Panasonic Japan has officially killed off the Lumix LX100 II. Released in 2018, this follow-up to the popular LX100 stood out amongst the compact camera competition by having the same large 20.3-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor as the Panasonic Lumix GX9. Capable of shooting 4K UHD video, with a built-in 24-75mm equivalent f/1.7-2.8 lens, the LX100 II also proved to be quite popular. But now its time has come to an end.

And it looks like this might be an end to the LX100 line completely as Panasonic turns away from compact cameras. In April of this year, Panasonic was reported to be ditching “low-end models” to set their sights on professional photographers and filmmakers with higher-end kit in the interchangeable lens mirrorless market.

Compact cameras have been struggling for years – since before the LX100 II was originally announced – but now the market has simply shrunk too small to sustain multiple companies competing in the space, even at the higher end of the compact market. As more people switched to smartphones, the main use case for such cameras became vloggers, who picked up cameras like the LX100 II, Sony RX100 series and Canon G7X III.

With more and more lightweight interchangeable lens vlogging-oriented cameras coming on the market, though, even that audience has dwindled. There are also a great many much better interchangeable lens options available on the used market now than ever before, meaning that the high-end compact isn’t a viable investment from a business standpoint anymore for those YouTubers and content creators who might have gone that route in the past.

Smartphones are also massively increasing in capability with higher resolution front cameras so people can see themselves while shooting, better low light performance, fake depth of field to simulate a larger sensor that, while not perfect, is improving on a very regular basis. And this is the preferred carry-around camera option for most of the planet’s population these days and still remains a popular option for many content creators, even outside of vertical video platforms.

It’s a shame to see these higher-end compact cameras being killed off, but it isn’t much of a surprise. What is surprising, though, is that even with Nikon and Fuji suspending their compact camera lines, Panasonic appearing to do the same and Canon not really doing much with theirs, Sony still seems to be full steam ahead, having released the new Sony ZV-1F only a few days ago.

[via 43Rumors]