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Panasonic's Lumix CM1 With One-Inch Sensor And Leica Lens May Be Best Cameraphone Yet

By - Source: Panasonic | B 15 comments

Panasonic has just announced what is allegedly the best cameraphone yet. The Lumix CM1 is a smartphone that looks and acts much like a higher-end compact camera, and it comes with a 1-inch sensor (much like Sony's RX100 camera), which also happens to be the largest sensor on a smartphone or "cameraphone" you can find. (Nokia's Lumia 1020 used a 1/1.5" sensor, while Samsung's Galaxy K Zoom uses a 1/2.3" sensor).

The sensor also has 20 MP resolution, which should be more than enough to offer a high-level of detail while also delivering relatively high-performance. To wit, the device comes with a 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage and microSD support up to 128 GB. The device can shoot 4k video, so going for the maximum microSD storage would be a good idea, as 4k video tends to fill up "standard" 32 GB or even 64 GB microSDs pretty quickly.

The Lumix CM1 cameraphone also comes with an f/2.8 Leica DC Elmarit lens for some extra-sharp image quality, a hardware shutter button and a slider to switch between camera and smartphone modes. The screen is 4.7" and has a 1080p resolution, which should be crisp enough to preview images before taking them.

The device appears well-designed, but it seems Panasonic tried to make it look as much as possible like a regular camera. It's unclear why the company would do this, and whether it was intentional or just the result of putting the camera division in charge of designing a cameraphone. While the device still looks beautiful overall, it would likely be much more appealing if it tried to look more like a smartphone.

The Lumix CM1 is also quite thick at 21 mm, which is more than twice as thick as most smartphones. It's even thicker than Samsung's Galaxy K Zoom, which measures 16.6 mm. This could be another disadvantage of a hardware division that doesn't have much experience with manufacturing slim smartphones, but is instead used to making much thicker cameras. A good strategy for camera companies in the future could be to partner with smartphone companies to create a great-looking and high-performance camera phone together.

Panasonic Lumix CM1

The price of 900 euro for the Lumix CM1 seems a little high even for this type of device, but it could interest photographers or those really passionate about taking pictures with their smartphones. The device will be available only in France and Germany for now and will launch during the holiday season.

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  • 3 Hide
    hannibal , September 15, 2014 12:33 PM
    Well this is a camera, with some phone utilities. This even looks more like a camera than a phone. Even Nokia Lumia 1020 looks more like a normal phone.
    But if you need more camera than a phone, this may be just right tool. Maybe we will soon get professional cameras, with changeable optics tele zooms etc and a phone inside them. The next logical step upwards!
  • 0 Hide
    Patrick Tobin , September 15, 2014 2:13 PM
    It's not a camera phone, it's a smart camera...
  • -5 Hide
    warezme , September 15, 2014 2:23 PM
    So fetch.
  • Add your comment Display all 15 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    Cryoburn101 , September 15, 2014 2:38 PM
    Quote:
    So fetch.

    Stop trying to make fetch a thing!

    As someone said above, for the casual photographer this is an interesting product.
  • 3 Hide
    Rookie_MIB , September 15, 2014 2:47 PM
    Lumix CM1, taking those selfies to a WHOLE new level...
  • -2 Hide
    Blazer1985 , September 15, 2014 6:07 PM
    Definetly not a cameraphone.
  • -1 Hide
    hst101rox , September 15, 2014 8:24 PM
    Does it have phase detection autofocus like the Galaxy S5 or iphone 6 or does it not need this since autofocus is mechanical maybe?
  • 0 Hide
    aztec_scribe , September 16, 2014 1:52 AM
    I just wet myself! I don't need a new smart phone, I don't need a new compact camera BUT I do need a fetch new smart camera :) 
  • 0 Hide
    gggplaya , September 16, 2014 7:09 AM
    I only use my phone for texts phone calls, and pictures. But pictures i take twice as often as phone calls, and about the same as texts. So it makes sense to have a better camera. I so want, but not for that price. I'm willing to pay $300 under 2 year contract.
  • 1 Hide
    dovah-chan , September 16, 2014 9:27 AM
    I can see someone walking down the street and talking to someone on this thing and then people just looking at them like they're crazy for talking into a camera. Little do they know they are the crazy ones because that camera is actually a phone!
  • 0 Hide
    sanilmahambre , September 17, 2014 12:33 AM
    I'll wait for the sale
  • 0 Hide
    hannibal , September 17, 2014 8:47 AM
    Seems to cost around 900€, so upper class compact camera we have here. Seems to have also reasonable good specks.
  • 1 Hide
    Murissokah , September 18, 2014 7:40 AM
    Is this Android?
  • 0 Hide
    dovah-chan , September 18, 2014 10:30 AM
    Quote:
    Is this Android?


    On the official announcement page it is stated to run on Android KitKat (ver 4.4). Kind of what you would expect but I understand your confusion as it should have been one of the first things said. In fact I found that info at the very end of the news release. I guess just because Android is the default OS used as it's free and easy to customize a custom GUI but in my opinion they should really lighten its overall system load and RAM requirements in order to cut costs and battery usage (background processes loading up RAM using more battery juice). Google is working on this though with their Android L program. It doesn't affect me much since I almost always get flaghship models anyway (<3 my HTC One M8)
  • 0 Hide
    DrAJS , September 21, 2014 1:45 PM
    I want, Want, WANT. NOW.
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