A letter to PANASONIC

The market is shrinking and, out of the detritus, two dominant companies have emerged. Panasonic isn't one of them and chances of new models being capable of overcoming the said competition are negligible. MFT might live on as a a format dominated by manual models (Panasonic, BMD, ZCam) with very decent features but AF seems to have sailed away.
 
I'ved owned every model of GH series though the 5, the Eva1 and now with the S series, think Panasonic is making some of the best cameras in their class, by far. I love my workflow and the images I get and the feel and usability of the cameras. I resisted buying L lenses for awhile but I'm loving those too, now. It would be sad if they didn't keep making them. My work on Panasonic has been broadcast in 15 countries, and we keep doing cool projects...I imagine there are others out there, maybe those stories will sell cameras.
 
I've owned a GH3, GH5, and GH5S and thought all were excellent for what they were. I'd likely still have the GH5S if I hadn't wanted something that was easier to match with Sony cameras.

The EVA1 was tempting when it came out but it was hard to justify that expense compared to other options (at least for my needs). Internal 10bit 4K60p to SD cards was the biggest selling point, I thought, but if you could get by with 1080p60 (which I could) there were much cheaper options out there with similar features. I'd love to see an updated EVA1 offering but it's looking less and less likely, unfortunately.
 
B&H's sales ranking is fairly representative of the mid-to-high end market and you don't see a Panasonic ILC camera until the 3rd page.

The Best Buy is more of a low-to-mid market retailer and they're moving a lot of units with the GH-5 & Leica 12-60 F 2.8-4 package for $2,000 but that's a huge discount off the previous range of $2,300-$2,800. S5 is also available as a package.

Now, let's look globally - Panasonic has a 4.7% share of the market. Canon has 45%, Sony and Nikon combine for 39% more. A small share in a shrinking market generally means a signal to quit it.

https://www.statista.com/statistics...rs-digital-cameras-market-share-sales-volume/



In the mirrorless, Sony's leading Canon 35% to 30%, with Fuji picking up a decent chunk at 12%. With Olympus taking 8% more, Nikon 7 1/2, Panasonic is lumped into the "everyone else" pile.
 
DLD said:
Now, let's look globally - Panasonic has a 4.7% share of the market. Canon has 45%, Sony and Nikon combine for 39% more. A small share in a shrinking market generally means a signal to quit it.
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Why quit if you can be profitable? Or you can fund a longer term plan that will make you so?

In terms of shrinking market, I guess you are referring to the camera market as a whole as phones gobble up the bottom end of the market? In terms of professional photographers, videographers, indie filmmakers, youtubers etc. then all of those are growing markets as the world voraciously consumes more and more content.
 
drboffa said:
I've owned a GH3, GH5, and GH5S and thought all were excellent for what they were. I'd likely still have the GH5S if I hadn't wanted something that was easier to match with Sony cameras.

The EVA1 was tempting when it came out but it was hard to justify that expense compared to other options (at least for my needs). Internal 10bit 4K60p to SD cards was the biggest selling point, I thought, but if you could get by with 1080p60 (which I could) there were much cheaper options out there with similar features. I'd love to see an updated EVA1 offering but it's looking less and less likely, unfortunately.
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Out of interest, what camera did you go for instead of the EVA? I was so close to getting one a year ago to match by GHs but I went to the dark side at that juncture and got a Canon C200 due to EVF, AF, and 10 stops of ND (when the base ISO is 800 6 stops isn't enough in these cameras if you want to use the sweet spot of the sensor). When the pandemic landed work dried up so I quickly sold the C200 but now in the market again. I wouldn't write an EVA2 off completely yet as cinema camera cycles are normally longer (3-5 years) compared to the batshit crazy short mirrorless cycles =)
 
James Fisher said:
Out of interest, what camera did you go for instead of the EVA? I was so close to getting one a year ago to match by GHs but I went to the dark side at that juncture and got a Canon C200 due to EVF, AF, and 10 stops of ND (when the base ISO is 800 6 stops isn't enough in these cameras if you want to use the sweet spot of the sensor). When the pandemic landed work dried up so I quickly sold the C200 but now in the market again. I wouldn't write an EVA2 off completely yet as cinema camera cycles are normally longer (3-5 years) compared to the bat**** crazy short mirrorless cycles =)
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I ended up with a Sony Fs5 with the raw upgrade, which I got (used) for about half the price of a new EVA1 at the time. With the addition of a Shogun Inferno to take advantage of the 4K60p offered via the raw output I was still well under the price of a new EVA1. The Fs5 gave me just about everything I needed: solid internal HD codec and framerates, good dynamic range, internal NDs, XLRs, good external recording options, and the ability to adapt a variety of lenses. It had its quirks and shortcomings, but in my view it was the perfect camera for me at the time. Also the variable ND is absolutely brilliant, and once you get used to working with it it's hard to move away from it (hence why I've stayed in the Sony ecosystem and upgraded to an FX6).

Like you I also thought I wanted an EVF at the time, which also played into my decision (somewhat), but the Fs5 EVF was so useless—and so counter to the way I shot with it handheld—that I essentially never used it.

Matching with the GH5 wasn't as easy as matching another Sony camera but it wasn't terrible, either. Although now that I'm all in on Sony I really like the ability to match cameras with very little effort.

Fs5's are even cheaper these days, and despite their flaws I still think they're a fantastic camera for the price. That said, it looks like EVA1 (used) prices have also come down quite a bit, which makes that a more appealing option as well.
 
Don't know for certain how to read these docs, but it seems they made money on their cameras. Hope it stays this way if I am reading it correctly.
 
That's a hopeful assumption. But there is no way to know what cameras contribute to the bottom line because Panasonic does not break out individual product finances. Of the five giant divisions, which will soon become independent companies, with Panasonic as a holding company, the Appliances division, which owns cameras*, did not mention cameras except to say this in the 2020 annual report:

"Sales decreased by 6% to 2,592.6 billion yen from a year ago, declining overall as a result of struggling sales of TVs and digital cameras ". 2.5 billion yen may sound like a lot, but it's only $20 million, which compared to the companie's overall 7.5 trillion yen ($68 billion) income, is chump change.

*Cameras being the type we are discussing; not security cameras.
 
From an article I posted on the GH-6 thread - Panasonic moved ~ 340,000 digital cameras (4.4% global share) in 2020. An average mirrorless digital camera is $868, giving Panasonic somewhere around $300,000,000 in retail sales. But, since Panasonic doesn't do retail, one can estimate its digital camera wholesale revenues - i.e., the amount that flows back to Osaka - between $220 and $250 million.

The company total gross revenues for 2020 were indeed ~$68 billion. Which makes its digital camera division count for approximately 1/3rd of 1% of the total. Which makes one wonder why they even keep bothering.
 
Those numbers are in the ballpark given that TVs and Cameras lost 6% ($20 million) then total sales of TVs and cameras was $333 million. Yes, no doubt, cameras are a spec on the financial sheet. Mitch's thoughts make sense. Besides what Mitch said, it is a difficult to unload a business. Who wants to buy a declining product division in a declining market? Well, as Olympus found out, no one. They can't just abandon it; Too much bad press and upset customers. It's a difficult situation for Masahiro Shinada-san.
 
Paul F said:
Those numbers are in the ballpark given that TVs and Cameras lost 6% ($20 million) then total sales of TVs and cameras was $333 million. Yes, no doubt, cameras are a spec on the financial sheet. Mitch's thoughts make sense. Besides what Mitch said, it is a difficult to unload a business. Who wants to buy a declining product division in a declining market? Well, as Olympus found out, no one. They can't just abandon it; Too much bad press and upset customers. It's a difficult situation for Masahiro Shinada-san.
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as Mitch alluded to, Panasonic could easily choose to continue developing higher-end ILCs entirely for prestige reasons. As long as it remains modestly profitable I would wager that's what continues to happen. We are talking about the largest electronics corporation in Japan....
 
Yes indeed. Perceived prestige can go a long way in doing something that may not make sense any other way. Cities bidding on the Olympics is a perfect example.
 
Prestige is for products like Leica and their Leica/Leitz glass. The GH-series is forgotten as quickly as it's gone. Back in its heyday, it was the among the best value lines in entry level cinematography. S1H was a decent seller too but mostly because its competition was crippled in different but complimentary ways. Now, they're off the charts. And in the bad way too.
 
Yep. That's why I said 'perceived' prestige. Whether real or imagined, prestige can make executives do really stupid things. After all, they are all about money and power.

Always fun talking to you D.
 
What puts Fuji ahead of Panasonic?

Mashkov, Menshov, Myakgov or Menshikov. That's a lot of Ms. Beats me. I don't know their work and two of them are dead. Who do you like?
 
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