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Destiny of m43 mount cameras, how soon production will stop
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  • @MikeLinn

    The "Marketing Manager" in the video is no longer with the company.

  • IMHO there should be an * in front of everyone of these videos that is a complete confabulation.
    At the bottom of the page
    *nothing new, I don't know, really
    At least make it a GH7 at this point.

  • Panasonic must have very important meeting during March where they can decide destiny of all m43.

    Now development of new cameras and lenses is almost stopped, only one group keep working. As far as leaks go - Panasonic have only one upcoming LSI for m43 cameras that they still can't make.

    Situation with lenses is better despite all best engineers now work only on premium L mount lenses.

    Is it possible that m43 won't get new cameras from Panasonic? Yes, they will still release 3 cameras that are in development, but after this it can be same as Samsung - total silence and nothing new.

  • Micro Four thirds mount, is here for awhile to come. Panasonic.. they aren't going under anytime soon. They just released a MFT cube, and seem intent on releasing the GH6K soon.

  • They were brutally honest in analyzing the MFT market. They do not see a lot of potential in “movers” from Olympus to Lumix MFT. Their assumption is that Olympus owner keep their equipment in hope of light (like Pentax users), move to another system (Fuji?) or go full frame. But they see a market in V-Logging, Instragram/Influencer, Youtuber etc. So they are thinking about a tightly integrated, mobile system which allows to easily create video with a lot of effects and the option to easily cut & share via mobile phone / tablet. Enthusiastic photographers & filmers should move to L-Mount

    Panasonic management spent last year with extreme heavy drugs abuse.

  • @Energy80s

    Panasonic is dead.

    (Should not be a surprise as Panasonic L-mount is selling worse than their m43-mount stuff. And as we know most m43 stuff sold was from Olympus - which was not able to make it a sustainable business. )

  • Is m4/3 dead again? :)

  • Opportunities to go out are decreasing due to the disaster, and the performance of the camera business is rapidly deteriorating. It is inevitable that the scale of the business will shrink in the future.

    https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO63423770T00C20A9X11000/

    Quite obvious remark.

    43rumors told that behind paywall we have:

    • Because of the difficult environment Panasonic plans to do a “structural reform” of the business.
    • Nikkei writes that this could end in a “collaboration with other companies“.
  • @Dark_Blue

    Dreams, sweet dreams.

    Sony m43 sensors have lowest priority and worst tech among all their lineups. Add here that Olympus is going down (will soon touch the ground and break into lot of small pieces).

    No one will dedicate big resources now on m43 sensor.

    And actually it is Sony who could turn the switch off for m43, not Panasonic.

  • What they need to do with the GH6 is to obtain a killer sensor with very high dynamic range, RAW support of some kind, best IBIS so far and develop a set of m4/3 anamorphic cinema zooms with electronic contacts to take advantage of said IBIS. I know what some people think of IBIS when it comes to filmmaking, but I'm not among them. Anamorphic in this case can also be viable Run-and-Gun feature that will differentiate the MFT standard from competitors with bigger sensors. Forget autofocus, crazy resolutions and all other small gimmicks. GH line needs to be devoted to image quality and serious filmmakers above all.

  • New interview

    Nearly 3.5 years have passed since the launch of the GH5, and many customers are still purchasing GH5, but many creators still shoot movies in a Micro Four Thirds format. As I have assured many times, we will continue to develop products for Micro Four Thirds as well as Full Frame to meet the needs of a wide range of creators. Regarding the replacement model for the GH camera that you asked about, I will inform you but the information may be spread. Of course, we are considering it, and we look forward to seeing you there.

    Just like Olympus, PR and words activity increases, real development and engineers allocated drops at the same time.

  • Those rumors sound sweet to my ears as I like the m4/3 format a lot. Really hope to see future iterations of GH series, but I'm afraid Panasonci will concentrate their efforts towards the 35mm digital because all the "hype" is there. People are letterally intoxicated by full frame :)

  • @gaman

    Rumors is that presently Panasonic (as well as remains of Olympus that is walking dead already) are interested in m43 due to only one thing - very good economics of the lenses. As you literally need half the glass amount and can use cheaper and smaller construction but still charge nice money.

  • What I meant was as for Sony and Canon, that use only their smaller sized sensor (aps-c) for rangefinder compact models, also for Panasonic would be convenient to do the same, m4/3 for the GX/G90 line and FF for the S series.

    Can't see Panasonic to continue to develop two perfectly overlapping series of cameras like G9/GH and S1/S1H; and yes different size of sensor, but the target people is pretty much the same.

  • Panasonic won't be making APS-C cameras, at least not yet.

    They smartest idea had been to sell lot of engineering data and other intellectual property to Chinese companies. But they are not sure if US will like it now.

  • Why should they switch to apsc when Panasonic has a long story on m43 format? It's a non sense. Sony and Canon never had m43.

  • I think it makes sense for Panasonic to follow the Sony and Canon route: aps-c for rf compact models and full frame for the dslr styled ones.

    G9 and GH5 are getting redundant to S1/S1H. And the S5 shows the Panasonic willing to attract the actual G9/GH users to the 35mm digital camp.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev - So m43 is dead. At least I hope to aquire a few more bodies for my lenses. :-p

  • It is very bad sign - IR interview about how all will be nice, usually publication happens 2-3 months before official announcement that all is cancelled.

    DE: Are sales coming back in some areas while continuing to decrease in others? What is the general direction globally?

    Mr. Yamane: Our sales are on the track to recovery. Especially in the US, where video demand is high, it has been recovering faster than we expected. China showed the fastest recovery, and our sales there went well at an online sales event. On the other hand, the negative effect of COVID-19 in Asia and Europe still remains and market demand in those regions has been recovering rather slowly. We will keep promoting the advantage of Lumix, namely high video performance in compact bodies, to meet rapidly rising needs of individual live streaming during the “Stay at Home” period. We do believe that a brand new imaging world will open up after overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll never slow down our product development toward that new era.

    They told this in March, in public interview. I hope good doctors already visited Panasonic top management to check the brain wiring.

    DE: That actually leads right into my next question, which is about the strong focus on video for the S-series. What does that mean for the GH product line? It's been more than two years since the GH5S was announced, and three years since the GH5 was announced in 2017. Do you see more evolution of the GH line, or has that line's role been taken over by the S1 series?

    Mr. Yamane: We introduced the S-series of full-frame cameras, and we target high picture quality with the S-series. However, there is some video footage which only Micro Four Thirds can realize, in terms of optimum depth of field, mobility, zoom ratio and so on. So Micro Four Thirds is also a precious asset for us to cover video shooting needs. The GH-series has been already used by lots of videographers, and it is used for high-end video shooting by one-man operations. So without fail, by using the GH, customers can make very attractive footage using the characteristics of Micro Four Thirds. We are now studying how we are going to evolve GH series going forward, [to make the most of its advantages].

    Any GH6 cancelling announcement soon?

    DE: The next question is about the G9. It has been three years since it was announced, and I think it was you who told us that it was always your dream to make a full-frame camera some day. Now that you have the full-frame, though, will Micro Four Thirds models maybe get less attention going forward?

    Mr. Yamane: By introducing the G9, I think we could deliver the message to the global market that we are very serious about photography. And so [to support] this message, G9 is pretty highly evaluated, and sales volume-wise, is very big for us. How will we evolve the G9? We are now studying the balance between full-frame and Micro Four Thirds in terms of the value which we can provide by the large sensor size of full-frame, or the value which we can provide by the compactness of Micro Four Thirds. By studying this balance, we are now considering the future development of this category.

    G9 replacement is not coming in 2-3 years at least.

    DE: I guess also the LX100 II... our impression was that it and the original LX100 were quite popular, especially because of their very wide-aperture zoom lenses. I guess it's also compact and mid-range zoom, but has a very bright lens. Do you think that is also being affected by smartphones?

    Mr. Yamane: Yes, as I said, this category is affected by the smartphone's expansion. But still, there are people who continue to use this model. But we have to admit that this category will be going down. And so as a camera business, we have to decide the priority of the development resources, which category is the most important. We have to study for the future.

    This part is main reason of delaying interview, as Panasonic mostly cancelled manufacturing of all this cameras and did not want to warn their dealers and buyers.

    https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/08/20/panasonic-interview-covid-development-full-frame-micro-four-thirds

    Announcement of huge m43 cuts (cuts of lenses being produced) and remaining cameras will follow from December to February, all depends on remaining stock levels basic decisions already made.

    Good rumor is that Panasonic will continue to make only 3 total cameras (including compacts) that are not L mount.

  • Ideally would be Leica acquiring Panasonic, but since whene dreams come true in this area?