Lumix

Lumix is Panasonic's brand of digital cameras, ranging from pocket point-and-shoot models to digital SLRs.

Compact digital cameras DMC-LC5 and DMC-F7 were the first products of the Lumix series, released in 2001. They are equipped with Leica lenses.

Indeed, many Lumix models are fitted with Leica lenses (e.g. Nocticron or Elmarit lenses), designed by Leica's German optical engineers, and are assembled in Japan. Others are rebranded as Leica cameras with different cosmetic stylings. Leica had a similar relationship with Minolta in the past, where late model Leica SLRs (and some 35 mm point-and-shoot models) were strongly based on Minolta bodies.

Most Lumix cameras use differing releases of the Panasonic Venus Engine for digital image processing; the original version (2002) was followed by II (2004), Plus (2005), III (2006), IV (2008), HD, V (2009), and VI, HD II, FHD (2010).

Panasonic produces most of Leica's branded digital point and shoot cameras in Japan, but not film cameras, the Leica M8 or Leica M9 digital rangefinder cameras, the X1 and X2 digital cameras or the Digital Modul R digital camera back for the Leica R9 film SLR.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 announced in August 2013, is a Micro Four Thirds compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. It was Panasonic's first Micro Four Thirds camera with a built-in in-body stabilization system (IBIS) and has a built-in EVF (add-on EVFs are no-longer supported). Panasonic uses 2-axis in-body stabilization allowing the use of shutter speeds 1 to 2 stops slower than without stabilization, compared to the 4 to 5 stops of improvement offered by Olympus' 5-axis stabilization.

Features include:

Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation (パナソニック株式会社, Panasonikku Kabushiki-gaisha), formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (松下電器産業株式会社, Matsushita Denki Sangyō Kabushiki-gaisha), is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan.

The company was founded in 1918 and has grown to become one of the largest Japanese electronics producers alongside Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba and Canon Inc. In addition to electronics, it offers non-electronic products and services such as home renovation services. Panasonic is the world's fourth-largest television manufacturer by 2012 market share.

Panasonic has a primary listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices. It has a secondary listing on the Nagoya Stock Exchange.

Name

From 1935 to October 1, 2008, the company name was "Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd." On January 10, 2008, the company announced that it would change its name to "Panasonic Corporation", in effect on October 1, 2008, to conform with its global brand name "Panasonic". The name change was approved at a shareholders' meeting on June 26, 2008 after consultation with the Matsushita family.

B&H Photo Video

Coordinates: 40°45′11″N 73°59′47″W / 40.753124°N 73.996281°W / 40.753124; -73.996281

B&H Photo Video, founded in 1973 and located at 420 Ninth Avenue on the corner of West 34th Street in Manhattan, New York City, is the largest non-chain photo and video equipment store in the United States.

Ownership and clientele

The store targets professional photographers and videographers. Although it is visited by more than 5,000 customers every day from Sunday to Friday, most of the company's business comes from internet and corporate sales. It also runs a warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The store carries a wide range of electronics products, with emphasis on professional and specialty photographic equipment.

The business is owned by Herman Schreiber. Schreiber and many of the store's employees are observant Satmar Hasidic Jews who close the store on Shabbat, most Jewish holidays (except for Hanukkah, when business dealings are permitted), and Christmas. The website remains open, but orders are not taken or shipped between Friday evening and Saturday evening and on Jewish holidays. The store employs hundreds of Orthodox Jews. An Orthodox Jewish bus company provides daily service to and from Kiryas Joel, a Satmar village in Orange County, New York.

Four Thirds system

The Four Thirds System is a standard created by Olympus and Eastman Kodak for digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) and mirrorless camera design and development.

The system provides a standard that, with digital cameras and lenses available from multiple manufacturers, allows for the interchange of lenses and bodies from different manufacturers. U.S. Patent 6,910,814 seems to cover the standard. Proponents describe it as an open standard, but companies may only use it under a non-disclosure agreement.

Unlike older single-lens reflex (SLR) systems, Four Thirds was designed from the start to be entirely digital. Many lenses are extensively computerized, to the point that Olympus offers firmware updates for many of them. Lens design has been tailored to the requirements of digital sensors, most notably through telecentric designs. The size of the sensor is significantly smaller than for most DSLRs and this implies that lenses, especially telephoto lenses, can be smaller. For example, a Four Thirds lens with a 300 mm focal length would cover about the same angle of view as a 600 mm focal length lens for the 35 mm film standard, and is correspondingly more compact. Thus, the Four Thirds System has crop factor (focal length multiplier) of about 2, and while this enables longer focal length for greater magnification, it does not necessary aid the manufacture of wide angle lenses.