The global pandemic already affected the supply chains of camera manufacturers (the EOS R5 announcement was delayed many times). Now a massive fire at a Japanese chip manufacturers might have made things worse.

A three-day fire broke out on October 20 at the AKM Semiconductor factory in Japan. AKM supplies most Japanese camera manufacturers. Inside Imaging reports that

AKM is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs), including digital-to-analog converters (DACs), analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), as well as other components used in the manufacture of  consumer and professional products in the audio and appliance industries.

While it’s not clear at time of writing exactly which components camera manufacturers are sourcing from AKM, the factory made ADC chips which take analog audio from a microphone and converts it to the digital signal that a camera records when shooting video. Just as smartphones are now cameras, cameras are increasingly becoming sophisticated, broadcast-quality audio recording devices, and the connection with a supplier like AKM is by no means peripheral.

The fire destroyed the factory, which won’t be back in production for at least six months and perhaps as long as one year, according to reports.

The fire affects Nikon and Sony too, apparently. Insider Imaging’s article, which is dated 11/24, ends stating that they have been told:

that Canon, Nikon and Sony have already pulled back support for Black Friday promotions ‘as there will be a shortage of stock due to fire in (the) Japan factory,’ according to the source.

So, I didn’t notice or hear of any pulled back support for Black Friday. More information about the fire at AKM can be found here.

[via SiteThatOftenTakesAndNeverCites]