Panasonic adds silver and pink body options to GF1, exhibits poor timing

It’s pretty much common knowledge these days that we’re big fans of Micro Four Thirds cameras, and while Olympus may already be shipping its second generation hardware, Panasonic is holding firm with the still highly desirable GF1. Tweaking up the formula just a tad, the company is throwing its Japanese audience a bone with a pair of frankly stupendous color options, led by the silver (looks more like gunmetal to us) number above. We’re digging the contrast between the black sections and silver body, though the real highlight must be that we don’t find the pink option (pictured after the break) intolerable. Good job by Panasonic on picking out these hues, but why on earth are they coming out on March 12 — shouldn’t the marketing department be aware of certain global consumerist events that exist pretty much exclusively to stimulate indulgent purchases of superficially appealing new gear?

Continue reading Panasonic adds silver and pink body options to GF1, exhibits poor timing

Panasonic adds silver and pink body options to GF1, exhibits poor timing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic prices Lumix DMC-TS2, DMC-ZS5, DMC-ZS7 and DMC-ZR3 cameras

Remember that smattering of Lumix compacts that Panasonic outed at the tail end of last month? Four of the five just got pricing details handed out, and all four are expected to be in stores in the middle of next month. The Lumix DMC-TS2 — which is the most rugged of the bunch — will list for $399.95, while the DMC-ZS7 and DMC-ZS5 will go for $399.95 and $299.95, respectively. The DMC-ZR3 and its 8x optical zoomer will also sell for a nickel under $300, while the DMC-FX66 remains stuck in the land of mystery and mystique. Hit up the source link if you need specifics on each, cool?

Panasonic prices Lumix DMC-TS2, DMC-ZS5, DMC-ZS7 and DMC-ZR3 cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic cops to rising black levels in its plasma HDTVs, but questions still remain

Over the last several months complaints that Panasonic’s plasma HDTVs experience sudden adverse changes in their black levels after a certain number of viewing hours have been piling up in an AVSForum thread, and now that behavior has been confirmed, though not very well explained, in a response the company sent to CNET today:

In order to achieve the optimal picture performance throughout the life of the set, Panasonic Viera plasma HDTVs incorporate an automatic control which adjusts an internal driving voltage at predetermined intervals of operational hours. As a result of this automatic voltage adjustment, background brightness will increase from its initial value … The newest Viera plasma HDTVs incorporate an improved automatic control which applies the voltage adjustments in smaller increments. This results in a more gradual change in the Black Level over time.

Especially considering many buyers purchased their televisions specifically for those deep black levels, you can see why a TV suddenly going Sammy Sosa overnight would be upsetting. One of the reigning theories in the thread indicated by poster & calibrator D-Nice has been that this is by design, but a flaw in the settings caused the large jumps (around double the brightness, as measured by several owners light meters) instead of a much more subtle change. So what now for owners or potential buyers? Without more details about what is going on and whether or not anything can be done about it, like CNET’s David Katzmeier, it’s hard to see how we can continue to recommend these HDTVs for purchase without knowing what they will do months or years down the line. The ball is in Panasonic’s court now, a speedy response could do a lot to assuage the concerns of current and potential owners.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Panasonic cops to rising black levels in its plasma HDTVs, but questions still remain originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba to deliver 60GHz wireless products in 2H 2010

The year’s 2010, yet we’re still leering at the dusty pile of cables behind our AV equipment and wondering, “O UWB, where art thou?” Well, the folks at Tech-On have got a little update for us: Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba are reported to be delivering products donning 60GHz wireless chips — which sip little juice but churn out 7GHz of colossal bandwidth and 1.5Gbps of data rate — in the second half of this year. While none of the manufacturers are directly pimping either WirelessHD or WiGig, it appears that Hitachi and Panasonic are siding with WiGig’s extra functionalities like media access control (MAC), and the latter even envisions “embedding the functionality into portable gear” for downloading digital content from kiosks. Either way, it’s nice to see some progress here — we don’t want things to drag on any longer, do we?

Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba to deliver 60GHz wireless products in 2H 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NTT DoCoMo will demo LTE prototype at MWC, launch service this year

Still on track to launch its LTE network this year, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has today announced that its first prototype handset designed specifically to handle all that bandwidth will be unveiled at MWC 2010. We already knew a cool $10.4 billion or thereabouts were to be spent on Japanese LTE deployment, and now we can break that figure down a little by noting that NTT will be spending between $3.3b and $4.4b on its infrastructure alone. All we know of the new phone so far is that it’ll be the product of the overall partnership with NEC, Fujitsu and Panasonic, but judging from NTT DoCoMo’s last prototype to grace these pages, we’re unlikely to be left wanting.

NTT DoCoMo will demo LTE prototype at MWC, launch service this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic clamps down prices, release window for latest F-series line of compact cameras

Panasonic is nothing like shy about pushing out a plethora of compacts, but while it was talking up specs for the new Lumix F-series of compact cameras back at CES, we’ve just now got some prices and a release date to chew on. The FH1 (12 megapixel, 720p video) goes for $160, FH3 (14.1 megapixel, 720p) is $180, and the FH20 (14.1 megapixel, 720p) is $200. In slim land, the FP1 (12 megapixel) hits at $150 and the FP3 (14.1 megapixel, 720p) is $230. Finally, some killer value can be found in the bulkier F3, which does 12.1 megapixels and 720p video for a mere $130, and the barebones 10.1 megapixel F2. All of the cameras should be out in mid-February.

Panasonic clamps down prices, release window for latest F-series line of compact cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s geotagging DMC-ZS7 compact superzoom gets handled

Panasonic's geotagging DMC-ZS7 superzoom compact gets handled

It’s been just a few days since Panasonic took the wraps off its update to the DMC-ZS3 that we liked so very much, the new DMC-ZS7, and Zumo Blog has been already given the opportunity to take a few pictures of one in the wild. The changes here are mostly evolutionary, with the same impressive 25 – 300mm 12x zoom lens on the front and the same AVCHD Lite 720p recording mode. New, though, is a GPS module nestled on top, capable of automatically tagging your photos, the SD slot can now accept SDXC cards, and it looks like the mode dial has been moved to a more natural position left of the shutter release. Still no word on price, but expect this one not to fall far from its predecessor’s $399 MSRP.

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Panasonic’s geotagging DMC-ZS7 compact superzoom gets handled originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic Digicam Adds GPS, Manual Control and Landmark Recognition

panny-cam

Panasonic has added manual control and GPS to its popular Leica-lensed Lumix ZS3, and bumped the name and number up to ZS7.

The compact camera is a replacement for the top-of-the-range ZS3, and improves on it in almost every way, the biggest boost being in speed. For instance the new ZS7 has a tiny shutter lag of 0.006 second (that this figure is even included in a press release for a point and shoot is unusual), and faster focussing. This is very likely to be a trickle-down from the tech in the super quick GF1.

The 12x optical zoom is joined by “Intelligent Zoom”, which promises to add an extra 1.3x digital zoom without making the picture soft and awful (pro-tip: don’t bother. If you need a few more feet of zoom, do it back at the computer). You also get Panasonic’s large, clear 460,000 dot 3-inch LCD and AVCHD Lite video which captures 720p, and a stereo microphone.

While manual controls are very welcome, they are often awkward without dedicated switches and dials. The GPS, on the other hand, has some cool extras. Apart from stamping the location into the photos’ EXIF metadata, and auto-setting the camera’s clock, the ZS7 also carries a database of landmarks and their positions. If you are snapping, say, the Empire State Building (or one of half a million other spots), its name will be displayed on screen and tagged to the photo. Very slick indeed.

Panny hasn’t set a price yet, but as a guide, its predecessor sold for $250-$350, depending on where you bought it.

Product page [Panasonic]


Panasonic churns out DMC-FX66, DMC-TS2, DMC-ZS5, DMC-ZS7 and DMC-ZR3 Lumix compacts

Panasonic‘s just announced quite a handful of Lumix compact cameras, featuring both the new Venus Engine VI and Venus Engine HD II that claim to perform quicker with better noise reduction. What’s more exciting is that these are all compatible with the forthcoming SDXC cards too, but check out their “Happy Mode” — it makes photos “more vivid and true to the color of the scene you memorized.” Yeah, as if we’d want photos that are more, um, real. Anyway, let’s break it down here (clockwise from top left; non-US model numbers in brackets):
  • DMC-FX66: This one’s a 14.1 megapixel slim camera with an F2.8-5.9 25-125mm (5x zoom) ultra-wide-angle lens (with Power O.I.S lens-shift stabilization). The 720p video capture and 1.06 second start-up time are sweet too, but no AVCHD Lite here. On the back there’s a 2.7-inch 230k-dot screen with wide viewing angle. All this is just 5.11 ounces including battery.
  • DMC-TS2 (FT2): This camera has a lot in common with the FX66 above — same sensor, same image stabilization, same scene modes (but with three extra), same focus modes and same screen. The main differences are its AVCHD Lite 720p video format, F3.3-5.9 28-128mm (4.6x) lens and added ruggedness — waterproof to 10m, shockproof to 2m, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit and dustproof. It’s of course slightly heavier too — 6.63 ounces including battery.
  • DMC-ZS5 (TZ8) and DMC-ZS7 (TZ10): These two appear to be twins, except the former has a smaller screen (2.7-inch with 230k dots instead of 3-inch with 460k dots) and lacks GPS, AVCHD Lite and mini-HDMI port. Both do 12.1 megapixel pictures and 720p videos, have F3.3-4.9 25-300mm (12x) lens with lens-shift stabilization, and have identical scene and focus modes. With battery these weigh 7.55 ounces and 7.69 ounces respectively.
  • DMC-ZR3 (ZX3): Whoa! Another 14.1 megapixel camera which does AVCHD Lite. The specs are almost identical to the TS2 except for the lens (F3.3-5.9 25-200mm 8x ultra-wide-angle) and lack of ruggedness. It weighs 5.61 ounces with battery.

Phew! No prices or availability announced yet, so take your time with picking out your favorite.

Panasonic churns out DMC-FX66, DMC-TS2, DMC-ZS5, DMC-ZS7 and DMC-ZR3 Lumix compacts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Core i5 / i7 roundup: Panasonic fits Core i7 in netbook chassis, Dell and HP machines spotted at Staples

What we know as the astronomically expensive Toughbook laptops over here, the Japanese know as the wildly spendy Let’s Note machines over there. Their nomenclature is today getting upgraded by one, as the F9, N9, and S9 Let’s Notes make their debut housing a Core i5-520M processor. We like the F9’s 14.1-inch display and 1440 x 900 resolution best — those are pretty much ideal dimensions for a portable workhorse — but the real new hotness is the R9, which crams a Core i7-620UM into essentially the size of a netbook. 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 250GB storage drives are standard across the range, and the Japanese release is scheduled for February 17. In other news, a 17-inch Dell Inspiron with Core i5-430M guts is now up for sale on Staples for a measly $649, while a similarly specced HP dv4 can also be found for a Benjamin more. Hit those source links for more.

Core i5 / i7 roundup: Panasonic fits Core i7 in netbook chassis, Dell and HP machines spotted at Staples originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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