Panasonic GH4 engineers interviewed: Did you know it can track a train at 200km/h?

The GH4 developer team (Image: DC.watch).

DC.watch (google translation here) interviewed the Panasonic engineers in charge of the GH4 development.

– The “H” in the name stays for “High Definition” and “Hybrid”
– GH4 continuous shooting speed is now about twice as fast as on the GH3
– The biggest challenge was how to reduce the heat.
– Low pass filter has been necessary for video recording. But it doesn’t mean Panasonic will get rid of it in future.

UPDATE: Dicahub provided me with a nice translation and pointed me about one curious GH4 feature: The engineers said tracking performance of gh4 is 3x faster than gh3. And it can be tracking the train running about 200km/h!

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GH4 North American preorders, shipping date and price:
GH4 camera at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Ritz Camera and Panasonic. Price: $1,698. In Canada at Vistek.
GH4 camera with interface unit at Adorama and BHphoto. Price: $3,298
Interface unit only at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic. Price: $1,998

GH4 Europen preorders, shipping date and price:
Germany: Wexcameras, Marcotec-shop.de.
UK at Wexphotographic, CameraWorld, UKdigital, CVP, TipTop.
Holland at Fotohanskeuzekamp.
Belgium at Fotokonijnenberg.
Norway at Fotovideo.
Sweden at Cyberphoto, Skandinavianphoto.
Finland at Telefoto, Topshot, Verkkoauppa.
France at Photocineshop.
Spain: Fotoboom.

Asian preorders, shipping date and price:
Digitalrev and Digidirect Australia.

4K cards
Kingston 16-32-64 GB SDHC UHS-I Speed Class 3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Sandisk 16-32-64 GB Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II Memory Card at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Transcend 64-128 GB High Speed 10 UHS-3 at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Panasonic 16-32-64 GB SDHC-UHS-I U3 Card (90MB/s) at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa says they will focus on premium mirrorless market.

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Bloomberg and Toyo Keizai interviewed  Olympus Ceo Hiroyuki Sasa.

– Mirrorless market will growth particularly in the premium segment.
– Also Europe and North America mirrorless market is expected to grow. And OMD models did well.
– Olympus was mainly a compact camera producer and Olympus is now shifting to mirrorless system cameras. Low price models have been reduced
– Olympus expected a break-even last year but PEN sales were lower than expected. And Olympus also had delay in shipments (example for the E-M10).
– The camera unit will probably have operating profit of 5 billion yen in the 12 months starting April 2015, after a loss of 3.5 billion yen expected in the current fiscal year.
– Olympus targets to sell 630,000 units of mirrorless cameras this year, 24 percent higher than the previous 12-month period. Sales of compact cameras are expected to plunge to 1 million units this year from 2.71 million units a year earlier
– Olympus plans to focus their camera business also on new markets like vehicle cameras and of course medical business
– Olympus will never stop the digital camera business because it also influences technology development in other business (like the medical).

In short: More premium cameras to come and break even expected for the current fiscal year. Looks good if they can really achieve the goals!

Watch the two hour long webcast Panasonic GH4 video.

If you missed to watch the two hours long Panasonic and BHphoto live webcast here is the video:

GH4 North American preorders, shipping date and price:
GH4 camera at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Ritz Camera and Panasonic. Price: $1,698. In Canada at Vistek.
GH4 camera with interface unit at Adorama and BHphoto. Price: $3,298
Interface unit only at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic. Price: $1,998

GH4 Europen preorders, shipping date and price:
Germany: Wexcameras, Marcotec-shop.de.
UK at Wexphotographic, CameraWorld, UKdigital, CVP, TipTop.
Holland at Fotohanskeuzekamp.
Belgium at Fotokonijnenberg.
Norway at Fotovideo.
Sweden at Cyberphoto, Skandinavianphoto.
Finland at Telefoto, Topshot, Verkkoauppa.
France at Photocineshop.
Spain: Fotoboom.

Asian preorders, shipping date and price:
Digitalrev and Digidirect Australia.

4K cards
Kingston 16-32-64 GB SDHC UHS-I Speed Class 3 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Sandisk 16-32-64 GB Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II Memory Card at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Transcend 64-128 GB High Speed 10 UHS-3 at Amazon (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Panasonic 16-32-64 GB SDHC-UHS-I U3 Card (90MB/s) at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

Crazy: Lexar card in Panasonic Lumix TZ7 survives shipwreck and two years under the sea!

Vancouver artist Paul Burgoyne lost the camera in 2012 when his boat was shipwrecked off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The camera went down with the ship. Two years after Marine Sciences Centre university students found the camera 12 meter down and discovered that the Lexar Platinum II 8 GB memory card used within the Panasonic TZ7 preserved all pictures taken with the camera. They shared one group picture on Twitter to find the owner fo the camera. And they did found the owner!

The camera also served well as home for marine species! CBC.ca reports:

According to Isabelle M. Côté, Professor of Marine Ecology at Simon Fraser University, there were multiple marine species, from two kingdoms and at least seven phyla, living on the camera when it was found.

That is the best advertising Panasonic can get ! Hope it gets viral :)

P.S.: There is also a video shot on the camera before the Shipwrecked (cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2459292827)

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