Digital Cameras

The LUMIX Concept

Ever since Panasonic introduced the first LUMIX camera in 2002, the aim behind LUMIX has been to give amateur photographers a camera capable of helping them take great photos.

It seems like an obvious goal, but back in 2002 most camera manufacturers were rather focussing on cramming as many mega-pixels as possible into me-too cameras - without really thinking about whether the resulting photos would be any good. After all an average photo is still an average photo no matter how much resolution it is captured in!

Their first move in developing a camera which would help people find the great photographer inside them, was to form a collaboration with the legendary and most prestigious lens maker on the planet - Leica. Known for their expressive colours and remarkable depth, Leica lens are deservedly famous for their superb performance so they were the natural choice for LUMIX. As the lens is the 'eye' of the camera, getting this part of the camera right is absolutely fundamental to taking better photos.

Panasonic then used the immense depth and breadth of its Audio-Visual experience by combining absolute state-of-the-art digital image processing, in the shape of its Venus Engine LSIs, with Leica's superior optics. Furthermore, based on their video camera knowledge, they also introduced a ground breaking and fully optical image stabiliser, called MEGA O.I.S, to compensate for the biggest cause of poor photos - jitter hands! The result was LUMIX - a camera which has been designed from the bottom up to help you take better photos.

Since then, LUMIX has continued to set the pace in introducing new features which help to take better photos. Testifying that this strategy was the correct one, Panasonic's LUMIX cameras have grown to become huge best sellers all over Europe - even beating established camera brands in some countries!

This section aims to give you more details and insight into what really makes LUMIX cameras different - read on!