Last week, ChannelNews reported on Panasonic’s smallest, lightest full-frame mirrorless camera in its Lumix S series, the Lumix S9.
But behind the high-profile launch of the product, Panasonic dropped the ball when planning the marketing campaign around the announcement.
It turns out that the promotional images showcasing the the Lumix S9’s photo capabilities were in fact shot on a rival camera manufacturer Nikon’s camera.
Around two of the images used in the campaign were shot using a Nikon camera and those images have since been removed from Panasonic’s website.
In the Lumix S9 product page, under the “Animal Recognition” section, there was a photo of two European bee-eater birds that were supposed to have been taken by the Lumix S9, but were instead taken with a Nikon camera by a former Nikon ambassador Mircea Bezergheanu.
Also, other images reportedly come from stock photo sites like Shutterstock, and one photo also featured a woman photographed with Canon and Tamron gear, despite the caption implying it was taken with Lumix gear.
The backlash against Panasonic for doing so prompted it to issue an apology.
“Some of the images used to introduce features and scenes on the product website were images that had been licensed from a stock photo service,” admitted Panasonic.
“In addition to insufficient consideration as to whether the photo was appropriate for a product page for a camera that generates creativity, the annotation that the photo was not taken with a new product was written in a content and location that was difficult for customers to understand,” it added.
While apologising to users, fans, and camera enthusiasts for the incident for the oversight, Panasonic said that it has taken the comments by users who identified the issue seriously.
The Lumix S9 weighs just 403 grams and features a free-flip screen. It consists of a 24.2 MP full-frame CMOS sensor that supports dual native ISO, 6K OpenGate, and 4K 60p (approximately 1.5x crop capability).
The Lumix S9 features 5-axis body stabilization and phase focus functions. This helps to reduce the blur due to shaking when shooting handheld and allow the user to shoot stably in various scenarios.
A new LUT button on the camera body allows for quickly utilizing the real-time LUT filter function.
Also, data transfer speed has been improved, and it’s now possible to be shot and shared to social media within 30 seconds.
The Lumix S9 will be available in Australia from June. The body-only camera will retail for A$2,699, while the camera along with the lens kits will retail for A$3,299.