VIEWPOINT: The team behind HWM was invited to Hokkaido, Japan by Panasonic for the announcement and launch of the company’s 3D-capable AVCHD-based consumer camcorder, the SDT750, the new LUMIX DMC-LX5, pocket camcorder TA1 and many more.

Our sister site, HardwareZone.com has covered the launch event extensively in two parts here and here. You’d notice we’ve also done a video interview with highlights from the launch event and interviews with two senior executives from Panasonic Corporation.

Mr. Michiharu Uematsu (left), Manager, Advanced Planning for Panasonic Corporation and Mr. Motoki Nakahara (right), GM for Panasonic Marketing Asia Pacific.

VIEWPOINT: The HardwareMAG.com team met up with marketing and product specialists from the Overseas Marketing Team for Panasonic Corporation to have a closer look at the company’s latest range of digital cameras for the Autumn season.

Organized by Panasonic Asia Pacific, the team was able to get a hands-on session with Panasonic’s Lumix compact cameras as well as hear about the company’s Micro Four Thirds system cameras.

The hands-on session was led primarily by Mr. Dai Mukai from the Optical Marketing Team, Overseas Sales and Marketing Group from Panasonic Corporation, with additional delivery by Mr. Michiharu Uematsu, Manager, Advanced Planning, Products Planning Group from Panasonic Corporation and Mr. Motoki Nakahara, General Manager, Panasonic Marketing Asia Pacific (PMA) from Panasonic Asia Pacific.

Among the cameras shown were the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FP8, DMC-FX65, DMC-ZR1 and the DMC-FZ35. (Editor opinions: 3)

Here’s our ViewPoint video from the session.

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: I think it’s time that Panasonic arranges more product launches in the region, especially outside Singapore.

Though the brand is well known in Singapore, it isn’t in the rest of the region, such as Indonesia.

A lot of branding exercises need to be done to bring itself on par with the competition. The Lumix line is a good opportunity.

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): The Power O.I.S. looked really convincing and I certainly can’t wait for our personal review assessment on how it translates in our standard usage tests.

Also, this is a good example of a media presentation where the company actually takes the effort to setup the necessary equipment to highlight what new features differentiate them from their previous models and that of the competition.

I hope more companies would take note of this and not just rely on marketing slides to deliver their messages.

Paolo Manzano, Managing Editor, HWM Philippines

Paolo (HWM Philippines): Panasonic has always had an interesting line-up of cameras. It’s too bad that it takes the local subsidiary some time to release them into the market.

The ZR-1 is especially interesting as a newcomer to the Lumix line-up and the imaging world in general, with its unconventional compact body with a slightly longer zoom range. Perhaps this is a new category for compacts, extending the zoom range from the standard 3x - 5x to 8x.

The product demo is especially interesting, in particular the shaker machine. Panasonic Philippines has done all sorts of demos including crashing a steel ball on a PDP, but this is something I haven’t seen yet. Very cool and very illustrative. In this vein, Power O.I.S seems especially powerful, though one has to wonder how it affects battery life.

SHOWCASE: Panasonic Asia Pacific organized a launch and workshop seminar for journalists from all over the world in Sentosa Island, Singapore and the theme of the 2-day event was basically underwater photography and videography with their latest range of LUMIX imaging devices.

Among the products showcased to journalists there, of note would be the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FT1, its first underwater camera which can go as deep as 3 meters. Its camcorder sibling, the SDR-SW21 is also waterproof up to 2 meters. Other notable features in the LUMIX line-up are 70x optical zoom, Face Recognition and a new AVCHD Lite video recording feature.

For the full details of Panasonic’s latest LUMIX range of cameras and camcorders, check out the expose scooped up by the team from Singapore’s HardwareZone.com, otherwise, have a quick glimpse in our Showcase Gallery after the jump: (more…)