PetaPixel: Panasonic Doesn’t Think Users Want Computational Photography Features

This is interesting:

Speaking to PetaPixel at the CP+ exhibition in Yokohama, Japan last month, representatives from Panasonic say that while they recognize what the benefits of the technology might bring to the table, they believe that the company’s target market is not interested in the features at all.

I think when it comes to computational photography, we believe it’s kind of aimed more towards those [entry-level] users or users that come from a smartphone [who] wants to use AI as one of the benefits of a [standalone] camera,” Tomoki Nakanishi, Marketing Supervisor of Panasonic’s Imaging Business Unit, says.

As you know companies like Samsung are betting high on computational photography/Imaging for their smartphones. I am not sure that “ignoring” AI is a safe bet. I understand the value of “true” photography. But every photographer knows that images get modified and edited though regular Photoshop postprocessing. So there has been always a grey zone between “real photo” and “edited photo”. Ai could be useful in speeding up some of the post processing of the images and it might be worth for Panasonic considering to implement some of these features inside their cameras. What do you think?