Mamiya Leaving the Camera Business

Mamiya who recently released the 22 megapixel Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital SLR, have announced on their Japanese website, that they are going stop manufacturing cameras and sell their optical division to Cosmos:

"Mamiya notes that the advent of first compact digital cameras, and later high end DSLRs, both badly hurt its sales of medium format cameras. In an attempt to recover, it planned the twenty two megapixel Mamiya ZD SLR, as well as a related digital back for its medium format film cameras. Announced in September 2004, the Mamiya ZD finally reached the market in December 2005. The expense of bringing that camera to market has proven too much to bear, though, with four consecutive quarters of tough financial results." (translated quote from Imaging-Resource)

The full press release is available on DCWatch (translated by Google).