconductor shortages.
Therefore, we will suspend the acceptance of orders from our distributors and customers at the Sony store as follows for specific models with tight supply.
Regarding the resumption of order acceptance, we will consider it while observing the status of parts supply, and will inform you separately on the product information page.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers.
We will do our utmost to deliver the product as soon as possible, and we appreciate your understanding.
The ZV-E10 joins the Alpha 7 II series, the a6400, and the a6100 as cameras that Sony has paused production of. Sony has been prioritizing its more popular cameras and pausing the production of older and weaker selling units, which points to a likely scenario of poor sales for the ZV-E10 in its sub-six-month stint on the market. It is not clear when or if Sony will offer these cameras again once the chip shortage is finally a thing of the past.
