Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Panasonic GH4K Less Than $2000 - Big Trouble for $4000 Blackmagic Production Camera?


Courtesy HD Warrior

Two primary sources that I trust, Endgadget and Giulio Sciorio at Small Camera Big Picture are reporting from CES that, a day after Sony introduced the $1998 4k FDR-AX100 camcorder, Panasonic is about to roll out a 4K resolution GH4K camera that looks a lot like the GH3 - for less than $2000.  Endgadget says:
"The company's keeping most of the hardware's specs close to its collective vest, but a representative was able to divulge a few details. UHD content can be recorded at 200 Mbps, and output in a full live feed via a mini-HDMI port (thanks to ALL-I Intra mode) to display on a computer or record to a hard drive. Of course, the Micro-Four Thirds shooter can save footage straight to an SDXC card -- a UHS Class 3 prototype variant tuned for such a task was on display -- though space will run out fairly quickly.
There's no word how many megapixels the cam totes, but it will be able to simultaneously snap photos while recording video. More details are set to arrive with the camera's official release in late February, when it'll arrive with a price tag of $2,000 or less" (!)
This is an absolutely revolutionary price for an interchangeable lens 4K camera.  Cinemas around the word still project at 2K (and are only slowly upgrading to 4K).  When you can get one of these for less than $2000, the decision whether to buy a $4000 Blackmagic Production Camera becomes that much more difficult.

And why would anyone ever shoot for theatrical projection at 1080p (1.9K)?

I do wish that Panasonic would introduce a 4K Super 35 camera at some point.  Perhaps as a long overdue upgrade to the venerable AF100.

It looks like 2014 is going to be another very interesting year.

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