News
Shake-up among Japanese camera makers
Konica-Minolta has decided to exit the camera manufacturing business. The collaboration between two of Japan’s once formidable photography equipment manufacturers has come to an end in the face of stiff competition in the Single Lens Reflex (SLR) digital camera arena from other well-known brands such as Pentax, Nikon and Canon.
Since July, 2005, Konica-Minolta has produced the cameras in partnership with the Sony Corporation. Konica-Minolta will sell part of the business operations to Sony, who will continue on its own, but only to manufacture lenses for the Konica-Minolta lens mounts. The company that owns the Konica brand, Konishiroku, will continue to make Konica copiers and other business and medical imaging machines.
As one player exits the digital SLR business, another enters. Leica, the well-known analogue camera manufacturer that had yet to make a stir in the digital camera business, has formed a partnership with Panasonic, owned by Matsushita Electric Company. The two companies will collaborate to produce their own digital SLR cameras under the brand name Lumix. They have introduced their flagship product, called the Lumix LC1 (retail $1,599.99), which uses the Leica’s famous Summicron Lens.
Click here to view the press release from Konica Minolta.
Click here for the press-release about the Lumix LC1.
Takashi Yoshida of PLANS, Ltd.
Posted in: News, Photographers, Product Reviews
