Panasonic just announced new PRO stuff but no new Micro Four Thirds camcorder. But I guess we will know more tomorrow when Panaosnic will have the official press event. They may disclose some more info about their intentions with the Micro Four Thirds video “intentions”.
more pices and info at Electronista.
19 Responses
It is surprising to see the lack of enthusiasm in Panasonic about the m43 video recorders.
Any reason for this behavious?
I am hoping we will learn a lot more over the week.
Barry Greenstein indicates that this is it from Panasonic at NAB, and that there very likely won’t be an AF200 announced for now:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?280104-New-Panasonic-Gear-Announcements-Apr-15&p=1986125428&viewfull=1#post1986125428
Thanks for the knowledge. I was hoping the video releases would give some clues on future stills development. The iterative GF5 and G5 are fine but are substantially just a 920k screen upgrade. Maybe Panasonic are holding back to counter any new Canon mirrorless? If so, not sure this is the right tactic….
Admin- we need you to shed some light!!
Yeah, I twittered Panasonic asking whether there would be a replacement, they sent me a link explaining the $250 firmware update. So nothing really new for now.
does anyone know if it will have the White/RBG sensor on the announcement ? or for maybe in 2013 ?
White/RBG sensor was just a patent I think ? Maybe we will never see it…A patent doesn’t mean a product will use it soon. I doubt we will see it on next sensors.
Odd that we still haven’t seen a consumer grade micro four thirds camcorder from Panasonic. Something less than $1,500 and more in line with that Sony Nex camcorder.
Panasonic insists in not marketing the GH2 for filmmakers because they make more money on crappy camcorders.
The AF100 was such a disappointment, the Sony FS100 is getting all the attention. ( and sales )
“The AF100 was such a disappointment”
Was it? How so? (genuine question)
It was pretty much the first of its kind when it came out, and while the usability is great and it still holds up very well generally speaking, hacked GH2 beats it on IQ, as does the FS100. The used price is 3/4 that of FS100, though, and it mostly has a better feature set.
I was hoping something new would come out so that the used price would drop even further, but oh well.
Hacked GH2 beats it on IQ for internal Codec. The SDI out uncompressed to a Blackmagic-Design HyperDeck Shuttle has even less restrictions on it than the GH2 in terms of bit rate. Everyone forgets that when the pro features that the AF100 does, you do NOT need a hack. Rather, the AF100 gives the user the possibility to record to just about anything they want to at enormous bit rates.
I vaguely remember having read that using an external recorder resulted in very little improvement on the AF100. Regardless, it’s drastically less convenient. Generally speaking, I would already prefer using the AF as a video camera over the GH2, for its other advantages.
Tulio,
They can’t market the GH2 as a camcorder for filmmakers because it’s not a camcorder. A camcorder, for example, wouldn’t have a 30 minute record limit, but if they removed this they’d have to charge us more because I believe camcorders are taxed differently. But I don’t know what the big problem is because so many thousands (millions?) of people are using the GH2 to make films then why do they need to market it as such? Did Canon market the MkII as film making device? I believe a GH2-sensor camcorder may well be coming and they will sell a truck load of them if the ergonomics are right. I for one would buy one. But Panasonic still need an amazing stills device and I believe they will be looking to nail that with the GH3 with video quality remaining intact.
AF100 a disappointment? It’s an amazing device. I believe it was the best selling camcorder in its class of 2011. The FS100 was released 6 plus months later and had no ND filters, no HD-SDI out and only one memory card slot (and pretty shoddy ergonomics.) The sensor on that thing looks amazing, but if it was such a raving success then why have they already announced the FS700 less than a year later?? Purportedly its going to be in the same price bracket as the FS100 (which is now sold off under deals etc.). These are not typical video camera product cycles!
GH2 is only limited to 30 minutes in the UK.
This is a brand new market, basically, so it makes sense that things are moving really fast. FS700 isn’t going to be dramatically more expensive than FS100 was when it came out, but it appears that the 100 will still have its place at a significantly lower price.
There is definitely a place for an AF200. My guess is they have seen the competition and are now holding back the release… But I could be wrong. It would be nice to see an AF200 with a decent internal codec shooting quality 1080p. FS100 is nice for sure, but a bit flawed. A new AF would be fantastic, something below 5k with HD-SDI, solid body, chunky internal codec, dual memory cards (maybe P2), built in NDs and with updated (GH2/3) sensor (or specific 2MP sensor). Something below the FS700 and better ergonomically and build than FS100.
The current AF-100 has HD-SDI, Great 1080p24 output (and an software upgrade to 1080p60) a really good ND wheel, a decent but not great codec and writes to SD (screw P2, been down that road). The Af200 would need 3g sdi, AVC-ultra to micro P2 as well as a major hardware revamp to justify the 200 moniker. An Af100b is a possibility with the SDI/AVC-ultra…but i still doubt that.
What we are getting is a $250 software update for the AF100, that’s all. No surprise there, their efforts are clearly not in MFT cinema right now, but in ENG and acquisition codec.
This is a damn disappointment. Panasonic had a golden opportunity to really shake things up if they brought in two or three new camcorders to combat Sony’s FS700, replace the AF100 (which indeed is inferior to the fs100), and a lower level camcorder at $2-3k range to combat the black magic cine cam and 5D iii users.
Coincidentally, that lower end camera would benefit a lot of GH2 users who want something a bit more robust for filmmaking.