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GX1: Interview with Panasonic US's Darin Pepple

Nov 7, 2011 at 05:03:13 GMT

INTERVIEW MICRO-FOUR-THIRDS PANASONIC

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In advance of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 announcement, we conducted a brief video interview at the PhotoPlus Expo with Darin Pepple, Sr. Product Manager for Imaging at Panasonic who showed off a pre-production version of this much anticipated camera.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1

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Comments

Total comments: 31

This Pepple guy cannot be a photographer! There doesn't seem to be any understanding, let alone passion, for what they put in this camera...

or, he's simply saying what nobody here wants to hear: this is a consumer camera for the vast majority of customers who like the shape but don't want to get into frightening technicalities such as speed and exposure...

0 upvotes

What are you talking about? He's saying they added back into the feature list of the G rangefinder-style cameras the features they deleted from the GF2 and GF3. That is, the opposite of what you propose here.

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DEEPLY relieved that Panasonic is producing a model like this. I really was beginning to think that they were abandoning the enthusiast m4/3 market to Olympus.

Also, pleased to see a body-only option finally available; makes a lot of sense for existing system owners like me (I already own enough kit zooms, thankyou).

That said, it's kind of disappointing that we've only got "back" to the GF1 in terms of body design*. There's no mention here of any attempt to solve the G-series inability to tackle depth focussing**, or, my personal big wish, the addition of a proper fold-out screen. But I guess everybody's got different wish lists and it makes sense to stick with a design that's known to be popular.

*fair enough, there's the touch screen.
**I know I the Olympus 12mm solves this problem (assuming you can afford/find one), what that doesn't do is let me depth focus with my Panny 20mm 1.7 or zoom lenses.

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From Mr. Pepple's previous interviews, and to some extent from this one, it seems very likely that he is a marketing rather than a camera man, that he was pulled kicking and screaming into supporting this camera ("core customers" or not) and that he has not signed off yet on a GF/GX camera with a built-in EVF. If I am wrong, apologies to him.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

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On reflection, there are two many surmises here.

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Anyone else notice the interviewer doesn't appear to know anything about digital cameras? He's asking generic questions like it's going out of style.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

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maybe, they're softballs, the suit seems to have memorized the features, but unfortunately doesn't seem overly enthused. To bad, this looks like a terrific camera.

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Those familiar with DPR are aware that Amadou is frequently used in the role of interviewer. I think he is neither tired nor lacking knowledge of digital cameras as has been suggested. There is little point for an interviewer to get testy or pose probing questions to a product manager. Why not cut Amadou a bit of slack?

2 upvotes

Was the interviewer tired?

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So, did he say weather the new power-zoom kit lens is sharper than the more convenient manual-zoom kit lens? It would be interesting to compare these two.

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At the end of the vid the rep states the new power zoom utilizes "their highest quality glass." I was under the impression that the Lumix lenses were polycarbonate. Does anyone know where to find this info?

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I own 14-45 and 45-200: I assure you that the ARE glass. Nice glass indeed. :)
And I also had the chance of having managed at a friend's store ALL the Panasonic optics for G family: ALL of the lenses previously created of the new powerzooms are made out of glass.
Also, I cannot confirm that the two new lenses have parts of the internal groups made out of polycarbonate, but sincerely I cannot believe they put down the quality of their top...

Comment edited 57 seconds after posting

1 upvote

polycarbonate? really? where do people get misinformation like this???

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sales dude I was chatting with at best buy. He wasn't saying one was better than the other, or saying cheaper. I commented how light the 14mm lens was compared to the Nex lens, and that's what he said.

I still can't find anything that specifies lens material one way of the other.

Comment edited 14 minutes after posting

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You believe what you hear from Best Buy clerks??? You gotta be kidding me! For laughs I go to my local Best Buy and ask simple questions of their camera folks just to hear them stumble and bumble to provide wrong answers!!!

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Did I not hear him say.. "We consumerized this camera..." So they did not create a camera with serious amateurs in mind but generic consumers of point and shoots? I reallize we are all consumers but I thought the premis of this camera was for the advanced amateur.. and I see nothing that really speaks to that class of consumer.

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No you didn't. He said (paraphrasing here) that they have spent time consumerizing their technology and with the GX1 they are getting back to their core audience

2 upvotes

Well nikon have just placed their entire MILCnikon 1 range on this BS too: over priced at that !!

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Would have been simpler to playback the portion of the interview that you seem to have missed. Or did you get sidetracked by the vivid green sweater?

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

1) Hire dude with giant hands
2) Make camera look tiny
3) profit

6 upvotes

You missed the ???????? step.

Underpants gnomes

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Wouldn't it be great to have Kay from Digital Rev do interviews? These interviews where some marketing fellow laps up the marketing talk about the camera's USP's are pretty boring...

2 upvotes

I'd love to see that. I thought Kai was annoying at first, but he puts out consistently entertaining videos that still address what makes a camera useful or not. Well, most of the time.

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I second that. In fact I've seen many commented on of kai's excellent youtube videos with the same idea before. C'mon dpreview cross overs are quite popular in social media, this is your chance to get some icing to the cake!

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Hmmmm. Might just be enough to stop me switching from my GF1 to a Sony NEX7. Full review ASAP please DPreview!

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nice informative interview video.

Comment edited 25 seconds after posting

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Sweet sweater, its a pretty solid look and personally preferable to Richards polo and blazer, although that is also a solid look.

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Well when the only comment is about clothing, that speaks volumes about the interview.

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Mixed with the white collared (Polo?) lends a touch of formality while still keeping things 'fresh' and 'fun'.

Much like the GX1?

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-Yawn- less fluff interviews and more camera reviews, please. This site did not become great by interviewing people and reviewing books. It REVIEWED CAMERAS!

1 upvote

Did you notice that this interview was published alongside a hands-on preview of the camera? And once we get a production copy we'll give it an in-depth review.

1 upvote

Total comments: 31

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