Panasonic S1H Interview With Yosuke Yamane: Why Did Panasonic Wait?
Panasonic S1H: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Panasonic S PRO 24-70mm f/2.8: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Image Resource sat down with Yosuke Yamane, Director of Panasonic Corp.’s Imaging Business Unit, Smart Life Network Business Division, Appliances Company, to discuss the release of the Panasonic S1H. Below are excerpts from the interview.
- Panasonic started on the S series Full Frame cameras 2 years ago but Yosuke Yamane wanted to do the S1H 8 years ago
- Choosing a mount was difficult
- Panasonic jointed the L-Mount alliance with Leica and Sigma to give photographers an ecosystem
- Panasonic launched their photo-centric cameras first since there was more support for photography centric cameras on the mount initially
- The S1H wasn’t delayed, but rather design started on it after the photo-orientated cameras for L-Mount
- L-Mount needed more photography cameras and once Panasonic fofiled the need they turned their focus to video
- The S1H sensor is the same cells as the S1 with lots of tweaks to aid video shooting like the low-pass filter that reduces moire, dual native ISO, wide range of color gradation.
- The pixels are the same as the S1, but they added a second capacitor on the output of each to make it dual-native
- The S1H will primarily appeal to videographers that like shallow depth of field for artistic creation
- The form factor lets you use a variety of rigs
- The S1H will satisfy the needs of small companies more than as a second camera
- They are converting VariCam rentals to S1H purchases
- Panasonic would be happy if the S1H outsold the GH
- Panasonic thinks the market is large enough for the GH and S1H to coexist
- There are lots of great cinema options for L-Mount
- Panasonic thinks the S1H will sell well
- The S1H had the most anticipation of all the L-Mount cameras
- Panasonic has a lot of experience with VariCam and the S1H takes their video cameras to a new place
- Panasonic doesn’t think the S1H will canabilize EVA1 sales since it has SDI connectors along with some additional features that give it an advantage over S1H
- S1H is for hybrid photographers, videographers and cinematographers
- The use of 4:2:2 10-bit and 4:2:0 are largely decided by technical limitations
- Panasonic will try to do 4:2:2 6K external when it is possible, which will probably be for the next camera
via imaging-resource