Give it up, Panasonic.

For years people bought cameras manufactured by Ernst Leitz GmbH, but everyone called Leitz camera "Leicas". In fact, that's the official name of the successor corporation.

Similarly, when one purchased a camera manufactured by the Asahi Optical Company in Japan, one referred to it by its trade name, "Pentax". The "Pentax" name was actually purchased from Zeiss, and is a portmanteau of "Pentaprism", for the viewfinder mechanism, and "Contax", itself a trade name for a line of Zeiss-manufactured cameras.

So when the Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation got into the camera biz, they wanted a catchy little name for them, too. I mean, they should be pretty good at it, since all their consumer goods were sold under the "Panasonic" name, and Panasonic home hi-fi equipment went under the "Technics" brand, in a sort of Russian nesting doll of obfuscation.

So Panasonic hung the "Lumix" name on their cameras. Every Panasonic camera has "LUMIX" in big letters right on the front of it.

But I've never heard anyone call them that. Ask a Micro Four Thirds loyalist shooting his shiny new Lumix G9 II and ask him what kind of camera he's using and it's dollars to donuts he'll answer "Panasonic", despite the label blazoned in half-inch tall letters across the front of the viewfinder hump.

Just own the Panasonic brand, guys. After all, it's been the official company name since 2008.

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