Panasonic and Leica have announced a new collaboration that will see the two companies jointly develop cameras, lenses and imaging technology under a new brand name known as L² Technology (or L squared Technology). As you might have already guessed, the new name represents Leica and Panasonic’s imaging brand, Lumix.
Above all, this new collaboration is in no way a merger of the companies, which will continue to produce their own respective products. Instead, L² Technology will see the two combine their technologies and know-how – in particular, the optical and imaging expertise of Leica and the video and digital technology of Panasonic – to develop new technologies and solutions.
In addition, the two companies will also jointly invest in new technologies that can be integrated into cameras and lenses, and eventually integrate technologies jointly developed through L² Technology into each other’s products to further enhance their capabilities. With that, we can expect to see the newly established brand appear in upcoming and future imaging devices produced by Panasonic and Leica.
L2 technology.
The sign of a new era for imagery and creativity.#Leica and #LUMIX join forces to give creators everywhere the unlimited potential of perfect synergy. More: https://t.co/alMQ75IRvb pic.twitter.com/rLQRwd4P7j— Leica Camera AG (@leica_camera) May 31, 2022
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“The combination of our skills in L² technology is another important step in the partnership,” said Matthias Harsch, CEO of Leica Camera, in Leica’s statement. “The best way to address today’s camera market challenges is not to segment and specialize, but to deepen capabilities to jointly create solutions for the future.”
However, neither company has disclosed which projects or products will feature technologies developed under L² Technology. The same can be said for when we can expect to see the fruit of this collaboration.
It’s also worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time Panasonic and Leica have teamed up. In fact, the two had signed a cooperation agreement for digital audiovisual equipment lenses in August 2000, and then cooperated again in the digital camera business in 2001. Additionally, the two companies (with the manufacturer of Sigma lenses) founded the L-Mount Alliance, enabling Panasonic and Sigma to integrate Leica’s L-mount into their cameras and lenses.
And in case you missed it, Leica recently announced a new partnership with Xiaomi that will see its imaging technologies incorporated into the latter’s upcoming and future smartphones. Around the same time, the former Huawei collaborator also confirmed that he had ended his partnership with the German camera maker, which had lasted for more than six years.
(Source: Leica [1] [2])
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