REAL? or NOT? Jan??????? Barry???????????

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I would love it if Panasonic made a crop mode for M43 lenses. I would hate for my 4/3 and M4/3 glass to be useless going forward. I'm not heavily invested but when a brand costs you money for buying into their systems it doesn't sit well.

I would love to hear any confirmation or insight to this rumor from Jan or Barry.
 
Not sure how you couldn't go right with a decent DR camera with S35 sized chip with µ43 mount (most adaptive) that selecitvely crops to 4/3, S16, 2/3", and 1/2" sizes.

Pair that sort of beast in a AF100-ish modular body with internal Ultra-AVC the new µP2 and I would be a happy fellow.
 
Really? You get your news from eoshd? Man of sensationalism? Website of BS where his opinions are facts. Same person who said gh2 will be shutterless about 2 years ago?
 
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mcbob said:
Not sure how you couldn't go right with a decent DR camera with S35 sized chip with µ43 mount (most adaptive) that selecitvely crops to 4/3, S16, 2/3", and 1/2" sizes.

Pair that sort of beast in a AF100-ish modular body with internal Ultra-AVC the new µP2 and I would be a happy fellow.
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YES YES YES!

dcloud said:
Really? You get your news from eoshd? Man of sensationalism? Website of BS where his opinions are facts. Same person who said gh2 will be shutterless about 2 years ago?
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I think that is why the OP is asking some less sensational people who are in the Panasonic loop for verification.

I know its just a rumour but really with Panasonic's absence at NAB in large chip camcorders it begs one to jump to conclusions to find a logical reason.
 
Really hoping this isn't true, but if it is I can't blame Panasonic. Being the first company to pioneer a new type of product doesn't always equal success. Other companies (Sony in particular) have just built on the sub-$10k cinema camera market so much since the AF100's release that it may be in Panasonic's best interest to cut their loses and try something new instead spending even more money playing catch-up.

I absolutely LOVE my AF100 and have never regretted the purchase, and I'm sure I'll be getting plenty of use out of it even a year from now. It would be nice to hear thoughts from Jan or Barry, but in the meantime I think it's important to remember that the AF100 is still a fantastic tool, and that won't change even if they drop the product line. I look forward to the day that Panasonic gets back in the game.
 
Ya, it just seems odd that Panasonic would let everyone show at NAB and only announce a paid firmware for the AF100. Weird to me!
 
i have a theory
as big as they are, they can only focus at creating/releasing a couple of new cameras at a time.
clearly ENG/broadcast is still a big market for them thats why they dont veer off those lines.
they have a 3 year cycle. af100 was announced 2 NABs ago.
next year if panasonic doesnt come up with something revolutionary, then clearly theyre not interested. (seriously though that fs700 market is theirs for the taking NOW and yet they underperformed this year.)

regarding af100, its pretty popular here. c300 very popular but only a few owners. fs100 not as popular. im one of the first who had it in my country and rented it out a lot of times. now, rent has been slow since the market has saturated AND dslrs are still preffered due to its low cost.

and i know the research and work cost them on the 60p firmware, but hell, i dont think the fee attracts buyers. (im not against it, but i look at it in marketing perspective

we wil see how this move turns out for them.

OBTW will the new af100s released after NAB have the new avchd2 firmware?
 
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Panny dealers here in South Africa killed it with high prices on a bad $ exchange rate pitch to the ENG market who sniffed over it. I brought mine in from the USA at a better rate. My local sources tell me maybe 10 were sold nationwide to a pretty big TV/Corporate production market. None have been sold nationwide from 3 main dealers in the last 3 months. I think there are 2 on rental in the country and set up as an alt ENG camera with the 14-140 auto lens. To state is has been badly marketed here is an understatement. I follow m43rumors, the guy almost never gets it wrong. As for M 4/3 it's always got a bad pro rap with the so called pro crowd while amazingly the FS100 is getting something of a new following now just because its a s35mm sensor with less features than the AF.
 
I guess the real question is - has panasonic ever done this before? Are sales really that bad, I know quite a few people in my area alone that own one.
 
I keep reading stuff about the s35 being a problem.
This is superficial
look at the BMC. Its smaller than 4/3 but its garnering a lot of intersts.

So what does the af100 doesnt have that the bmc has? DR and RAW 10 bit. Everything else af100 works well.
Sensor size is secondary to what users actually want.
 
Guys this is something that is coming form someone who heard it from someone that got that info from a another guy.......... this is the definition of a rumor.

But just for fun....

I really think that the game is over for large consumer electronic centric businesses that are in the Pro camera space. Technology and scalable fast OEM has made this a game for small companies to win. I see Sony and panasonic selling off their broadcast brand in the next 5 years.

I am basing this off of my gut felling and I have NO inside information on camera sales and am not in the retal side at all. So that makes the above internet FUD
 
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bitcrusher said:
I see Sony and panasonic selling off their broadcast brand in the next 5 years.
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I don't agree with that. I think they'll always be around - why not? They've got nothing to lose by having - at least - ENG cameras and broadcast-type equipment. You know, stuff studios or news stations might buy in bulk. I would agree, however, that they may lose interest in the cinema market as that is a very niche market and smaller markets are better served by smaller companies.

Up until today, evidently, it took the resources of a very large company or an exceedingly rich individual to design and manufacture cinema cameras. No longer is this true.
 
I think one of the big problems it faced was the lack of professional native lenses. AF is one of the big selling points of this camera over a DSLR, but using adapted lenses takes that advantage away. It deters the camcorder crowd who might otherwise be tempted to switch to a large sensor camera, and it deters the DSLR crowd who already have a lens collection and can use them natively on a camera that has a much larger sensor for much less money.

With a pair of really good lenses (say, a 14-45 f/2.8 and a 45-100 f/2.8), with great build quality, IS, fast AF, but still with a nice hefty focus ring, this camera would suddenly rocket to the top of a lot of peoples list.
 
JVC is still around, even though they were written off years ago. Canon was call stupid with the c300 right here on these pages when it was announced and they appear to be jumping head first into the cinema world and getting great reviews from people who've actually touched their product.
Big companies aren't stagnant entities, if there's a profit to be made they'll evolve. Just a couple of years ago the prediction was RED would make every other company obsolete- how's that predication working out for some of the commenters here........

My gut feeling is there isn't a person on here whose business is a big as Sony, Pana, Canon etc and those companies are actually run by some pretty smart people who know there business. Despite what gets rumored around the internet.........
 
dcloud said:
So what does the af100 doesnt have that the bmc has? DR and RAW 10 bit. Everything else af100 works well.
Sensor size is secondary to what users actually want.
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RAW 12-bit and not just more DR but the image is likely far more resolute then the AF100.
 
Okay, let's address it head-on:

ANYONE who gets their information from some rumor/gossip site is asking to be misled. Any site that posts irresponsible speculation as if it's true, is ... irresponsible. Any site that posts its own made-up opinion as if it's fact, is doing a disservice to everyone who reads it. And anyone who reads it is doing themselves a disservice.

Stick to information instead of "well connected rumor sites" or whatever they're called. An actual news site would never print some guesswork/random rumor without fact-checking it, getting multiple sources to confirm it, and if it was particularly controversial, they'd run it past their legal department to verify that they were on solid legal ground to print it without opening themselves up to libel or slander suits. Do you think that's the process that was followed here? I sure don't.

Absolute facts: the AF100 sold blazingly well when it was the only large-sensor camera around. It was an absolute explosion. Have sales slowed down since then? Obviously -- because now, instead of only one camera, you've got the F3 and F65 and FS100 and C300 and forthcoming C500 and FS700 and Digital Bolex and BlackMagic and whatever else ... it doesn't take a genius to figure out that multiple competitors will shrink your share of the pie, especially when your share was 100%.

But to leap from that to "the successor has been deleted?" That's just outrageously irresponsible "journalism". Look, if some kid in his mom's basement gets himself a tumbler account and writes that "Sony has cancelled the FS700 because of the popularity of the BlackMagic camera" -- would you believe it? Why should you? Of course you shouldn't.

I think part of why this is being written is because a whole lot of people who don't know what they were talking about, were all saying "there WILL be an AF200 shown at NAB." And when it wasn't shown, now they have to come up with some equally outrageous reason as to WHY it wasn't shown, so they invent some stupid story of "well, sales are off so they've cancelled it".

Ever heard of "urban legends"? This is how they start. Someone says something, and someone else hears it and repeats it, and then the more people repeat it the more it becomes "fact" when in reality, it was just made-up nonsense in the first place. Someone, somewhere along the way, made something up. Other people (however sincere) repeat it. But the root core of it was, and always is, nonsense.

You want to know the facts? I probably shouldn't say, but I'll say it anyway -- EVERYONE who said "there WILL be an AF100 successor at NAB" was talking out their @$$. They absolutely were wrong from day one, I knew it long ago, I knew for an undeniable fact there was NOT going to be a successor introduced, I have my own "sources" who actually know what they're talking about, and -- surprise surprise, there's no successor announced. Why? Because the AF100 is barely one year old! Surprise? No, it was always part of the plan. Cancelled announcement? Of course not, as there was never a scheduled announcement in the first place. The development team was already busy working on the HPX600, the revised AC160A/AC130A, and the 4K VariCam. They were never slated to be producing an AF200 or anything like it at this time, as the AF100 is barely over a year old as it is.

I know the truth is inconvenient for some folks, but sheesh, just think about it for two minutes and it's obvious.

What are these "make up some sensationalist headline" sites going to do when an actual AF100 successor IS released? Well, I'll guess they'll probably make up some completely new factless story about how pressure from the DSLR community "forced" them to do it, or whatever. Anything to try to gain or salvage some credibility. Well, anything other than actually telling the truth, that is. Because the fact of the matter is these folks DON'T KNOW what the truth is! And how could they? You think major companies like this "leak" information like that to rumor sites? Doesn't that sound absurd?

People, get your news from press releases, not rumor sites. The only people who ACTUALLY know what a company is going to do, are the company itself. Anyone else is either making stuff up, guessing (and posting their guesswork as "fact"), or being manipulated by those who want to aggrandize their own self-importance.

Jeez. Stuff like this is just irresponsible. This is akin to shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.
 
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Last I checked, when a company finally does discontinue a camera, all the ones already sold still work the same way they did before they were discontinued...... Unfortunately the same orifice Barry mentions them talking out of when spreading rumors is the same orifice they use when they come up with excuses why no camera can meet their awesome film making needs.........
 
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