Panasonic has been caught red-handed for the manufacturer by using an image taken by a Nikon camera on the product page for its latest release, the Panasonic Lumix S9.
It’s getting worse. The picture was taken not only by a Nikon camera, but also by a former Nikon ambassador.
It’s getting worse. Not only is Panasonic using an image to represent the capabilities of the Lumix S9, but they’ve used the same image in the same way for at least one other camera: the Lumix GH5S. What the hell is going on?
If you go to the Japanese product page for the S9, specifically the Animal Recognition section, you’ll see a lovely picture of two European bee-eaters (next to a picture of a beagle, which I’ll come back to later). “Animal recognition” supports birds, dogs (including wolves, etc.), and felines (including lions, etc.),” ​​the Japanese text reads.
If you’re like me, you’d assume that this photo – specifically used to demonstrate the capabilities of the camera’s autofocus system – was taken with this camera. Or at least using the appropriate autofocus system.
We would be wrong.
This photo was actually taken in 2016. Not by a Panasonic camera, but by Nikon, former Nikon ambassador – Romanian photographer Mircea Bezergheanu. If you google the image you can see it like I did below:
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If you look at the image above, you’ll see that the top link is to Nikon’s Romanian website, and a bit by Bezerghean about how he photographed the bee-eaters (with much more beautiful images). The same article seems to appear here on another Romanian site.
I asked Bezerghean what camera he had actually shot, and it was a Nikon D810 – not a Lumix S9. Neither does the Lumix GH5S, whose Japanese product page too uses an image (as seen in the second link in the Google search above).
Japanese retailer System 5 also used the image on its listing for a third camera, the Lumix S5II. While it’s obviously not directly Panasonic, it certainly looks like it’s from a bundle of promotional materials supplied by the brand.
What does it all mean? Well, if Panasonic doesn’t have a very good explanation (and I asked for a comment but at the time of writing I have not received a response), this is a huge breach of trust for the brand.
To be fair, the product page does include the text “Images and illustrations are for illustrative purposes only.” However, to be fair, you would expect that an illustrative image could be pulled from the extensive library, which surely must have been captured by a given camera or technology.
If it was at least taken with another Lumix with the same AF technology, it would be acceptable to me. But when you present a photo as if it was taken on your device, but it was so obviously taken by a competing camera using completely different technology… how can maybe be an accurate representation of your product?
And if you are introducing pictures and pretending they show me what your camera can do, how can I believe anything else you tell me? Are the videos shot on Canon? Are the RAW files from Fujifilm?
I don’t even think it’s fake – I really don’t know. Because remember that cute picture of the beagle next to the birds? This is a widely available photo, as revealed by Photo Rumors. How many images were in this product listing for the S9 actually taken with S9? Or the GH5S for that matter?
It reminds me of the time (one in four, actually) that Huawei was caught pretending that photos taken by a phone were actually taken by a camera (ironically another Nikon DSLR, the Nikon D850). Whether you think it’s dishonest or downright dishonest, it’s a bad look for the company.
Bezerghean takes it easy that Panasonic is using his photo to promote the S9’s capabilities. “I am the subject of the international press,” he wrote on Facebook. “I really want to test the device as well, so I’m inviting them to La Colibe, Corbu – an archaic Romanian village.
Panasonic needs to respond quickly to the public. And he should probably remove Mirceo’s photo from his website as well.
Check out the best Panasonic cameras (whose AF really doesn’t need to distort, these days) along with the best L Mount lenses for S bodies and the best Micro Four Thirds lenses for G cameras.