We AF 100 owners had become resigned to be being orphaned by Panasonic when they failed to upgrade our micro 4/3″ video camera in 2014.  Oh well, it’s still a nice, affordable unit with audio inputs, an OK LCD a filter wheel and exposure & focus assistance, we’ll just use it until it breaks, or becomes truly obsolete.

But some nice native lenses became available in that format, and event shooters got lots of use out of the AF 100 by adapting fast B4 zooms, and the AVC-HD codec proved useful enough.

And even though the Panasonic Lumix GH3 was a big improvement over its precedents as a video shooter, the GH4 came out with 4k video and fast bit rates and improved highlight handling and lots more, for $1600.  Lots of people bought them.  They’ve become the default camera for octo copters and other specialities, and they’re water resistant.

But, we don’t wanna shoot with still cameras any more!  I want to throw my little base plates and HDMI adapters and counterweights in the weeds and make pictures with big boy cameras.  If Panasonic still wants a piece of the small digital cinema market, why would they not develop the GH4’s Venus engine into something that operates like a motion picture camera? Afraid to cannibalize the VariCam 35?