Today, Panasonic made what is likely the biggest announcement at this year’s PMA tradeshow. They introduced the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera. The GH1 adds high-def video capability to Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds line. The GH1 captures 1080p HD video at 24 frames-per-second or 720p at 60 frames-per-second. The GH1 has a built-in stereo mic on top of the pop-up flash, a connector for an accessory mic and it also supports 5.1 surround sound. The GH1 also introduces a new 10x 14-140mm kit lens (28-280mm equivalent) with MEGA O.I.S. optical image stabilization. For the most part, the GH1 is the same camera as the G1, but with the addition of HD video capture. It still has a 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor, tilt-swivel LCD, electronic viewfinder and Panasonic’s excellent iA Intelligent Auto shooting mode.
I’ve had a Panasonic Lumix G1 review camera for about a week now and I’ve been pretty impressed with performance and image quality. It’s a little slow compared to most DSLRs I’ve been using but that’s a fair trade for the very compact body and 14-45mm (28-90mm equivalent) kit lens. I wasn’t sure if the G1 was actually a camera I’d buy though. Even though I like the small package, I don’t feel it offers enough of a performance gain compared to the smallest available DSLRs. Not for me, anyway. However, the new Lumix GH1 is another story. Add an image-stabilized 28-280mm equivalent lens and HD video capability to the package and I’m 100% sold. Sign me up. Put me on the list. I absolutely want one. The GH1 is the camera I plan to use to cover next year’s PMA tradeshow.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Introduction >>
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One wonders what kind of computer processing speed is necessary to view HD footage at 1080P on their computer…
Funny how it works…I can watch 1080P TV on my IMAC, with EYE TV plugged into it, but there may be different types of processing going on when I dump this footage on my MAc. The other thing is…what kind of format will the HD footage be in…will it automatically play on my Mac, or must I do some kind of time consuming conversion? I imagine that I can plug it into my SAnyo PLVZ2000 1080P front projector and have it come right up…but then I need HDMI coming out of the camera…or at least…?
Andre-
Your concerns are totally legit and apply to all digital video cameras right now. There are no standard video formats and as I’ve muddled my way through trying to understand video, I’ve found myself completely lost on more than one ocassion. The Panasonic GH1 uses a compression format called AVCHD. The video quality is excellent. But how easy it is to edit and view are another question. I believe Panasonic will deliver the camera with software that allows you to do simple editing and conversion. But my experience with video is that it’s often not as simple as just downloading it and playing it. I’m very curious about the GH1 and am even considering buying one for an event rig for shooting stills and video. So I’ll be doing a review for sure. And video will definitely be a part of that review.