The launch of the compact, full-frame Panasonic Lumix S9 was met with heavy criticism from the camera and photography community, mostly owing to the camera's stripped-down feature set and oversold marketing hype, which we touched on previously. A new claimed leak from Andrea Pizzini, however, points to a cropped-sensor camera that might land better with the community.
Pizzini doesn't provide many details about the upcoming Panasonic camera. However, he is confident about a launch date of June 5 and that it will not be a full-frame camera. The mention of a non-full-frame sensor indicates that Panasonic will most likely be launching a Micro Four Thirds camera on June 5.
Given the proximity to the launch of the Leica D-Lux 8, it's reasonable to assume Panasonic will be launching an update to its LX100 II compact camera (curr. $1,289.95 on Amazon), however, it is entirely possible that Panasonic is launching an update to the Lumix GX9 (curr. $1,324.30 on Amazon) Micro Four Thirds camera.
Speculation even points to a Lumix GX10 — or even a GX95 — given that the LX100 II and the Lumix GX9 both launched in 2018, with the GX9 landing in March, while the LX100 II made its appearance in August. Either Micro Four Thirds option would have to compete with the likes of the OM System OM-5 (curr. $999.99 on Amazon), which has proven to be a fan-favourite in the M4/3 community.
Either Micro Four Thirds option would likely win back some trust in the community, given that the GX9 and LX100 II both offer impressive feature sets for their compact form factors. The Micro Four Thirds system is also often seen as a better option than full-frame for compact cameras, mainly because the lenses are far more compact than their full-frame equivalents.
Source(s)
Andrea Pizzini on YouTube, DPReview (1, 2)