If Panasonic is paying attention, then they better help out with everything they can at this point. They have just had two major shots fired across the bow with the Black Magic pocket cam and now the Magic Lantern hack for the 5D. If you are listening Panasonic, you should start giving Vitally whatever he needs to turn the GH3 into a beast.
They're more likely to add raw to the GH5 if Blackmagic and the Magic Lantern hack prove to be a threat.
Even if they don't blow up out of the gate, they'd be foolish not to include it now that it's clear that the demand is there and the cards are fast enough. I'm not too sure it'll happen though...
I wouldn't hold my breath for RAW, I just hope for the all I codec to have a higher bit rate.
I reckon it is very unlikely Panasonic will be providing raw video in their GH/G series of cameras in the near future. The best we can hope for (still unlikely though.... just much more likely than an "official feature") is if they could very soon open up the doors wide to allow/assist VK to provide raw video for their cameras "unofficially".
It really depends on how big this Magic Lantern thing gets. Panasonic have pushed the GH series to filmmakers from the very start, but they could see that niche disappear very quickly. If they want to compete seriously in the future they need to look at what people are demanding, and what they can get out of the competition. They also have a bit of a responsibility to compete with the Pocket Cinema Camera and foster an environment of competition in the M43 scene. Blackmagic price their camera similarly and could easily walk away with their niche. They're just about being forced to respond. The problem is that Panasonic is a big, conservative company. Slow to react, and all to eager to protect a struggling high-margin pro division. They don't realize that officially supporting raw video in a DSLR is a potential goldmine that would bring a lot of people over to the M43 system, and the benefits of this would more than make up for any losses in the pro market, where people don't want to screw around with a DSLR anyway.
I'm not expecting raw, but I wouldn't rule it out. GH5 is probably 18 months away, and a lot can change in that time. Pana need to stay on their toes.
Uncompressed HDMI would be enough for me but RAW would take the cake. A few years ago it was okay to cripple stuff but not now. Price of entry is low, low, low now. Happened to Pro Audio gear, happened to computers and happening in Video now. I always felt that if they had an unfettered HDMI port on their GH series from the start they would have sold so many more. What were they protecting? The AF100? Pfffff. Forgive me but when I saw the first footage after the fanfare of all the guys going to Japan for the launch I was slightly underwhelmed. I know a lot of pros use em but I just never liked it - I am no pro but think I can appreciate a nice pic. But the GH2 has always wowed me. Cheap, small, light, articulating screen, almost any lens etc - has so much going for it. If I were them I would start with the GH3 form factor and allow a module to be added, perhaps underneath in a grip with a RAW port on it and be done with it. Record onto that grip or one of their own recorders or Convergent Design, Sony etc. Or even better - record in camera - but RED may not be best pleased. Better still, allow a little room for it to be hacked into. Watch the money roll in........not sure that everyone sees the potential though and corporates see things a little differently to us guys on a camera hacking forum
The ability to record RAW definately has advantages to a select market.
But that is exactly what it is, a select market which does not represent the majority of the market. Therefore I do not believe Panasonic would be worried about losing sales to BM because of RAW functionality. Just my opinion.
Only Vitaliy and the other ptool devs knows if this is even remotely possible. Their silence is probably telling.
Of course I would love the ability to shoot Raw, it would be absolutely amazing - however don't bank on it.
Guys really, I have no idea :-)
Making such thing requires bunch of time and bunch of people.
@kairutan Sandisk Extreme Pro cards are 95MB/s and getting faster all the time.
I would personally love to see raw on the GH3, does anyone know if this is even possible in theory? Is the censor capable?
Is raw video something that can be rolled out across most new mid-high end cameras?
@Kairutan The limiting factor on the SD card Canons is the controller in the camera. There doesn't seem to be much difference in the benchmarks between the Sandisk 45MB/s cards and the Sandisk 95MB/s cards on them.
@aldolega That is what I understood as well. @eatstoomuchjam I've heard that as well and agree completely. I hope their SD cameras will be able to do better than what they are getting currently. That would make the 60D very appealing to me.
Correct me if I'm wrong (please do, I'm still learning):
I really think there is some confusion. Looking into this, I've seen people swear that the Extreme Pro cards write 90MB/s and read 95MB/s. But realistically, people say that they manage about 42MB/s for write speeds. Still pretty amazing. I've heard that the CF cards are all that are holding the 5D Mark III back. I'm just approaching this skeptically. If 90MB/s is a baseline for 1080p 24fps, all I was implying is that we might not get 1080p 24fps second RAW on a camera with limited media. We might have to settle for a lower resolution/burst mode if it is RAW. 90MB/s might need buffer time while it loads onto the card, therefore it would be more ideal for a burst mode like the Nikon V1.
I love my GH3 and it is already a beast. Release its shackles and watch it eat other cameras for breakfast. Panasonic still has 60fps 1080p for $1,300 US and some of the sharpest glass on the market.
You guys rock on this forum! I've learned so much.
SD cards will be capable. But the bus speed of the camera would have to be high enough to support it.. and of course a large enough buffer to cope with lag and fluctuations in writing.
I'd like to see in terms of raw is lossy-raw (or even 1.5-2:1 lossless-raw) 3:1 would work great. That'd be full bit-depth and no sub-sampling since it's raw/pre-demosaiced.
Getting the full IQ to HDMI out would suffice also.
Hacked GH2 will be my primary tool of choice till better is feasible, which looks like the Black Magic new cameras will be first.
Most people get things wrong.
You don't need raw, you need data that is lost during raw to 8bit image conversion and later compression.
If you can supply low compressed intraframe H264 in two spreams (or double framerate) one being normal 422 image and one that will preserve low contrast, dark and light areas all will be very good.
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