Panasonic frame video camera 1080p1/22/2024 What the engineers were hoping to develop was not just a responsive still-camera AF system, but one that was fast enough to perform autofocus on the fly, while live video was being recorded. While they were certainly concerned about the AF speed for still photos, it turned out that a lot of the decisions made in the G-series AF system were actually driven by the needs of video recording: A critical goal of the G-series design was for the autofocus system to execute a complete AF cycle in 1/60 second - because that's the basic frame time of an HDTV signal. My concern had to do with whether contrast-detect AF could be fast enough to rival the performance of phase-detect AF systems in conventional SLR cameras. When I was first briefed on the G-series concept by Panasonic's engineers in Japan, months before the initial announcement, a lot of my discussion with them revolved around the autofocus system. A lot of video-capable SLRs are certainly being sold to consumers these days, and having some video capability is certainly better than none, but for most consumers to make full use of a video camera, it really needs to be able to focus on the fly.Īrguably, this was what Panasonic had in mind from the very beginning of the Micro Four Thirds concept a true "hybrid" camera that needn't make any excuses for its performance, whether shooting still or video imagery. Without live AF, consumers for the most part are reduced to only shooting things at a constant distance from the camera - or to putting up with a lot of poorly-focused video. Doing it well is very much a learned skill, though, and something very few people ever learn to do really well. Pros and advanced amateurs can "pull focus" (adjust the focus manually) while filming video, and indeed may well prefer to do so, considering focus to be another outlet for their artistic vision. The video shows the effect on a macro subject of moving from the lens's maximum aperture down to f/22 and back again.As with the GH1, consumers will doubtless find the key feature to be the Panasonic GF1's live autofocus during recording, though. MOV movie clip from the GH1 (NOTE: 35 MB download) shows the depth of field control you can achieve with the Panasonic GF1 using its kit lens. The Panasonic GF1 also offers rather more control over exposure of its videos than the typical camcorder, although unlike the GH1 full manual control of video exposure isn't possible.ĭepth of Field Control. The large size of its sensor relative to those of typical consumer camcorders means that you can achieve shallow depth of field with large-aperture lenses. At the time of the GH1's announcement, that was a truly unique feature among SLR-style cameras, and even today it's a rare camera that even tries to implement it, let alone does so usefully.įor video fans, much of the allure of the Panasonic GF1 is the ability to use a variety of lenses with it, opening a range of creative capabilities. Importantly, though, the Panasonic GF1 retains the GH1's ability to autofocus during live video recording. Panasonic's previous Micro Four Thirds camera, the GH1, introduced video recording capability to the line - and most of that functionality has been carried over, with the biggest exceptions being the 1,920 x 1,080 pixel AVCHD / FHD mode, full manual exposure capability, stereo microphone, and external microphone jack. (Updated 9/15/09: AVCHD motion artifacts were the fault of VLC player, not the GF1!) (Regular photos taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1) (Thumbnails of all shots, including RAWs, with EXIF data) Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Thumbnails page.(Index to all standard test shots, with explanations)
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