New Panasonic Gear Announcements Apr 15

I do not want to come across as piliing on but from a distance, Panasonic seems to be holding on to a longer development cycle than the market is moving at. Yes, they were first to market with the AF-100 and it is a great acheivement, but the marketplace is moving very fast. Clearly the AF-100 is leaving the consumers with wanting more as its price has fallen like a meteor in just a year. Not a good investment. This is the year you refresh the camera because by NAB 2013 somebody is going to have a $5,000 RAW s35 camera that will steal the thunder.

I see this pricepoint as a pretty easy space for Panasonic to take. Panasonic has a loyal base. The users just want the feature combination of an FS-100 and an AF-100 with better image quality than the AF-100, Made by Panasonic. They could split the product into AVCHD and AVC-Intra just like the AC series.

The HPX-600 would have whooped up a year or two ago, now it is just another announcement to many.

It seems the under $10,000 above $3,500 segment has been left out of the party this NAB. My hope is that 4k takes over the over $10,000 range and the camera makers can have some cloud cover to make higher quality 1080p/720p cameras for under $10,000
 
Panasonic's focus has always seemed to be more on the broadcast side, not cinema. I know it may be hard for some people to believe, but there's actually a thriving market for that focus. I too am disappointed in the lack of a AF-100 successor, especially given that Panasonic announced new models of practically everything else. They didn't need to do a whole lot, just re-work the OLPF and give the AF-100A the ability to output a comparable GH2 hack image out of the SDI with better DR and they would have had a winner. I think the camera works well otherwise.

I don't even want P2, just the ability to take advantage of whatever AVC-Ultra formats will work on SD cards.
 
dcloud said:
oh my bad. misread it as megabytes. so it can only do LongG type of footages. well if people dont buy it enough im sure theyll do something baout it :D
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Not necessarily. I was thinking about it -- you could probably do AVC-Intra50 to the SDXC cards. Or DVCPRO-HD 720/24pN, that's an effective bitrate of 40mbps. Or AVC-Intra100 720/24p, that's 40mbps, or 720/30p, that's 50mbps. So there might be several options in addition to the LongG stuff.
 
Gary Huff said:
They didn't need to do a whole lot, just re-work the OLPF and give the AF-100A the ability to output a comparable GH2 hack image out of the SDI with better DR and they would have had a winner. I think the camera works well otherwise.

I don't even want P2, just the ability to take advantage of whatever AVC-Ultra formats will work on SD cards.
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That message was adequately, vocally, fervently, and repeatedly delivered to them.
 
As soon as it's available, Panasonic should stuff the new "GH3" sensor in a ~4" metal cube with a m43 lens mount, and two locking* HDMI output connectors (w. clean, bog-standard 10-bit 4:2:2 1080p video out @ 24p, 25p, 30p & maybe 60p), about a half-dozen user-assignable buttons, a nominal 12VDC power input, a built-in crappy mono mic for ref audio, a genlock input or some way to synch 2 cams for 3D, tap a bunch of 1/4" & 3/8" screw holes on every surface, and slap a <$2K US price sticker on it. Period.

No EVF, no LCD, no grip, no battery, no built-in recording capability. Just a small camera head. Not a camcorder or "DSLR". A camera head. A box camera. Period.

Encourage customers to connect it to Panasonic and 3rd party external HDMI recorders, EVFs, monitors, grips, batteries, rigs, etc., etc. Mics & audio sources (and headphones) connect to the external recorder. The cam's UI would be displayed on one of the HDMI outputs.

If Panasonic doesn't create such a camera head, someone else will. Such as: BmD, AJA, Atomos, SoundDevices, GoPro, Matrox, Nikon, etc. and who knows maybe even Sony, JVC, or a number of other high-tech companies, etc. Now that the BmD cinema cam is out, it's a whole new world, with new competitors.

Whoever creates such a cam will sell a boat load of them. Maybe not a 5DM3 or D800 boat load, but a lot. And not just to "cinema" shooters. Such a cam will find a wide variety of uses, just as other box cams do. But most box cams don't have a m43 lens mount or shoot 24p/25p or have HDMI out. Nowadays it's relatively inexpensive to do it.

I'd like Panasonic to do it because then maybe the cam's video would have some of that Panasonic mojo in it! ;-)

Cheers.

*Locking HDMI connectors & cables exist, and I'm sure Panasonic's engineers can design them, too.

EDIT: Personally, I'd use a "GH m43 box camera" with the new Atomos Ninja 2 external HDMI recorder. I already have everything else to make it work, and I suspect there are thousands of potential customers who do, too. Although the cam I'm proposing doesn't have the 12-bit RAW capability of the BmDCC, it should costs less and has a super-adaptable m43 mount, clean 10-bit 4:2:2 1080p HDMI out, and be easier to rig than the BmDCC. It's also OK with me if they make a family of such products; e.g.: they can always add a 4K-ish model whenever.
 
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