Here’s a great video from FreshDV.com right from the NAB floor with a Panasonic executive giving solid info on the new AG-AF100 4/3″ camcorder.
So, it looks like pricing has been announced at around $6,000 – more than I thought. This puts this camera into a range with several other highly respected cameras but the feature set it offers may make it worth every penny.
Jan Crittenden Livingston, the Panasonic executive being interviewed, confirmed that the HD-SDI out was uncompressed so if you want serious picture quality this baby will get it.
I’ll leave the AVC/H.264 discussion for another post but she did mention converting the footage from the camera into ProRes HQ for pulling a green screen key and that is likely the work flow you’ll need. Editing MPEG4 video directly in a timeline is not the most effective work flow making conversion to an editing format pretty well necessary.
But nothing new there. Like I said, I’ll take up this discussion in another post.
She also confirmed delivery for late in 2010. December was the month mentioned and product delivery schedules from here to there can slip a lot.
Although much of this camera can be built using off-the-shelf parts. There is no new technology here. From the sensor to the card slots, the mic inputs to the output selections, Panasonic has been building units with all these parts for a good bit.
I know it’s still more than just getting a prototype to work to have a unit actually in production but their aggressive schedule for delivery seems like it could happen.
Livingston mentioned that they brought in a lot of film makers and the requirements for this camera came from those discussions. One thing that caught my ear was a brief mention of including low-pass filters to eliminate aliasing. And then there is the inclusion of ND filters for shooting outside in the sun.
Having used ‘regular’ camcorders for years and shooting with a DSLR for the past year or so, it will be great to finally get the best of both worlds in one unit.
Personally, I like Sony video cameras. It’s not so much the technical performance, though Sony holds it’s own by any standard. It’s that I’m very comfortable with their ergonomics, menu structures and feel in my hand.
I spent over two hours trying to figure out a Panasonic camcorder recently and never completely succeeded at getting basic configuration settings in place.
But this camera could make it worth going through the learning curve to get used to Panasonic’s interface. I look forward to seeing real footage from it soon.
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