It’s great to see the designers of innovative producets credited

Panasonic will soon release their L1 interchangeable lens SLR to market. The camera is notable for a couple of things. First, there’s the compact Leica M ‘look’, owing to the flat top, the result of using a mirror and prism design pioneered by Olympus in the brilliant Pen F half frame some thirty years ago. Second, the continuation of the Panasonic-Leica collaboration with the Panasonic vibration reduction system integrated into the ‘standard’ Leica zoom lens.

The last time I remember this sort of thing was when the inspired designer of the jewel-like Olympus Pen F and OM1 cameras, Yoshihisa Maitani, was featured prominently in advertisements, also some thirty years ago.

Maitani.