As widely reported, Sony appears to have finally and quietly discontinued the last of its DSLRs. The a99 II, a77 II, and a68 cameras show as “no longer available” through dealers and have been removed from the company’s official website.
First reported by Sony Alpha Rumors, Sony’s full list of cameras on its official website no longer shows any A-mount DSLRs and the a99 II, a77 II, and a68 are no longer available to purchase from dealers. It is not clear when exactly these products were phased out, only that they are now unavailable.
Here’s insight from Stephen Shankland at CNET about the bigger picture of the move to mirrorless and the move away from film-era designs for cameras.
Here are the final casualties that mark the end of the DSLR age as assembled by PetaPixel.
The Sony a77 II was launched in 2014 and even back then, there was an overwhelming sentiment that Sony would soon abandon the format. At the time, the a77 II impressed with its 79 autofocus points, 15 of which were cross-type, which when paired with the translucent mirror technology built into Sony’s SLTs, meant 12fps for up to 60 high res JPEGs with continuous autofocus.
The Sony a68 was launched in 2015 with 4D autofocus as its most highly-touted feature. It used 79 AF points and is what the company called at the time the world’s highest among interchangeable cameras with dedicated phase-detection AF sensors.
The Sony a99 II will go down as the final DSLR produced by Sony. It was announced in 2016 and featured a new backside-illuminated full-frame 42.4MP Exmor R CMOS sensor with a special “gapless-on-chip” design for improved light gathering and fast data readout. It was also the first time the company integrated 4D autofocus into a full-frame sensor.
