This rumor comes out of South Korea via Asiae (via SamMobile) who claims that Samsung will be closing down the department. The staff employed are expected to be reshuffled and moved into other sectors like medical and mobile. It has also been noted that Samsung’s camera website has not been updated in months, leading to speculation that the rumors could hold some truth to them.
That being said while Samsung’s cameras have been proven to be pretty good in terms of picture quality, they are in a pretty competitive field with the likes of Fujifilm, Olympus, Sony, Nikon, and Canon, just to name a few and who have been in the camera business for much longer and with more experience.
The shut down rumors have gained additional traction when retailers in Portugal have stopped stocking Samsung cameras completely. When the folks at SamMobile asked Samsung to comment on the rumors, the company claimed that they are unable to comment on them right now, so until we hear the official word, take it with a grain of salt for now.