Barry_Green
Moderator
Okay, been thinking about this a bit... folks saying that Panasonic isn't listening to them, and "what were they thinking", followed by some of us actually coming around to say "hey, actually, maybe this isn't such a bad idea..."
So -- if you'll indulge me, can I please explore a lesson in history, and compare it to today?
I was here when it happened. I got a DVX100 within a couple of months of its initial release. I saw the market reception for it. People may not remember, but I sure do. It went a little something like this...
Once upon a time, everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) used Betacam SP. It was the standard, it was a "real" camera, it was what everyone used and nobody saw any reason to use anything else.
Then Panasonic came along with the DVX100, and it was roundly mocked by (seemingly) every BetaSP user on the planet. "Ridiculous", they'd say. "A fixed zoom lens? Hah! Don't they know the standard is interchangeable lenses?", they'd say. "Look how tiny the chips are -- everyone knows that you need a 2/3" chip to make good images!", they'd say. "What a ridiculous recording format; its tape is barely 1/4"!, they said. "No professional would touch that toy camera", they said.
And we know how that story turned out...
So, today, we have a world that has largely been stood on its head. Today, seemingly everybody is using an interchangeable-lens large-sensor camera to shoot all types of projects, ranging from DSLRs up to something like the FS7 or Red, and Panasonic has just introduced a new camera called ... the DVX. And it is being roundly mocked by DSLR and big-chip camera users all around the web. "Ridiculous", they say. "A fixed zoom lens? Hah! Don't they know the standard is interchangeable lenses?", they say. "Look how tiny the 4/3" chip is -- everyone knows that you need an S35 chip to make good images!", they say. "What a ridiculous recording format; it's using GH4 codecs!", they say. "I couldn't possibly show up to a professional job with that camera", they say.
Seems awfully familiar to me.
I do wonder -- seeing as Panasonic has zigged while everyone else has zagged, will they catch lightning in a bottle a second time?
Sure, there's a major difference this time -- the DVX introduced 24P to a world that didn't have it, and 24P is ubiquitous now. So that's one big difference from before. But the rest of the arguments all sound very, very, very familiar. Is history repeating? I guess we'll see how this plays out, sometime in the 4th quarter of 2015...
So -- if you'll indulge me, can I please explore a lesson in history, and compare it to today?
I was here when it happened. I got a DVX100 within a couple of months of its initial release. I saw the market reception for it. People may not remember, but I sure do. It went a little something like this...
Once upon a time, everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) used Betacam SP. It was the standard, it was a "real" camera, it was what everyone used and nobody saw any reason to use anything else.
Then Panasonic came along with the DVX100, and it was roundly mocked by (seemingly) every BetaSP user on the planet. "Ridiculous", they'd say. "A fixed zoom lens? Hah! Don't they know the standard is interchangeable lenses?", they'd say. "Look how tiny the chips are -- everyone knows that you need a 2/3" chip to make good images!", they'd say. "What a ridiculous recording format; its tape is barely 1/4"!, they said. "No professional would touch that toy camera", they said.
And we know how that story turned out...
So, today, we have a world that has largely been stood on its head. Today, seemingly everybody is using an interchangeable-lens large-sensor camera to shoot all types of projects, ranging from DSLRs up to something like the FS7 or Red, and Panasonic has just introduced a new camera called ... the DVX. And it is being roundly mocked by DSLR and big-chip camera users all around the web. "Ridiculous", they say. "A fixed zoom lens? Hah! Don't they know the standard is interchangeable lenses?", they say. "Look how tiny the 4/3" chip is -- everyone knows that you need an S35 chip to make good images!", they say. "What a ridiculous recording format; it's using GH4 codecs!", they say. "I couldn't possibly show up to a professional job with that camera", they say.
Seems awfully familiar to me.
I do wonder -- seeing as Panasonic has zigged while everyone else has zagged, will they catch lightning in a bottle a second time?
Sure, there's a major difference this time -- the DVX introduced 24P to a world that didn't have it, and 24P is ubiquitous now. So that's one big difference from before. But the rest of the arguments all sound very, very, very familiar. Is history repeating? I guess we'll see how this plays out, sometime in the 4th quarter of 2015...
