This chart [sources: CIPA/Nikkei/TSR] says about all that needs to be said:
The blue bars are the overall DSLR shipment volumeand the blue line the moving average). The red bars are Canon’s DSLR shipments, the yellow bars are Nikon’s DSLR shipments.
The telling story is that Nikon’s total DSLR volume in 2024 for all models was about one tenth their overall mirrorless (Z System) volume. In other words, the four remaining Nikon DSLR cameras together sold less than the average Z System camera.
None of the remaining DSLR cameras are in a dedicated full time production line in the Thailand plant; they’re all now assembled in small batches in the exception lane. The good news is that there is parts sharing between DSLR and mirrorless in the remaining four Nikon DSLRs. However, the DSLRs are all EXPEED5/6, and the mirrorless line recently has been all EXPEED7, so the parts reuse benefits are slowly eroding.
Meanwhile, Nikon’s F-mount lens lineup keeps getting trimmed. Nikon Japan now only lists 40 F-mount lenses as current, and we now regularly hear about an F-mount lens going out of production. (Note: going out of production doesn’t mean going off sale. It appears that Nikon is tolerating some inventory build-up before discontinuing production of lenses. Thus demand will determine exactly when a lens is no longer available new, and there will be some regional variability for that.)
The way to look at things is this: Nikon is clearly supporting DSLR holdouts (and replacements) with a core set of cameras while reducing their commitment to continuing DSLR lens production. However, they’re also not doing any further DSLR and DSLR lens development. We’re in a similar transition period now with DSLRs as we were with film SLRs beginning in 2005. Eventually, the DSLR volumes will be low enough that camera production will be halted. Some lens production is likely to continue much longer, however.
I expect that Nikon will use the holiday 2025 period to move DSLRs, and if successful at that, we may end up with only one or two Nikon DSLRs still sold sometime in 2026.
Those of you still using DSLRs need to be comfortable with the products currently offered, and using the sales and gluts of used inventory to pick up anything you might still need.
