What does this mean? EOSHD takes a look.
Pro photographers have been notified by Panasonic that their support service is being terminated.
Those paying a membership fee to cover repairs will soon have to seek alternatives. There’s also been a memorandum put out online by the company, which you can see for the UK market at https://www.lumixpro.panasonic.com/uk/
This is quite an unusual move – can you imagine Nikon ending NPS or Canon Professional Services withdrawing support to all the sports photographers and journalists that use Canon or Nikon gear?
It looks like Panasonic has seen the domination of Canon, Nikon and Sony in the pro market and decided to withdraw and to no longer try and compete.
Could Panasonic exit the camera market in 2026?
If this is the beginning of the end for Lumix cameras, the reason might be little to do with photography or filmmaking.
In 2026 many are predicting a global recession caused by the collapse of the tech industry and over-investment in AI. Like the credit crunch in 2008 and the dot-com bubble in 2000, the banks have been pouring cash into some very questionable investments, and there’s absolutely vast sums involved and enormous geo-political risk. China for example could end the whole Western dominance of the AI market in one move – by invading Taiwan, where TSMC manufactures NVidia’s AI hardware.
In both of the last major economic shocks, excluding COVID, corporations cut back heavily on their workforce, and ordinary tax payers had to bail out the financial institutions to avoid a collapse.
Japanese companies are known to be very risk averse – for example in the banking collapse of 2008, Honda pulled out of all major marketing activities even Formula One.
If Panasonic were to cut 30% of their global workforce, the axe would most likely fall on the sectors of the company that are smallest or least profitable, and ones that have the least potential for future growth.
Now that cameras have retreated into a professional niche again, there’s probably not room for so many Japanese manufacturers all competing against each other in a market dominated by Canon and Sony.
I predict that Panasonic’s LUMIX division, OM System and Pentax will be the victims of the 2026 financial crash.
I hope this won’t be the case but I do think the chances are very high.
A retreat from pro cameras
Panasonic Pro Services offer repair and service for all the major S-series cameras, like the Panasonic S1H, S5 Mark II and 2025’s new S1R Mark II / S1 Mark II.
Who will repair, recondition or service Panasonic’s top of the line models going forward?
In my opinion, Panasonic is soft-quitting the market for professional photographers and videographers. The S1H Mark II is missing completely, and it’s been 6 years. The S1R Mark II and S1 Mark II as we’ve already seen, are priced like flagship cameras but use a similar body to the consumer-grade S5 series and use older sensor designs which are considered lower-end technology, instead of the latest cutting edge stacked sensors used by competitors Sony, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm.
Hopefully Panasonic will be clarifying their service and repair plans for Lumix users in the coming days.
