Imaging Resource published their Panasonic S1H interview with Yosuke Yamane (Director of Panasonic Corp.’s Imaging Business Unit). Here is the recap from 43addict:
- Panasonic started on the S series Full Frame cameras 2 years ago but Yosuke Yamane wanted to do the S1H 8 years ago
- Choosing a mount was difficult
- Panasonic jointed the L-Mount alliance with Leica and Sigma to give photographers an ecosystem
- Panasonic launched their photo-centric cameras first since there was more support for photography centric cameras on the mount initially
- The S1H wasn’t delayed, but rather design started on it after the photo-orientated cameras for L-Mount
- L-Mount needed more photography cameras and once Panasonic fofiled the need they turned their focus to video
- The S1H sensor is the same cells as the S1 with lots of tweaks to aid video shooting like the low-pass filter that reduces moire, dual native ISO, wide range of color gradation.
- The pixels are the same as the S1, but they added a second capacitor on the output of each to make it dual-native
- The S1H will primarily appeal to videographers that like shallow depth of field for artistic creation
- The form factor lets you use a variety of rigs
- The S1H will satisfy the needs of small companies more than as a second camera
- They are converting VariCam rentals to S1H purchases
- Panasonic would be happy if the S1H outsold the GH
- Panasonic thinks the market is large enough for the GH and S1H to coexist
- There are lots of great cinema options for L-Mount
- Panasonic thinks the S1H will sell well
- The S1H had the most anticipation of all the L-Mount cameras
- Panasonic has a lot of experience with VariCam and the S1H takes their video cameras to a new place
- Panasonic doesn’t think the S1H will canabilize EVA1 sales since it has SDI connectors along with some additional features that give it an advantage over S1H
- S1H is for hybrid photographers, videographers and cinematographers
- The use of 4:2:2 10-bit and 4:2:0 are largely decided by technical limitations
- Panasonic will try to do 4:2:2 6K external when it is possible, which will probably be for the next camera
Via Imaging-resource
