Japanese customers show rather a peculiar and ridiculous taste when they choose an electric/electronic gadget. Call it quasi-professionalism.

Professional gears? According to Japanese popular viewpoint, those gears have generally black metallic panel, preferably with rack-mounted capability (though actually never mounted on the rack. Japanese homes are too small to install voluminous racks anyway). Hundreds of knobs, impressively scaled dials and array of heavy-duty toggle switches do not harm this concept. Several large analog meters (voltage/ampere/decibell) greatly increase this quasi-pro effect.

The heyday of these mock gears was when hi-fi equipments dominated Akihabara shop shelves. Japanese audio maniacs used to buy up these gears and turn their small home into the caricature of radio broadcasting station, or TV studio. Some fans had gone even far enough to build a mock recording studio.

Matsushita DMC-L1, the cream of quasi-proism. Are you ready to peel off 250,000 yen (nearly US$2,200!)?

Other sound equipment, open-reel recorder/player gears, cassette recorders, turntables and speakers also had pseudo-pro varieties and had been always popular in Japan. Those stylish Scandinavian sound gears, Bang & Olufsen and the likes, though popular all over world, did not sell well in Japan. Their neat design did not show enough of cumbersome mock-pro-ness, I guess.

Video gears, too. In the old silver-halide days, Japanese camera fans bought up expensive single-lens reflexes, the heaviest gear. They fantasized themselves to be a Henri Cartier-Bresson or a Robert Capa. Well, at least they had the right equipment. Only their talents and technics left much to be desired, unfortunately.

Mock professionalism of digital camera has come much more recently. Now, in Akihabara, only digital single-lens reflexes are hot. Those slim, thin and powerful beauties are considered women and children's gear. "In" digital cameres are black, heavy, bulky, and almost impossible to carry around discreetly. Ah well, who cares?

Rear side view. LCD moniter: 2.5-inch, 200,000 pixels.

LEICA D VARIO-ELMARIT 14-50mm F2.8-3.5 ASPH. zoom lens comes together. Does the name "Leica" still loosen your purse string?

All the major players are battling to bag the largest share, starting from optical giants Nikon and Canon down to outfielders like Epson and Fuji Film. The last two entrants, Sony's α100 and my namesake, Matsushita's LUMIX DMC-L1.

While all other combatants aim at "regular pseudo-professional market", I mean for the general public in the 100,000 yen (US$870) price range, the DMC-L1 looks at a little bit higher. Its price tag of 250,000 yen seems pretty ambitious.

Though Matsushita claims that DMC-L1's lens, co-developed with Leica Carl Zeiss, presents better performance than Nikon's or Canon's, the aura of legendary Leica has worn out pretty thin recently. Only the diehard granddads could be fooled by this sentimental claim. Unfortunately, these "Leica fans" still refuse to die out, and they've really thick wallets usually. Let's see if Matsushita's price strategy actually works or not. DMC-L1 will come to Akihabara on July 22.

DMC-L1's magnesium frame. Though frame is light, overall weight still exceeds 1kg. Your arms can hold it still for a few seconds?

White level adjustment panel. Really impressive mock professionalism!

If DMC-L1 becomes a smash hit (your Mobile Ojisan doubts it sincerely), Japanese pseudo-pro taste will be accelerated and achieve a higher pseudo level. Ridiculous, isn't it? But, please don't chuckle. This laughable trend might directly diffuse into Asian markets in no time. Be careful of your wallet then.

 

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