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...
Published By: EOSHD.com blog - Today