Sony FX5 slips to January 8 in Europe, November 20 in Japan

Sony's FX5 cinema camera has slipped again in Europe at least , with multiple Sony sites in now listing its shipping date as January 8.

We were really hoping not to have to use this graphic again. But, while all the mood music from out of the US is that the long-awaited Sony FX5 will actually ship in early to mid-November, Sony's own direct-to-consumer sites in multiple European countries paint a bleaker picture. Sites including those in the UK, France, and Germany now list January 8 as the first ship date for pre-orders, nearly two months later than their previous listing.

A new statement from Sony Japan, the first since September on the subject, lists availability as November 20. US listings at resellers such as Adorama say that pre-orders are open now and that the expected availability starts at November 16.

As before, the postponement (or lack of postponement, depending on where you are) covers the FX5 camera body along with three related accessories: the DVF-EL1 OLED viewfinder, the XLR-H2 XLR handle unit, and the VMC-BNCU1 timecode adapter cable.

What's going on? To be honest, it's difficult to know. Sony has played its cards very close to its chest ever since the first delays back in August, but it looks like the initial problems were with the rear LCD, as PetaPixel reported. As far as anyone was aware, those had been fixed and the cameras were on their way to retailers.

An optimistic reading is that Sony is swamped by order volume, that the stock simply isn’t there to fill new European orders, and that existing orders will still ship in mid-November. A more pessimistic one points to the lack of an official US ship date and wonders whether Sony’s European sites are the canary in the coal mine for delays elsewhere as they have been before. We're just crossing our fingers and hoping at this point...