Will Panasonic transform their MFT product line to focus on vloggers?

I got this from a very reliable source:

  • They will change strategy here. MFT will focus on the V-Logging segment. They don’t see a huge market for a GH6 anymore as most people are moving to Full Frame. So the upcoming GH6 may be more a “Pro Grade” G100. It’s more of an upgraded GH5 in a new body with enhanced mobile integration. Or to make it short – a GH6 may not come with the desired specs and the story of the Pro Video MFT will end with the GH5.
  • G9 is now selling well in India. There are discussions about a Mark II which then also the successor of the GH5 with an additional Video Package to buy (similar of what Nikon is doing). But do not expect a “Big Bang” here.
  • The future of MFT is not yet decided – they are very careful because of the Olympus Imaging Carve out happening soon.  And again to mention – Sigma wants them to focus on L-Mount

Don’t know what to think about this…my guts tell me that this strategy is very lame and probably wouldn’t pay off in the long term. Therefore I hope this time this well known and reliable source is wrong…or Panasonic migh change mind after reading the comments on this post :)

Panasonic might change their mind and do APS-C L-mount cameras afterall

This info is from trusted sources that shared many correct rumors in the past. So I am 99% confident it’s true. This is what they said:

  • Sigma is very, very unhappy with the progress of L-Mount. They are urging Panasonic to focus much more on this system
  • They are really thinking of an APS-C entry level system based on L-Mount
  • They now see Canon as biggest competitor in Video segment

Panasonic stated a couple of times they do not plan to make an APS-C L-mount camera to not cannibalize the MFT system. Well…they might change their mind soon enough and it would be bad news for the MFT folks.

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via L-rumors

Sharp publishes new roadmap: The 8K MFT camera might be announced in two weeks?

Today Sharp published this new roadmap (PDF file). And it says that Sharp will announce a lot of new 8K products within the next two weeks in celebration of their 105th anniversary on September 15. As you can see from the crop on top you can also see the 8K MFT camera that was first displayed in 2019. My hope is that indeed we are going to finally get this new cam!!!

Those are the rumored/shared specs…but they might have changed since 2019:

8K 30p
4k 60p (200Mbits/s at 10bit)
5.5 inch fully articulating touch display
Full size HDMi out (last year prototype didn’t have it)
Mini XLR input
Headphone and Audio Jack
Price under $4,000

Pesonal View: the production of the Z-CAM E2 cameras might stop

image

Pesonal View reports:

Huge train-wreck seems to be happening with little amazing Z-CAM team.

All E2 cinema cameras are based on main LSI chip made by HiSilicon (Hi3559A V100 and may be few more models). For reference – HiSilicon is chip design branch of big Huawei corporation. Hisilicon designes all the main LSI (called Kirin) for Huawei smarphones.

Right now Huawei is on the first front lines of China-US trade war, with US promising to leave only burning ashes from smartphone market leader.

Since last US punch it is more correct to say now that they designed/made such chips and can’t do it anymore. US put extreme sanctions on Hisilicone specifically – now they can’t use any contract manufacturers (as 100% of them use US intellectual property, equipment or software) and can’t keep even be using US software to design chips themselves.

Such way Z-CAM cameras suddenly won’t have their heart available for company, and this also concerns any already made, sold or awaiting to be sold camera, as servicing issues and lack of parts can prevent company from keeping their warranty obligations. On small market of semi-pro and professional cinema cameras this alone is making your product unacceptable for any serious production.

Company now tries to hide this information from potential buyers, cleaning it instantly from the Facebook group and trying to prevent its leak to camera related press.

It will be real tragedy if we’ll have such interesting company (that had been able to withstand very hard climate) will be going out of business as collateral damage in the US-China trade war.

I got some small positive “signs” about the Olympus MFT future…

You know I have been very harsh towards Olympus. Mainly because for six month they said they wouldn’t sell their imaging business and than they did exactly that. So my trust level in them is down to zero. Now I got some “rumors” that my increase my trust level from 0% to 1% :)

Those “rumors” tell me that Olympus will be more involved than expected in the future JIP partnership and OMD and PEN products development. I hope to have more facts about this new future roadmap soon…

We should learn more about this in September!