Herman Wong sent us a bunch of very nice pictures of the Panasonic booth at the NABshow in Las Vegas. You can see them here: https://picasaweb.google.com/108753860378700835441/
And 43rumors reader Rob sent us the link to the new Cine section of the Four Thirds Group website: http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/cine-sys.html. It adds very useful information’s to the Zeiss CP.2, Schneider Cine Xenar lenses and the HORSEMAN TS-pro (a tilt/shift lens control system that enables tilt shooting with an ordinary lens).
Shop Links:
The Zeiss CP.2 primes at [shopcountry 15756]).
Schneider Cine-Xenar primes at [shopcountry 21514]).
13 Responses
Nice link to the new part of the website. Interesting note near the top of the page; “*A support system is required when mounting a lens weighing more than 1 kg”. I remember discussing that on dpreview sometime ago, no-one was able to find a defined weight limit for lenses on a m43 mount. Now we know!
Do you think it’s the same for all mft-cameras? I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
Gh2 was absent from Panasonic boot and Pana reps were strangely saying that GH2 is not a broadcast camera and not made for video production. What bunch of crap. There was one DSLR at almost every boot. And panasonic are closing their eyes and hiding GH2 so people buy AF100….
BS
I’m using my GH2 for a live cam this weekend.
It looks fantastic on projection with clear HDMI out.
I’ll probably end up buying a second one before long.
That is because it isn’t a broadcast camera. Panasonic Broadcast and consumer divisions are separate companies.
Hi Edward,
What kind of a setup are you using for Live HDMI out from GH2?
Thanks!
Panasonic didn’t have the GH2 in their booth at NAB because they are either cowards, stupid or asleep.
_Professional_ video producers use HD-DSLRs on more and more _professional_ video productions every day, period. Full stop.
Panasonic, Sony, Canon, etc. do a disservice to their customers by arbitrarily segregating their marketing & sales. Going forward, everyone loses if the manufacturers continue this charade. I’m not saying the manf. must bring their entire consumer lines to NAB, but at least bring the products their customers are using for real productions. And leverage new trends especially when your company (even if it’s a diff. division) has an applicable product — even if that product is “consumer”.
In the short term it might cost Panasonic a sale or two if a “pro” buys a GH2 (when appropriate) instead of a AF100, but in the long run, if a GH2 is the right tool for the customer’s project, everyone profits.
The internet makes it very hard for manf. to fool most customers most of the time. Those days are over.
Hey Sony, Panasonic, etc.: It’s 2011. Wake up. Adapt or die. RED, Weisscam, BlackMagic Designs, Atomos, AJA and others are leading the way.
Yes, Panasonic are trying to hide an elephant in a small room. Why would I carry a shoebox when I can carry a GH2? All the GH2 needs to be a better camera is a tweak in the firmware, just let Vitaly do it.
Guys, there’s a difference between a cam that could be used for video that could be broadcast in hd and a true hd broadcast cam. When full episodes of shows are shot with Canon 5d, or a commercial is made with another dslr video system, the dp has still to make conscious decisions about how he or she works that are dictated by using such a cam. My store sells film and video equipment to the pro market – the guys in that department often send people who work on a short-segment basis (commercials, daytime entertainment shows) over to us at the dslr area and we get them well set up. Episodic tv, feature film, and serious documentary producers are still much better served by dedicated video cams, and they know it.
Of course manufacturers who don’t make a true broadcast standard cam will play up how well their dslrs do video, and they can be used to get good results that are even up to hd broadcast quality, but as a tool for long-form video production with most crews who are currently out there they are still a novelty and a bit of a p.i.t.a.
AF100 is a broadcast cam in that no such compromises or changes to the operation of a crew used to using other broadcast/film equipment have to be made. Panny is absolutely correct in that. Why you assume they’re trying to trick users into buying AF100 is beyond me – obviously you don’t need a broadcast standard video camera anyway or you’d know why the one is not the other.
True. The AF100 is a very good value as-is, but it should have included a 10-bit 4:2:2 live HDMI & HD-SDI output instead of the 8-bit live outs it has now.
Panasonic’s protestations notwithstanding, implementing live 10-bit out on the camera would not affect the selling price of a <$5K US camera. 10-bit HDMI/HD-SDI technology is dirt cheap these days. (Example: BlackMagic Design's Hyperdeck Shuttle @ $345 US!)
It's OK with me if manufacturers make in-camera recording as bad or good as they want, but now that there are so many excellent external 10-bit 4:2:2 HDMI/HD-SDI high datarate HD video recorders available, the following is the new reality (not future, but _now_):
In-camera recording is dead, dead, dead. Small, portable, external, high-quality HD video field recorders are where it's at.
All-in-one camcorders with in-cam recording — but without live 10-bit out (or better) HD outputs — are over, done, passe.
Why 10-bit HD? Because it's a blue sky gradient, chromakey, SFX world, that's why.
Again, the AF100 is very nice, but it should have live 10-bit out for the same price.
Cheers.
Oh, and not to just pick on the AF100: The Sony FS100 should have 10-bit live HDMI out, too, but apparently it doesn’t.
There’s some disagreement (on the web) about whether the FS100 has 8-bit or 10-bit live HDMI out, but according to Bill Drummond, Sony’s product manager (who should know!), the FS100’s live HD out is 8-bit, not 10-bit. See:
hdwarrior.co.uk/2011/03/29/sony-and-the-fs100-exclusive-interview-with-bill-drummond-coming-soon/
“… Let’s not beat about the bush, HDMI is becoming more professional every day and more and more professionals are using it for monitoring and other things but, you know, ultimately it does allow use of products like the Ki Pro mini and the Atmos Ninja which meet the requirements of our target customers. The [FS100] HDMI outputs 4:2:2 8bit. … ”
Don’t get me wrong, I’d _love_ it if the FS100 featured live 10-bit HDMI, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, unless Sony has recently changed its specs or this Sony guy is misinformed.
Cheers.
Oh, and for those who are wondering: Why should we use relatively high datarate external HD field recorders?
A: Because in video, things m-o-v-e. I know this will come as a shock to most camera manufacturers, but we’d like to use video for _motion_ w/o so much compression artifacts. There. I said it. We want to use video to record things that move.
Especially now that recording relatively high datarate HD to laptop hard drives are inexpensive. No, scratch that; recording high quality HD to HDDs is dirt cheap, and it works! For rough & tumble, “run ‘n gun” productions, SSD costs more but does the job — and gets less expensive every month.
See Atomos Ninja & Samurai:
http://www.atomos.com/ninja/
To summarize: Camera manufacturers, get with the program, will ya?! Storage & I/O tech is a lot less expensive than it was 10 years ago!
And no, please, not another <$3K US all-in-one small sensor fixed-lens camcorder crammed down our enthusiast, prosumer & pro throats. It's 2011: Wake up.
Thank you for listening.
Cheers.
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