Passers-by at London Waterloo station were greeted by a rather unusual sight: a 3.6m x 2m mock-up of the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX1 digital compact camera. The giant snapper, which has appeared at London Waterloo station yesterday morning, is part of Panasonic’s unconventional marketing campaign that had earlier seen a giant pigeon “land” on the grass beside London’s City Hall. The heavily-promoted Lumix ZX1 is a new ultra-compact digital camera with an 8x optically-stabilised zoom lens that provides a 35mm equivalent focal range of 25-200mm in a body measuring just 2.6cm thick.

Review: Read our in-depth review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX1

Panasonic Press Release

Giant Camera Arrives in London, Following the Arrival of the Giant Pigeon Last Week

A giant camera has appeared at London Waterloo station this morning, providing passers by with a fun visual focus while travelling into and out of London. The larger than life camera is the last of a series of objects which have been magnified and brought to life by Panasonic to illustrate the powerful 8 x optical zoom lens of the new super compact camera the Lumix DMC-ZX1. Further installations include a giant conker, postbox, traffic cone, park bench, pigeon and crumpled coffee cup. These six sculptures are now in position in high profile locations in the respective cities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, London (Neal Street, Covent Garden) and Bristol for the remainder of the week.

A team of 6 artists spent 5 weeks creating the 3.6 metre high and 2 metre wide fibre glass camera which was constructed into place at London Waterloo Station at 4am this morning. The larger than life camera which weighs 160kg will spend the next three days at London Waterloo before moving to London Victoria (26th-28th November) and finally to London Liverpool Street Station (3rd-5th December).

The sculpture incorporates the massive Panasonic’s 103” plasma screen, posing as the camera’s LCD screen on the back of the camera. Displaying video footage of how the giant sized objects were built as well as footage of all objects in location, the creation is so life-like you feel like you’re actually watching a home movie back on your camera!

Mark Robinson Head of Lumix Marketing at Panasonic says: “We’ve received some fun and imaginative photos on our facebook page showcasing perspective resulting from our larger than life sculptures. We’re sure our giant sized camera will prove a popular past time for commuters and help to raise the profile of our 8x life campaign”

Users are invited to submit their own photographs which showcase the fun that can be had with perspective for their chance to win a trip to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games by visiting facebook.com/8xlife.

Photo kindly provided by Panasonic

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