@kellar42 it is how I look at most of my footage. 70% is taken away before we can even see it (Spain rocks, so they can blame the tech team if they don't like it- try to get a re-shoot LOL) Sharp is never the reason. Banding is never the reason. Crane movement is always commended, BUT someone's daughter walked into the frame too late as she was too busy... with other things. That is why this cam will not do me good. The footage needs to be smashing to laugh all the douchebags away right off the bat!

I think it's unrealistic to expect 13 stops type of DR. I was expecting about 11 stops. Some of the early reports is that it handles low light better. Perhaps they still don't have great highlight handling. IMO as long as I can expose for the highlights and they give me much improved lows then i'm good. As long as there's enough latitude to bring up the image in post and have a solid clean image then that's realistic to me. We'll have to wait and see just how far this image can be tweaked in camera and pushed in post.

@plasmasmp Don't know, I saw a lot of ugly blow out highlight in this video. I now feel that the video look a bit like af100 footage.

The funny guys are the ones who want RAW on a FF with photo lenses so they can make "art" of the sesame seed bun in the mcdonalds while badly recorded audio "narrates":) Enter your narration here (should include at least 5 instances of "like" in a sentence to qualify). I can see GH3 being a great tool out of the box - these products are not about "magic" they are efficient and very, very good!

The first all-Intra 72Mbps 1080p25 file I've examined has the following properties:

1. High 5.0 profile, 8-bit 4:2:0 color depth.
2. Each Intra frame contains about 3Mbytes data
3. Both 8x8 and 4x4 quant matrices used in each I-frame

The all-Intra H.264 encoder uses 8x8 macroblocks to encode smooth, low-detail areas without noticeable banding or posterization. It uses 4x4 macroblocks to encode sharp edges and highly-detailed areas. The GH3 doesn't appear to lower its bitrate much with low-detail scenery, it looks like it's configured to encode at the highest quality it can within its 72Mbps bitrate. I suspect highly detailed scenes will force the encoder to use mostly 4x4 macroblocks, which would make it operate more like the GH2 AVCHD encoder hacked with a GOP-1 patch. In that case, the GH3's fixed 72Mbps bitrate may not be enough to maintain the highest possible image quality.

All professional cameras store meta data. Look at the red. Each frame is still just a still image. There would be no difference in recording timecode, audio or meta data in the video file.

The cam looks great, look at that huge list of improvements few posts above! I am sure it will tick many boxes with many people. I will not be buying it, as my upgrade cycles are very slow, and honestly, nothing revolutionary here, which is just common sense for a traditional company like Panny. I will be buying a Panasonic product soon though, the 14mm pancake to use with my GF2 :) If my GH2 breaks, I'll get another one, works really well for me and it will last me for some time to come. If blackmagic made a BMCC with a MFT sensor, that would be great, but in best case that is some 2 years off so... A lot can happen. I am not "switching to an HD 4:2:0 8-bit, I have had that since 2005, and latitude aside, GH2 still rocks in right hands.

I am pretty sure my next cam will be RAW, and I'll be able to store and edit the footage by then without headaches. I will probably be using the same lenses as well :) or maybe complementing them with a more "modern looking" manual set like Samyangs or, the way things are going Voigtlanders or SLR Magic. Maybe I'd get the GH3 if my GH2 went AWOL and the GH3 was hacked and at the same price point... But I take care of my stuff so unlikely.

Just my 2 cents, I really like the cam and there is something for everyone (admit it some juicy things). But I don't really like owning equipment - the lenses are good, because it's better to have a good set of FDs than renting whatever (prostituted) glass and being held responsible for it. GH2, however, costs very little (as does GH3) and all your team can have one and be ready to get to work right away. Otherwise, I am sure it is pretty much the same everywhere - here in Barcelona Alexa is 600-950€ a day and Red 1 is a few hundred to rent. If the client or the agency insist, you get that and use it. Most times shooting RAW is easier as all you have to worry about is exposure (although the lighting freelance guys here can suck real bad). Spanish clients can be so possesive and want the footage "to go" right away.

Just my point of view - I have an iPhone 4, 2 years ago I thought that phone was cool since it had an insanely high screen resolution. Then came 4S, and now the iPhone5. All I did is get a plastic protector, so my iPhone 4 can last me another 2 years until something I NEED comes out. Like @Vitaly said some weeks ago, I also think pretty soon serious features will become standard like RAW, 4K etc. You will get that when the manufacturers feel they have no other option, and it is only the question who will be the first to undercut the others.

All this may seem offtopic, but it is actually how I think all the time - do I need this, is this a waste etc.

And something else I must share - an aquaintaince of mine bought his first SLR today. A Canon 600D or whatever. OK, who buys a camera on the Photokina opening day - probably will be 20% less next week. When I mentioned this, He went online to see what Photokina is and was already depressed with the purchase because it is not full frame. :) I'll bet you he'll be getting an FF for Christmas, as the stock lens will be disappointing :)

This is how Canon makes money. Panny is just too sophisticated for these people who think they need an archaic camera with a MIRROR in it and a lens that looks like a scythe to be "pro". And so is Blackmagic. RED were right on money to make every screw look like it is taken out of an ICBM and mega-military. Same with Tilta from China. People are scared and need something intimidating. So it was good to see the GH3 buffed up and all serious today! Panny might have been screwing us with their 5-year plan, but then someone took note and gave them a run for their money! Any Panny pro video announcements? I'd love to see that! 4:2:2, 10-bit and 4:4:4 12-bit RAW "is clearly what differentiates us"..... save it!

I'm sure the DR is improved, I'm looking specifically at the shot of the girl near the end of the cat video. The colors seem sorta "Panasonicy" but everything else looks very different from the GH1/GH2. Not saying this is a bad thing, but it def has more of a Sony vibe.

@danyyyel See the quote I posted from the B&H page, which strongly suggests that HDMI recording works at the same time as SD Card recording.

@Kholi do you mean that it is better?

The wide-DR mode seems at first glance to be a sort of Red HDRx type of mode. They show over/underexposed frames being combined for a wide-DR, and then they say that it's available in video shooting too.

I did not see an answer for the hdmi output. As they say it is good for monitoring but what about recording. The gh2 can monitor through the hdmi but recording is bad because of the odd cadence. So is it recordable?

@mpgxsvcd Both 50p files use a 24-frame IPB GOP. The only exception is the initial GOP in each file, which has 25 frames.

@Tex

It is slightly less magnification for the GH3. 2.4x, and 3.6x. But still plenty.

http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh3/specifications.html

Extra Tele Conversion

Still Image: Max. 2x (Not effective with L size recording. Magnification ratio depends on the recording pixels and aspect ratio.) Motion Image: 2.4x, 3.6x, 4.8x (Magnification ratio depends on the recording quality and aspect ratio.)