New Panasonic FF EVA2 NAB 2020 ???

When I first heard about this I had the same reaction as Stanley Kubrick when he was researching Doomsday Scenarios. It's all so insane that to play it serious would be so dire as to piss everybody off and not get across the profound absurdity of it all. Only black comedy could convey the message. He made Dr. Strangelove and I've long wanted to do my own. But I first came across the story shortly after 9/11 and there was no way anyone was interested in a satire involving such topics, and it hasn't gotten much better for the ensuing few decades. If I'm lucky the time will be right before I'm too old to do anything with it.

If I have to wait much longer will anyone even remember Howard Hughes and what a masterstroke it was to call on him to build this ship?

BTW, the Glomar Explorer was mothballed after this incident because it really had no other purpose. A decade later it was brought out of drydock for a short time to serve as the mother ship while the Navy was testing the infamous "Stealth Submarine," which looked like the Stealth Bomber but in the water. The project supposedly never went anywhere (maybe it's a secret) but one of the James Bond films used the sub as the inspiration for the bad guy's secret base. Eventually the Glomar Explorer was sold for scrap.


I can go on and on about crazy CIA plots and secret boats. But ask me about our upcoming plans for future cameras and all you'll hear from me is "GLOMAR!"
 
That reminds me of one of the many bugs I've had to deal with in the past working with Premiere (where I could neither Confirm nor Apply... and the only response you'd hear from me was "FUBAR!")
 
Over the weekend myself and my camera guy spent two days doing some tests with the Canon C500 II and I gotta say as a long time Panasonic user I was really impressed.
As it stands I can see us renting the C500 II as our A cam and something like the C200 as our B camera for our upcoming projects in late 2020/2021.
The C500 II produces some great images straight out of the camera, and IMO makes it the best all round camera I have tested under 20K.
However, I still believe the EVA’s form factor and smaller body and weight is a plus for car rigs and tight spaces.

Personally I would love an even smaller form factor than the C500 II.
But theres no denying the image produced by the FF sensor and internal RAW is impressive, coupled with the DR, low light capability, electronic IS and face detection AF, makes the C500 II a really great camera for the type of shooting we do,
which is mainly hand, shoulder, sticks, some monopod and gimbal shooting, often guerrilla-style in public spaces with tiny crews.

However I think the sharp slowdown in new camera sales, coupled with poor second hand prices, and the advent of smartphone technology means the €20,000-€22,000 ownership price of a C500 II
(when you include basic accessories such as cards, batteries etc...) means sub 10K cameras like the Red Komodo, ZCAM, C200, KINIFINITY, etc... will be the psychological and practical cut off point for many
low budget productions deciding on either renting or buying cameras for their projects.

I still hold that the first company to include the specs I mentioned in an ergonomic and compact body, as well as easy live streaming to social media for about 10k
(assuming image quality is comparable) is going to corner the market.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a company like Blackmagic Design does it for between 8-10k.
But I sneakily hope it’s a new improved Panasonic EVA2 design.

Looking forward to an interesting NAB!
 
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With the cinema and lumix divisions merging, and the industry push to FF, a FF L Mount cinema body camera seems inevitable. I don’t think this speculation is so much a matter of if, but when.

I’d request IBIS in the cinema body, but with the extra space, a true locking mechanism so it could be used vehicle mounted or in other conditions where vibrations are an issue.

Cool Glomar story!
 
tillhavis said:
I still hold that the first company to include the specs I mentioned in an ergonomic and compact body, as well as easy live streaming to social media for about 10k (assuming image quality is comparable) is going to corner the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if a company like Blackmagic Design does it for between 8-10k. !
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I'm quite in the same boat. AF as a one man show becomes more and more important as in my situation there's more and more "hit or miss". Nail the focus or miss the job. Unfortunately Canon makes you pay 16,000€ (plus) for 4K60p 10bit as they cripple each of their cams to protect others. I was hoping the S1/S1H could help with AF at some point. It turns out the AF it has great image quality but the AF isn't reliable at all.

Here's my prediction.
Same thing as with the C300II / FS7 will happen again. Sony has with the FX9 a lot of this features like FF, impressive AF, 4K 10bit/60p at 2/3 of the price point of the C500II. They give you also a great allround servo zoom for a decent price. With the improved Venice colors and it will be a big success way over the C500II. The RAW lite of the C500II won't be the selling point over the FX9. I don't think that Blackmagic has anything that can compare with Canon or Sony AF in the pipeline. I'd buy a EVA2 with L-mount and AF similar to Canon for 8 grand immediately. Doesn't need to have full frame. But that's wishful thinking. I have no clue atm what I will do. There's one thing I would bet on: FX9 will win the market.
 
filmguy123 said:
With the cinema and lumix divisions merging, and the industry push to FF, a FF L Mount cinema body camera seems inevitable. I don’t think this speculation is so much a matter of if, but when.
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If you are looking at the S1/S1H camera you will see both: full frame and AF. Unfortunately the AF is far behind what Canon or Sony does. I don't know if there is still a magician behind the curtain who will show up with a revolutionary new AF? Probably not. From common sense I'd say if there is something we could expect we would have seen that already. No big hope for me in EVA2 with great AF.
 
morgan_moore said:
I cant remember the title but there is a submarine book that touches on glomar explorer and many other 'secrets'
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Maybe Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage? That's a really good book. From 20 years ago, but recently reissued (and perhaps updated?). A page turner, IIRC. And I think it formed the basis of a PBS NOVA episode that was pretty good.

Back on topic... I'm looking forward to seeing what Panasonic shows us this year. Yes, that's an anodyne comment but I'm not up for guessing right now. I am, however, up for buying the right next camera for me.
 
That's a great book. I can't recall if it was the program based off this book or another where an ex-CIA rep told the story of watching the nuclear missile slip out of the broken open sub and slowly, gracefully slide out of its tube and plummet into the depths below. It was a long way down and they knew it would be dropping at high speed when it hit the ocean floor. They really had no clue what might happen when it hit bottom so they all just stood there for a couple minutes in silence until sonar picked up the sound of it smashing into the silt.

If that's not a great BLACK comedic moment of accidental nuclear annihilation then I don't know what is.
 
Final shot: Slim Pickens wearing scuba gear and astride K-129's missile as it slips out of the sub and heads to the ocean floor. Of course.
 
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Jim Feeley said:
Final shot: Slim Pickens wearing scuba gear and astride K-129's missile as it slips out of the sub and heads to the ocean floor. Of course.
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Which ties it all back to the thread topic --

"A guy could have a helluva weekend in Vegas with all that stuff" (or something like that quote...)
 
The book on the Glomar Explorer is a great read. The most interesting part is how they built this thing out in the open (was it Long Beach? I can't remember) and kept a lid on its true purpose. The hows and whys and how close they came to having the secret purpose leaked is really interesting.
 
Paul F said:
The book on the Glomar Explorer is a great read. The most interesting part is how they built this thing out in the open (was it Long Beach? I can't remember) and kept a lid on its true purpose. The hows and whys and how close they came to having the secret purpose leaked is really interesting.
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Ha, I'm beginning to think there's some secret GLOMORIAN speak going on here!

Another interesting development for NAB below!

https://ymcinema.com/2020/02/03/red-komodo-was-used-to-shoot-michael-bays-hard-rock-commercial/
 
I think the master stroke of the entire Glomar Explorer escapade was the Howard Hughes coverstory. Get this larger than life character involved and then no matter how outlandish people just accept it because Howard Hughes. Fantastic.
 
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