Panasonic confirms MFT is high on their priority list and they will not make APS-C L-mount cameras

Panasonic manager Yamane made it clear in a recent Dpreview interview that they have no plan to make APS-C cameras because it would cannibalize their MFT system. Here are some excerpts:

L-mount and MFT:

We will keep developing cameras for both categories – full-frame and Micro Four Thirds.

Why it’s important to stick with MFT:

Some manufacturers, as you know, are making very small lenses, compatible with full-frame, but we think that to do this, they needed to sacrifice lens quality to a certain extent. That’s how they are able to make them so small. That means that those lenses are not fully utilizing the benefits of the full-frame sensor. When it comes to Micro Four Thirds, we can fully utilize the benefits of the sensor, and we believe that as a combination, the overall quality of Micro Four Thirds can be very good.

APS-C L-mount

As of now, we have no plans to enter the APS-C market, because we know that Micro Four Thirds and full-frame can coexist without any cannibalization. If we moved into APS-C, there might be some overlap between Micro Four Thirds and APS-C, and between APS-C and full-frame, so I don’t think we’ll go in that direction.

About 8K:

We will be ready for 8K soon, but we can’t tell you the timing. We need a little bit longer before we can introduce 8K cameras. It won’t be [in the very near future].