Consumers who purchase Panasonic’s latest offering in the DSLR space can also buy two new interchangeable Micro Four Thirds System lenses too, one of which is designed specifically for movie recording with quiet and seamless aperture adjustment.
The Lumix DMC-GH1 Creative HD Hybrid records HD 1080/25p or smooth 720/50p HD movies in AVCHD format. The AVCHD format features almost twice the recording time in HD quality than the conventional Motion JPEG.
Other features include Intelligent Auto and Full-time Live View, as well as Live MOS image sensor. With this new model, Continuous Autofocus can be used while recording movies, and sound recording is available with Dolby Digital Stereo Creator.
Intelligent Auto now includes Face Recognition a function that ‘remembers’ faces from previous shots. When a familiar face appears in the frame, the camera will prioritise focus and exposure to capture it beautifully.
The two Micro Four Thirds System interchangeable lenses that have been announced include the Lumix G Vario HD 14-140mm/F4.0-5.8 ASPH/Mega O.I.S, which is a 10x zoom lens that offers silent and continuous auto focusing. The Lumix G Vario 7-14mm/F4.0 ASPH is an ultra wide-angle zoom lens, with a range of 7-14mm (35mm camera equivalent; 14-28mm).
The camera’s 12.1-megapizel 4/3-type Live MOS sensor has a high-speed four-channel readout to support Full HD movie recording. The sensor also allows images to be taken at three aspect ratios – 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 – with the same angle of view, and the camera can also reproduce a square image with a 1:1 aspect ratio.
It incorporates the Venus Engine HD image processor. The two CPUs in this imaging engine increase processing speeds while achieving noise reduction performance. The Venus Engine HD’s energy efficiency supports long-time AVCHD movie recording, and allows the output of both images and sound via mini HDMI.
Both the camera and lenses are expected to be available in Australia in May.
RRP
TBC
