DSLRBodies

Updated (italic statements)

I originally thought that the EU's common charger directive had grandfather clauses in it, but apparently not. For instance, many are citing an EU Parliament interpretation of the directive, which says "new rules would not apply to products placed on the market before the date of application." But the actual directive says "all [devices] sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port." 

On December 24th, 2024, you won't be able to sell most electronic devices in the EU with a removable or embedded rechargeable battery that isn't compliant with the USB-C charger directives. This includes mobile phones, tablets, e-readers, digital cameras, game consoles, headphones, earbuds, portable speakers, wireless mice, wireless keyboards, and portable navigation devices. (Laptops will be covered by the new rules at a later date in Spring 2026.) The directive was first made in 2022, giving manufacturers two years to comply. This is part of the confusion. The EU commission that issued the directive seems pretty clear that the two-year warning should have been enough to rid the market of non-common chargers. It certainly caused Apple to switch to USB-C from Lightning.

To put it simply, a camera whose battery can be charged internally via USB-C (USB Power Delivery) is okay, one that can not be charged via USB-C, isn't. In Nikon's current DSLR lineup, we have:

• D7500 — No USB PD
• D780 — USB PD
• D850 — USB PD NO USB PD (I remembered wrong in my original post)
• D6 — No USB PD

This means that come 2025, Nikon would only be able to sell the D780 in Europe. None of Canon's DSLRs would be sellable in Europe in 2025. 

That means one of several things: 

1. DSLRs have a drop-dead dead at the end of 2024. The EU directive gives the camera makers a "reason" to drop their DSLR lineups.
2. One Nikon DSLRs carries on in 2025 (D780) worldwide. One might conjecture that Nikon would create a D6s model that skirts the requirements, though the need to condition EN-EL18 batteries might pose a problem. Another possibility, I suppose, is that Nikon supplies the EH-8P with an MH-34 charger for the other cameras, but this is one of those gray areas in the regulations.
3. DSLRs mostly or completely disappear in Europe in 2025, but straggle on in the rest of the world.

With Europe accounting for 20-25% of shipments recently, the EU requirements may just be enough to trigger the camera companies towards retiring the mirror slappers, as the volume of DSLR shipments is now running at about a tenth that of mirrorless. 

It's not just DSLRs that have the USB requirement problem, though. A number of older mirrorless cameras (many Canon M, Nikon Z50, etc.) have the same problem. 

Finally, there's this: in the absence of a clear message about whether or not a product complies with the directive, the Japanese will simply avoid the problem by withdrawing the product in question. If there is inventory at the time the directive goes into effect, traditionally the Japanese would send this to markets that don't have similar rules. 

I'm now thinking we're going to have mass retirements in about a year. The question is whether any of the DSLRs will carry on beyond that. 

And a footnote: the EU regulations also require that packaging have an icon on it that indicates if a charger is supplied, and that icon must show minimum and maximum USB PD wattage. That label leaves a bit to be desired, but at least is a start.