Sony A Mount Dies with Whimper

As is tradition among camera manufacturers, rather than announcing the discontinuation of a major mount system, Sony quietly removed the remaining A mount lenses from its lineup. SonyAlphaRumors reports the line was quietly “dumped in the darkness.”

The A mount bodies were already gone.

This long-accepted behavior makes it difficult for shooters of more obscure mounts to know whether it makes sense to continue to invest in lens systems that haven’t seen many recent updates. The behavior isn’t limited to long-neglected mounts though, with Samsung perhaps providing a counter-example of a seemingly world-eating, growing and well-liked mount system suddenly dropped.

Many consider the current Canon M mount to be one of those systems that will, in retrospect, turn out to have been rendered defunct some months ago. Current rumors of an RF mount-based crop camera system – if true – may turn out to be the precipitating event.