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GH3 with AVCHD 2.0!
  • Just came across this rumor on the 43rumors site
    http://www.43rumors.com/ft4-gh3-with-avchd-2-0/
    any first thoughts?
  • 39 Replies sorted by
  • AVCHD 2.0
    1920x1080 @ 50/60p
    System bitrate: 28Mbps


    Sounds pretty stingy, though that does leave plenty of headroom for hacking...
  • Seems like a pretty mild upgrade, but not bad for people wanting 1080p60.

    No mention of 1080p25, does this mean PAL users get screwed again or is 1080p50 sufficient?
  • Did you guys also read in the same post that the MJPEG will work at 1080/24p??

    @Vitaliy
    So MJPEG can work at 24p then?
  • @kikis, I think MJPEG has always been capable of 24p, even in the GH1, it's just the sensor mode was stuck at 30.
  • how can sensor mode be changed?
  • By Panasonic engineers. :-)
  • where do I find one? :)
  • Too early to get excited about it. GH3 announcement this year. Start shipping next Spring. Lucky ones get it by next Summer. If we get lucky again, GH3VK around Spring 2013. Add a few more months for tweaking. So we are talking 2 years away from now...
  • Is MPEG-4 MVC/H.264 the same as the current MJPEG for GH1 and GH2?
  • @kikis No MPEG-4 and H.264 is a more sophisticated codec and MJPEG is basically a series of images with JPEG compression applied.

    @Oedipax Yes 1080/50p would conform perfectly to 25p. Anything under 1/50 would be a 360 degree shutter and might switch the sensor mode to actual 25p. I don't fear 1080/60p or 50p I actually prefer it to 24p. At least with 50p you can have the choice of cinematic 25p or slow mo.
  • @eoshd so based on the 43rumors link there doesn't seem to be any MJPEG in the gh3 does there?
  • sorry my error those are only the AVC 2.0 Specs only... the MVC mode is for stereoscopic 3d it seems
  • @stonebat maybe we just start donating money to VK now for a couple of GH3 bodies. That way he is ready to preorder at announcement, and hack can be released a few months after launch :p
  • Would have been nice to add 4:2:2... that would have set the whole industry on fire! One day...
  • 4:2:2 and i'll buy several of them.
  • 1080p 60 is the reason i want this thing as of now.
  • Well I suppose that there is nothing saying that Panny will implement this?! Is there... Its like the HDMI issue on the GH2- HDMI 'can' do lots of things- doesn't mean that it will work... ;-(

    Lets not ask VK to hack the firmware of a camera that doesn't exist yet... (he may just do it!)
    However- I am still happy and excited about GH2VK...
  • Meh. The announcement leaves me a little underwhelmed. I'm a lot more excited about how VK's hack turns my GH2s into whole new cameras -right now- than I am about some camera that may be available (in crippled form) in a year. I'm shooting with my GH2vk almost every day and check here often for word of more features.
  • Guys, remember that this is made up rumour.
    What can be very very far from reality.
    I don't see any foundation for this as latest panasonic compact cameras use MP4 container for high bitrates and do not use AVCHD.
  • they dont say anything about 1080p50/60. In fact, looking at this, i see no improvement over hacked gh2 whatsoever. Can somebody really look at this and tell me whats better than gh2vk?

    edit: mind the columns :-D saw it. cheers.
  • Panasonic and Sony made a joint announcement on July 1 that AVCHD 2.0 would include 1080p50/60. It's not really any surprise that they're planning to include in their coming products the new features they themselves designed.

    As Vitaliy points out, their high-bitrate professional cameras use the MP4 container. AVCHD, despite all its good qualities, is still designed to be a trouble-free consumer format, hence the low bitrates. It's amazing that we're able to pull as much out of it as is happening now with the GH2.

    Still, I'm looking forward to 1080p60. It'd be fantastic to get it out of the GH2 a year before Panasonic can.
  • If past product history cycle of the GH models are to be followed, the GH3 should officially be announced late August/early September and released in late November/early December. Not sure why people here are saying the GH3 will only be released Spring 2012 or later. I can't see Panasonic letting Sony flood the market with their AVCHD 2.0 models during the last quarter of 2011 before Christmas without competition.
  • i cant really see the gh3 being significantly better or even any better then the hacked gh2, besides the fact that it will be able to do 1080 60p.. and who knows, maybe we can get 1080 60p out of the gh2. all i know is that the gh2 is giving us a beautiful image and its a joy to shoot with, the only thing that could make this image better is an upgrade from 4:2:0 and 8 bit.. and thats not going to happen in a dslr unless its via hack.. sorry, your going to have to pay big bucks for that. i think people need to stop worrying about the next camera when the one we have now is very special.
  • Just a new lot of cynical Techno Drip-feed from PanaSony. Given that some ENG video cameras are now shooting @ 880 mbps (to tape!)...28 mbps is very...er..."stingy" indeed.

    Purely a marketing driven dumbing-down exercise...certainly not a technology/engineering limitation. I'm sure AVCHD 2 could very easily have been at least 4:2:2; 10 bit; 50 mbps ( and hence meet the minimum BBC requirements for HD broadcast).

    Given the power of i7 Sandybridge CPU's, "consumerizing" bit rates to low levels is just a lame excuse...lowest common denominator BS.