On May 30, 2013, Panasonic held IR meeting with the presidents of 4 Companies and CFO, following its business reorganization conducted on April 1, 2013. You cna download all documents at http://panasonic.net/ir/presentation/irday2013/. The main interesting file for us is the AVC Networks Company PDF.
What’s hot:
First: It looks like Panasonic development of image sensors will now be developed for the medical, automotive and security business mainly. It may be that Panasonic will buy future MFT sensors from third party companies like Sony only?
Second: Panasonic wants to cut 60% of the current development costs of compact cameras.
Third: Panasonic will now focus their efforts on the mirrorless market by enhancing the product uniqueness, launch more lenses for “motion pictures” (video)
It was inevitable for Panasonic to focus on the mirrorless market. And I am also not really surprised about the new sensor strategy. A while ago Panasonic managers stated in multiple interviews that they now want to go up to the professional digital camera business. It will be not easy for them to compete against giants like Canon and Nikon! What can they do to succeed?
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files found via ImageSensorWorld.
42 Responses
Ok, I not it may not be completely politically correct, but I had to laugh when I read the slide and found the advantage of mirrorless to be “Hi-Bit and Flame rate” 😀
lol!
Especially since it has been the Canon vDSLRs, not the Panasonics, that had overheating problems. 😉
I agree that they should do something with marketing.
I remember the time when GF3 was released (later also for G3) and Pana representative was presenting this product in a shop (in my country a well known camera shop) and I tested him a little bit. I asked him just basic questions like if it supports bulb or tricky question if it supports new SDXC UHS-i memory cards. He was not able to answer my questions. He was only able to present it a traditional way as a salesman and let me try the equipment with many lenses.
Since then I haven’t seen any Pana presentation in shops. From Oly not even once.
Sorry, response to wrong thread.
I do remember quite a few flame threads after the GH3 was released, mission accomplished? 🙂
What Panasonic needs most is a clear plan. They seem to be all over the place with their mirrorless propositions: semi-professional video/stills hybrids, tiny entry level ILCs, affordable DSLR lookalikes and soon also stylish RF-like cameras. As to lenses, there are three different messages: more high quality lenses, more affordable lenses and now more video-oriented lenses. Mirrorless technology gives the manufacturers great freedom of design and it is clear that different user groups have different preferences as to cameras and lenses. However, competing in all those segments without a clear product vision may prove risky. Perhaps Panasonic is trying to declare itself as the “Canon of mirrorless” by planting a product line in every conceivable niche. It is a bold strategy, but its prospects to succeed in the long run are questionable. After all, the global camera market is approaching saturation.
@sneye
Global camera market is not approaching saturation, just like the global car market is not at saturation. Most people will always want cameras (except the smartphone/p&s crowd) and more people are finding photography accessible.
Panasonic should concentrate on the growing enthusiast and semi pro market because these are more open to new ideas and are most dissatisfied with DSLRs.
Panny, Oly and Fuji are doing the right thing by scaling right back their p&s offerings more fool to any company that continues to pursue this type of consumer.
Actually Panasonic has a clear and diverse lineup of M4/3 cameras.
If the rumors are indeed true…
Tiny GL, Small GF-Series, the true rangefinder GX7, mid-sized G-Series MSLR and full-tilt GH3. 3 of which will have built-in EVFs.
I agree that Panasonic needs more high-quality lenses. Now there’s the 7-14mm, 12-35mm, 25mm, 45mm macro and 35-100mm… soon the 42.5mm and 150mm. A fast ultra-wide prime would be great and a longer, telephoto prime, like a 300mm f4, or a higher-quality, faster 100-300mm.
What Panasonic and Olympus BOTH need to work on is marketing and distribution. It would be nice if more people actually knew about M4/3 and the advantages. Often I get blank stares when describing the technical aspects of my GH2. Or be able to find them in stores and not have salespeople steer potential buyers to the Nikon and Canon counters. I see this over and over.
I agree. Marketing and distribution are critical.
Agree. Oly Marketing is non existent in Europe. I think it´s the same for Panasonic cameras.
Same here in South Africa. Olympus micro-4/3 stuff can be bought if you ask for it (and they’ll import it, availability 4 weeks), but Panasonic SA doesn’t even import their own stuff! If you want Panasonic micro-4/3 then you have to “import” it yourself from B&H or Adorama, and have zero local support.
OK, funny thing is … Fuji is really building a strong following with solid sales of the X100 and their other gear BECAUSE they import, market and support their products here! So the market for micro-4/3 is definitely here, but Panasonic and Olympus are really doing nothing to build users.
I absolutely agree. Marketing is an often forgotten factor.
I agree that they should do something with marketing.
I remember the time when GF3 was released (later also for G3) and Pana representative was presenting this product in a shop (in my country a well known camera shop) and I tested him a little bit. I asked him just basic questions like if it supports bulb or tricky question if it supports new SDXC UHS-i memory cards. He was not able to answer my questions. He was only able to present it a traditional way as a salesman and let me try the equipment with many lenses.
Since then I haven’t seen any Pana presentation in shops. From Oly not even once.
What can they do to succeed? As much as I agree with what sneye writes my answer clearly is: if you say you want to deliver high quality equipment then you need to deliver at some point. The GH3 is a great camera but very few lenses have that high quality. Camera bodies get renewed every 1 – 2 years, some lenses not even after 4 years. Sports and Wildlife photographers simply need excellent AF tracking of fast moving objects. Neither the cameras nor the lenses for that exist so there can not be any competition with the likes of Canon and Nikon.
Isn’t that operating under the assumption that sports and wildlife are market sectors that panasonic cares to compete on? I mean, it would be nice to see m4/3 hang with DSLR’s in the fast action realm of photography, but I’m not sure that it’s something that Panasonic executives are losing sleep over in terms of sales figures.
AF tracking that really works is clearly a feature of semi – pro and particularly professional systems. Not to have these features simply means that you can’t compete with products of other brands that can do that.
Panasonic clearly stated that they would want to get into that leagues in the future. Particularly their lens lineup is disappointing in that respect.
Excellent AF tracking is what m4/3 needs to open up the market: once mums can shoot their moving kids with a camera they will be sold on a small lightweight pocketable (handbagable). And we daddies don’t need an excuse why we are again buying a new camera and new lenses.
.Anonymous
Most interesting for me is the sensor stuff. If Pana only uses external, possibly Sony sensors, that probably means the end of Multi Aspect Sensors. It could also mean Pana will design their sensors in-house and delegate production to external prodcuers. So what will the GX7 sensor be? I hope it’s at least as good as the EM-5 / GH3 sensor.
but i care external ss make cam too expensive ,
i think Panny will do like Nikon choose best on cost image sensor 😉
and like you ,not only multi aspect feature but Smart FSI and Micro Color Splitter will disappear !!!
Oh damn 🙁
What can Pana do to succeed?
The most important thing in a digital photography devise is sensor .
If Pana have no confident to compete in sensor tech with the rest , approach Fuji .
That is the only way to excel .
Lenses wise , it doing extremely well & cameras design is quite fine .
A sensor similiar to Fuji’s X trans standard definitely will shine the name of LUMIX .
Panasonic needs to integrate a full-frame format into their m4/3 mount. Leverage both mounts as one.
As a professional who covers corporate events such as conferences, galas, media events, etc., I employ two separate systems: full-frame and m4/3. It would be great to have these two formats in one body.
Those expectations are unrealistic to say the least. You are asking Panasonic to venture into an entirely new (for them) market segment where they have no chance to compete in the foreseeable future. You might as well ask them to start making cars, construction machinery and shampoo because you like their cameras.
You seem to forget that Panasonic is the world’s biggest consumer electronics company.
Yes, but it’s not the biggest opto-mechanic company.
sneye,
As a pro shooter, I would accept 85mm (f1.4) and 135mm (f2) full-frame along with a body that accepts my m4/3 collection of lenses.
This is do-able for both Panasonic and Olympus. Its not a major stretch.
Its time to leverage the base of m4/3 glass.
I also cover corporate events but mostly for the (not photography related) company I work for. It so happens we have a number of in-house photographers who also do commercial work, and until about 6 months ago, it used to be mostly one of my colleagues doing this with initially a D700 and later a D800. Nowadays its mostly me doing this with a m4/3 setup. Simple reason is that its much more convenient to always have around, and it does deliver sufficient quality for such situations. There are most certainly advantages to larger media, but as things improve, those advantages will become less and less relevant, just like what happened to formats larger then 135.
I’m not saying you could do with a single system, but looking at the future, it is pretty evident that the smaller system of the 2 will be able to cover nearly every conceivable situation that your 135 system covers today, and it is good to keep an eye on if that didn’t happen already for your specific situation.
nice to hear ! Focus on MFT is a good choice, i think new sensor + 42.5/1.4 and 150/2.8 will rock!
Correction: 42.5mm 1.2
Panasonic will get my money as soon as that lens is released.
Let’s wait for pricing and overall quality but it’s true they are really tempting 🙂
.Anonymous
Outsource manufacturing of the sensors, but keep design inhouse Panasonic. You’ve got some good engineers working there. Keep’em happy.
inhouse design is too hight technology but outsource manufactor can not produce !!!
and then how to do ,what to do
i think there are one company can do everything of Pany patents = Intel 555
Having owned an E-3 and an E-5, it confirms what I already know. Panasonic should have never been in the sensor business to begin with.
Couldn’t Panasonic make sensors with Toshiba?
In terms of economic scale, probably going with Sony is the best for price since they already produce M43 sensors, going to Toshiba would be a brand new production pipeline which will definitely cost more.
Saying that, I do wish they use Toshiba sensor, even with D5200 the video/picture quality is already ahead of Sony’s sensor, I think Panasonic with Toshiba sensor is gonna give them even more edge since Pana have the know how in terms of video tweaking
and more Aptina or american micro chip such as Teledyne Dalsa ect.
Panny will choose suitable sensor for lumix line dependence by cost and performance.
look back to PEN ,pl5 and pm2 was higher price because of sony m4/3 sensor????
if panny do same oly they will lost confident and lost profit.
i agree @Nelson ,panny will not use only sony sensor because oly join sony oly has special technic from sony
oly can make better camera but panny is not.
format competitor NEX vs M4/4 ,camera-line competitor PEN vs LUMIX
Panny has a difficult game.
outsource manufactures is better or worse ,i don’t know
and something is limited of tech and patents that panny will make the plan for long time.
If there is a Presentation Zen, the slide above belongs to Presentation Hell!
Move to Sony sensors and away from compacts is great news IMO. If they concentrated on some other aspects of their cameras, they could do pretty well financially.
sony is good on material and BSI image sensor but Micro color split is great revolution that
can not found in sony sensor ,BSI better than FSI(panny lumix) in term of sensitive but expensive more than FSI
and on future BSI has limit of proper ,i think may game change notice Toshiba ,Aptina they have better solution,
it ‘s not good You are stick on sony sensor ,they do best today but not tomorrow.