14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2010, Sony decided to tackle the increasingly popular segment of pocket, mirrorless DSLR cameras with its NEX series, comprising the NEX-3 and NEX-5 models, one of which we sadly won't be seeing around anymore.
So, it seems that at least one of the cameras in this series, the NEX-3, was quite short-lived, our colleagues from AkihabaraNews reporting the fact that Sony's Japanese branch has discontinued this model.
We've actually had the chance of reviewing the NEX-3 camera, and for this reason, this piece of news is actually a bit disturbing, given the fact that we've found it to be quite a serious contender in its segment, especially as far as advanced amateurs and even semi-pros were concerned.
Naturally, there are quite a few different reasons why Sony's decided to halt production and sales of the NEX-3 model, some of which might actually give us some hope for the future, while others are just sad.
So, one reason might be related to the fact that the company's actually preparing an update of the series, a model that renders the existence of the NEX-3 futile, providing even more advanced features than the current series flagship, the NEX-5.
Of course, it's equally possible that Sony's killed-off the NEX-3 simply because the differences (both in terms of pricing and features) between this model and the NEX-5 were actually quite minor, customers typically going for the latter.
There's also a slight chance that Sony's pocket DSLR has not recorded fantastic sales figures and the company's cutting its losses.
Of course, only time will tell what was the exact reason for this decision, and whether it will affect Western markets as well (although we strongly suspect that this will be the case, Sony preferring to test things out on its home turf and only then go international).