Barry_Green
Moderator
So, where's the first serious footage for a hot weekend discussion?![]()
Hopefully nowhere. Footage from a preproduction engineering sample is in no way representative of the final footage from a properly-finished, properly-tuned, properly-finessed camera. Any early footage is bound to be disappointing, and pointlessly so because the disappointment would come from unfinished footage.
People may not like it, but the only reasonable and rational way to go about this is to wait for the camera to be actually producing images that are representative of what the final product will look like.
Maybe they'll be releasing footage from this week's DoP tour at the factory, maybe not, I don't know. But I wouldn't expect them to unless they're very confident that the images represent what they intend the final camera to look like.
If you want to discuss footage that matters, all I can tell you is -- wait until at least September. I've been down this road with them many, many times (through the DVX100B, HVX200, HPX500, HPX170, HMC150, HMC40, AC90, and AF100 at least). And this is the way it works -- first is a hand-built engineering prototype, then there's a second hand-built engineering sample (the stage they're at today) where many or most of the features are at least enabled, even if they're not working fully yet. Then there will be a couple of months of refinement of those prototypes while they gear up the production line. Then, around a month before it rolls out, they'll produce some models that are representative of what the final product will be. THOSE are the ones where you can maybe expect to see proper footage from.
And based on their anticipated release schedule of "October", that's why I say -- don't bother looking for footage, or looking at footage, until September at the earliest.
The only time I've ever seen them vary from this schedule was with the AF100, where they held a similar type of DoP tour as what they're doing now, and people released footage. And then the internet complained about the footage for months. Hopefully Panasonic learned the lesson and won't be releasing preproduction footage again, but ... they may, we'll see.