My GX7 MkIV (GX10) Wishlist

Henry Richardson wrote:

Henry Richardson wrote:

Cafe Racer wrote:

Henry Richardson wrote:

MrALLCAPS wrote:

-Go back to the proper naming of the camera. In Japan it's the GX7 series, which has done well for Panasonic. So call it by it's rightful name, the GX7 MkIV.

Yes, the Panasonic naming is insane. My GX7II (here in Japan) is named GX85, GX80, etc. in other parts of the world. My TX1 (here in Japan) is named ZS100, TZ100, etc. in other parts of the world. Sony, Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Ricoh, Fuji, Sigma, etc. don't do this.

I suspect Panasonic does this so that grey market consumer cameras are easily identified.

It is amusing that Sony, Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Ricoh, Fuji, Sigma, etc. don't seem to be so concerned about this. Or maybe they have found another non-insane way?

Apple doesn't do the Panasonic style insane naming either for their products. I don't think Samsung does either, but I haven't checked. In fact, there are thousands of products that are sold in various countries around the world. Most seem to have the same name everywhere, but there may be a few exceptions.

Canon also uses different names for their consumer models in different regions. As fas a I know, they've been doing this much longer than Panasonic. Panasonic probably got the idea from Canon. I've never seen those models from Panasonic and Canon being sold in the UK by grey market vendors.

I'm not familiar with inner workings of the camera industry, but business to business fines are commonplace in the fashion industry. A lot of money is made behind the scenes through fines. Perhaps Panasonic and Canon are using this naming scheme to easily identify grey imports of consumers cameras so they can trace which region they came from, then impose heavy fines on the distributor for supplying retailers outside of their contracted region. It could be a good little earner! Who knows?!

Even Panasonic doesn't use insane naming all the time though: G9, GH5, GX8, LX100, S1, etc.

I guess it makes sense for Panasonic to keep the identity of the high end cameras consistent across regions, just like Canon does.