Canon Ends “Kiss” Camera Lineup In Japan (and “Rebel” lineup too?)

Canon

After almost 30 years, Canon is killing the popular “Kiss” camera lineup in Japan (and Asia).

The news comes from ITMedia News, and is nicely summed up by Digicame-Info:

  • On February 8, Canon announced the APS-C mirrorless “EOS R50” that inherited the concept of the company’s entry-level single-lens camera “EOS Kiss” series.
  • The R50 is a model that aims to improve image quality with the EOS R system while inheriting the concept of the company’s “EOS Kiss” series, “simple, clean, compact”. However, it does not bear the name of Kiss, and is not a direct successor to the current model “EOS Kiss M2” of the same brand. Nonetheless, while covering the entry level targeted by Kiss, it will be developed as a model that conveys the appeal of mirrorless cameras more widely.
  • The Kiss series is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but as mentioned above, the R50 is an entry model but not the “Kiss” series. According to Canon Marketing Japan, camera needs have diversified with the changing times, and in order to convey the appeal of mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras to a wider range of people than Kiss users so far, it has been integrated into a model name that is used globally instead of the Kiss brand. It is said that
  • Kiss is a brand name that was originally used in Japan, for example, the overseas name of the EOS Kiss M2 was “EOS M50 Mark II”. However, in addition to the EOS Kiss M2, the EOS Kiss series including single-lens reflex cameras such as the “EOS Kiss X10/X10i” are still on sale, so the Kiss brand will not disappear soon.

This makes me wonder if Canon will kill the Rebel camera lineup too. I guess they will. The new Canon EOS R50 seems to introduce a new entry-level camera lineup that might well replace the Kiss and Rebel lineups.

Any idea?