Congrats! If Panasonic plays the cards correctly on this, they will do very very well, and by playing their cards correct .. make the camera open enough so people can hack it.. still void the warranty etc.. but allow us to putz with it and help them improve there own product, the only reason I got my first GH2 was because of the hack and since then have bought 2 more cameras simply due to the hack-ability.. without the hack I would have gone cannon due to magic lantern.. But the Micro4/3 format and the lens hacking you can do with it, and the firmware hacks are what sold me on Pany in the firs place.

Pany, don't blow this, embrace it and blow every other company out of the water!

Now I may hold off on those 2 new GH2's at work, if VK and team is now on the Pany team.. the GH3 is going to be a mind blowing camera for the industry.

Praying this is not a April Fools Joke on us! But then again if it is true, it will be the biggest April fools joke to the Camera industry.. the competition is dead.

Congrats Vitaliy it sounds great! I knew this day will come , but I didn´t expect it so soon.. Good luck to you and your team and also for Panasonic.. I am really really very happy I´m so excited that I almost forgot to ask you my question :) When can we expect the 2.0 firmware for GH2? is there any chance for focus peaking in the new firmware ?

Wow it is da big thing. Congrats Vitaliy. You earned it.

Astonished.

"When can we expect the 2.0 firmware for GH2? I do not have idea about release date for now. But due to drastic changes can be not very fast. is there any chance for focus peaking in the new firmware ? It is not decided yet."

thank you Vitaliy, I´m crossing my fingers! DSLR revolution is here :)

...

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

"Can't talk prior NAB much. But can give you a clue. You won't call them Picture profiles in v2.0."

Assuming this means more flexibility with in-camera image settings relative to my current GH2 -- this is the best news.

In very general terms -- are you telling us we can look forward to new firmware developments around the time of NAB 2012 (April 16th), or should we be thinking along the lines of later this year, or should I instead be thinking in terms of a new purchase of a new "GH3" or whatever (meaning the modified GH2 has reached the end of its lifecycle)?

Thank you, and congratulations.

Either way, it's awesome: It's either the video technology industry's April Fools prank of the decade, or just plain the biggest video technology industry news of the decade!

Well played, Vitaliy! :-)

Meanwhile, stay tuned: Imagine if there were an SDK for the GH3, etc. What could interwebbed software & hardware developers do with that?

Cheers.

おめでとう！

Congrats VK. If you have any input on the still side please try to increase the max exposure time past 2 minutes and 8 seconds for astro photography. Also have it do auto burst mode in the "b" mode would be great. Those things shouldn't be too hard. I am doing a whole GH-2 astro-photography how to video next week. Those are the only major drawbacks.

Great news! Congrats to you! (I'm really hoping the march 30 topic release rules out april 1 pranks ;))

Congrats Vitaliy and the team