Firmware update posibilities

S

starmanric

Active member
Could the Af100 electronics be upgraded to sony f700 specs if panasoic made the firmware?

Would this type of business model be more profitable to panasonic then brining out a new camera?

starmanric
 
No and no.

If it were possible, it means that Panasonic built in the capabilities from the beginning with a plan to do exactly that. That means that they would sell the camera with all these capabilities at a lower price at a loss (since the camera would cost more than it is being sold for or perhaps nearly so). Then for some reason, they would turn on the features via firmware. Why would they wait?

Vendors don't hold back features in a camera. They have to as competitive as possible at the first announcement of a new product. The price and feature set have to be right, with no hidden features that burden the cost of the camera. They may build in features that can be optionally turned on, but they will make sure customers know about it when the camera is first announced, as an incentive to buy the camera.
 
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Could be true but the current upgrade via firmware was not announced when the af100 was introduced. So I belive that anything can happen.

What if panasonic announced a $2k upgrade firmware that added 4k,4.2.2. and 240 fps. Wouldn't the make more money by selleing this bunch of code than manufactoring an af200?

ric
 
Of course not. I don't understand why people think you just "upgrade the firmware" and magically get a new camera. Are we forgetting that a camera is built from the ground up to do what it does? There's little you can do in firmware updates. Companies like RED are able to do a bit more with updates, but they built the expensive hardware in the cameras from the ground up to allow some of that and even then there are limitations. You want Panasonic to turn their AF100 m4/3 chip DESIGNED for 1080p into a 4K camera able to crunch that data at 240fps? come on man...

It's like keeping your 1st Generation MacPro from 2006 expecting Apple to release a version of OSX that'll turn it into the 2010 model in terms of what it can actually crunch numbers wise and at a faster speed. It's lunacy.
 
KyleProhaska said:
Of course not. I don't understand why people think you just "upgrade the firmware" and magically get a new camera. Are we forgetting that a camera is built from the ground up to do what it does? There's little you can do in firmware updates. Companies like RED are able to do a bit more with updates, but they built the expensive hardware in the cameras from the ground up to allow some of that and even then there are limitations. You want Panasonic to turn their AF100 m4/3 chip DESIGNED for 1080p into a 4K camera able to crunch that data at 240fps? come on man...

It's like keeping your 1st Generation MacPro from 2006 expecting Apple to release a version of OSX that'll turn it into the 2010 model in terms of what it can actually crunch numbers wise and at a faster speed. It's lunacy.
Click to expand...

Well I guess the gh2 is a differnt animal that was made for something and has been hacke with non official firmware into somethhing else.

ric
 
Hacks and firmware updates only go so far. Bit-rate hacks are one thing...adding 422 color-space, 4K, and something like 240fps doesn't make any sense at all.
 
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