EVA1: Panasonic AU-EVA1! Announcement and latest updates

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Mitch Gross said:
... That's why Panasonic's engineers can forecast with pretty darn good accuracy when the camera will be ready to ship. They know there will be some problems at first, they know the problems won't be too severe and they know the process of addressing those problems once they are discovered. ...
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Indeed, before a project begins and as it develops, project engineers/managers now routinely predict lines of code required, how many bugs will be detected, how many will be fixed, and how many will remain in the release with great accuracy.
 
Mitch Gross said:
On the 30-60 days question, time for another analogy.

This one is kinda like Tucker, but let's say it's any car maker. Time for a new sports car, and it's going to have a new engine design with new transmission, new valve timing, new vacuum pump, new turbo, etc. Now the car maker has made plenty of cars over the decades and much of this technology is based in some part on previous models that they've perfected over the years. But still these are all new components along with some standard ones that are going to be shoved together. It takes a few years to get all of these components researched, designed and first units manufactured. Guess what happens when they stick the first handmade parts together to test it out? The thing runs horribly. The timing is wrong, the pressure is off, etc. Then they start tweaking things a bit here and a bit there, adding a torque strut here and changing oil pressure there. Maybe an item or two needs a change -- hey we need a slightly bigger water pump, whoa, the brakes need to be a little stronger in the rear -- and so on. And within a very short time that car is purring like a kitten.

Years of work gets it all very close, but when the parts are put together there are always a few tweaks. It's the expertise put into those two years that makes the tweak period fairly small and predictable. That's why Panasonic's engineers can forecast with pretty darn good accuracy when the camera will be ready to ship. They know there will be some problems at first, they know the problems won't be too severe and they know the process of addressing those problems once they are discovered.

So a 2-3 months to get the camera tweaked out and shipping after years of development? Yeah, that's about right if you know what you're doing. This is the same group of people that built the VariCams. It's not their first rodeo.
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Very good analogy.

While people such as Blackmagic Design engineers, who I am sure are also very talented, but don't have the decades of institutionalized knowledge that Panasonic has, and might be working under tighter time frames too, might estimate 2 to 3 months but actually in reality find out it is 6 to 9 month instead.
 
Im going to make a prediction:

between end of October and end of December EVA1 will be available, it will have all the tech specs and will have much better IQ than a GH5 almost but not quite as good as the LT.
 
Paul F said:
Indeed, before a project begins and as it develops, project engineers/managers now routinely predict lines of code required, how many bugs will be detected, how many will be fixed , and how many will remain in the release with great accuracy.
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That is not realistic at all and no one has such talent to be able to predict such things. Unless you're miss Cleo ;) Impossible to predict lines of code, heck programmers wouldn't even know that. Impossible for QA to detect how many bugs. Impossible to know many will be fixed unless its all minor issues.

You can only predict which features can go to production if you already have a working code base otherwise it's a safe bet its for the next release. So there's a future firmware update to indicate there's not enough time to complete such feature.

The VariCam group can probably forecast the major features because they have a working version on the Varicam 35/LT.
 
Does it really even matter?

I'm glad Panasonic is addressing feedback. I want the EVA-1 to be awesome!

I think it's poignant and realistic to realize that only so much can be done in the late stages (this is true even in software development). It's been my experience with every piece of pre-release beta software. Yes, bugs get fixed, things get better, etc. but if you don't fundamentally like the software, be it a game, OS, app, or productivity tool, I have never once seen something like that change significantly in that short of a time. Yes, things get tightened up and improved. But bugs and tweaks are different than a fundamental redesign.

And that's ok!

Honestly, we really can't say much about the EVA-1 still. Look, even the Panasonic demo films for the GH5 consistently underwhelm (just my 2 cents). I've shot footage on the GH5 I love, I've seen other posters shoot beautiful looking content on the GH5, and then I go to Panasonic's officially videos and am pretty unimpressed with all of them (sorry!!). Just me. But point is, the producers making GH5 films are all talented - the GH5 is capable of a huge variety of looks and tweaks. Neuman's films were good, but anyone remember how hyper sharp they looked on the first batch? Or his second batch with vintage lenses, which I thought looked better. And then his third with the snow storm footage mostly indoors, where he applied a ton of NR and it looked really plasticky? I would have swore those could have been 3 different cameras, and none of them look much like my footage.

I think/hope we may see the same with EVA-1.

To date, I've liked every Panasonic camera I've owned. A lot.

Here's a question:

Mitch,

What specifically other than 2500 ISO and noise are the engineers working on and targeting as primary goals for IQ?

What are Panasonic's thoughts on the image aesthetic looking too sharp or not organic enough? Do they agree, or disagree?
 
More ridiculous questions for Mitch he won’t/can’t answer. Wee!

Anyway, I’d much prefer a camera that likes to be sharp because sharp can be made soft. Soft can’t be made sharp...not very well, anyway. That’s why I use filters in a mattebox in front of my lenses: to dull the edge and make the light dance a bit more for me. Pantyhose? Absolutely. Let them make the image sharp. Let the cadence at 24.00 fps be as analog-looking as possible. EVA1 is looking mightier by the minute.
 
Retrospective said:
That is not realistic at all and no one has such talent to be able to predict such things. Unless you're miss Cleo ;) Impossible to predict lines of code, heck programmers wouldn't even know that. Impossible for QA to detect how many bugs. Impossible to know many will be fixed unless its all minor issues.

You can only predict which features can go to production if you already have a working code base otherwise it's a safe bet its for the next release. So there's a future firmware update to indicate there's not enough time to complete such feature.

The VariCam group can probably forecast the major features because they have a working version on the Varicam 35/LT.
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Here I thought he was being sarcastic. I guess he was not.
 
JRJphoto said:
More ridiculous questions for Mitch he won’t/can’t answer. Wee!

Anyway, I’d much prefer a camera that likes to be sharp because sharp can be made soft. Soft can’t be made sharp...not very well, anyway. That’s why I use filters in a mattebox in front of my lenses: to dull the edge and make the light dance a bit more for me. Pantyhose? Absolutely. Let them make the image sharp. Let the cadence at 24.00 fps be as analog-looking as possible. EVA1 is looking mightier by the minute.
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If this was true Cooke would not sell a single lens over Zeiss and the other clinical glass. You can soften the FS7 for example as much as you want. You can soften it till it's less sharp than VHS. It will still not look as creamy as the Alexa. Believe me I tried. Tried hard till the point I noticed it was not being good for my hair health anymore. Then I saw the truth.
 
JRJphoto said:
Sure, but Alexa is out of my buying price range. :D
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Have seen several used Alexa's w the high speed license recently for just a few bucks more than an EVA 1, if you were serious about getting that look. Of course, accessories cost a fortune and if the camera breaks or needs an update, Arri charges a lot for anything. But for now, the older Alexa's are a bargain since they aren't Minis, Amiras or SXTs. Old school Alexas are also huge and heavy in comparison to the EVA 1.
 
Sttratos said:
I understand that. But this doesn't change the fact that only putting diffusion in front of the lens will not solve everything. :)
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Absolutely, it does not. But I’m saying I’d rather have a camera that can shoot sharp, and I know EVA1 also has deep control over the settings so a pleasing, organic image can be had...but you also need filters, the appropriate lighting, etc, etc. No, filters don’t fix everything...and the camera is only a tiny piece of the filmmaking puzzle.
 
puredrifting said:
Have seen several used Alexa's w the high speed license recently for just a few bucks more than an EVA 1, if you were serious about getting that look. Of course, accessories cost a fortune and if the camera breaks or needs an update, Arri charges a lot for anything. But for now, the older Alexa's are a bargain since they aren't Minis, Amiras or SXTs. Old school Alexas are also huge and heavy in comparison to the EVA 1.
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Exactly. Also, I’m not one of those guys who said “screw you, Blackmagic, Ima buy a Red One on ebay” and then realized they just bought the brain and needed to buy another $14k of stuff just to turn it on having not thought the entire thing through. I have certainly seen the dozen or so Arri Alexas on ebay for about 10 grand or so. Sightly tempting, execpt I know there’s a lot more to it than that, as you said. EVA1 is appealing because Varicam-blahblahblah, but also it takes the same batteries and media my DVX200 does. It’s support and workflow requirements are smaller, lighter, less expensive, etc...which is what I’m looking for as a mostly solo owner/op. Bigger stuff? Sure. Rent nicer camera packages, hire a crew? Sure. But 95% of my client work is just me and my equipment...and it all has to fit inside my Nissan Sentra...and not break my spine. So, EVA1 keeps winning out in my mind over Ursa Mini Pro, FS7, etc. But to own an Alexa? Tempting...
 
Just take a 25-30 pound dumbbell put it on your shoulder and walk around with it for 15 minutes that usually cures the urge.

JRJphoto said:
Exactly. Also, I’m not one of those guys who said “screw you, Blackmagic, Ima buy a Red One on ebay” and then realized they just bought the brain and needed to buy another $14k of stuff just to turn it on having not thought the entire thing through. I have certainly seen the dozen or so Arri Alexas on ebay for about 10 grand or so. Sightly tempting, execpt I know there’s a lot more to it than that, as you said. EVA1 is appealing because Varicam-blahblahblah, but also it takes the same batteries and media my DVX200 does. It’s support and workflow requirements are smaller, lighter, less expensive, etc...which is what I’m looking for as a mostly solo owner/op. Bigger stuff? Sure. Rent nicer camera packages, hire a crew? Sure. But 95% of my client work is just me and my equipment...and it all has to fit inside my Nissan Sentra...and not break my spine. So, EVA1 keeps winning out in my mind over Ursa Mini Pro, FS7, etc. But to own an Alexa? Tempting...
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