Panasonic Solutions Company has announced that the AG-AF100 which it calls the industry’s first professional micro 4/3-inch video camcorder optimized for high-definition video recording will start shipping on December 27th at a suggested list price of $4 995. Targeted at the video and film production communities the AF100 delivers the shallow depth of field and wider field of view of a large imager with the flexibility and cost advantages of a growing line of professional quality industry-standard micro 4/3-inch lenses filters and adapters. The full HD 1080 and 720 production camera offers superior video handling native 1080/24p recording variable frame rates professional audio capabilities and compatibility with SDHC and SDXC media. “The design of the AF100’s best-in-class 4/3-inch sensor affords depth of field and field of view similar to that of 35mm movie cameras in a more affordable camera body ” says Jan Crittenden Livingston product line business manager Panasonic Solutions Company. “What’s more Panasonic engineering ingenuity has resolved the aliasing and moiré that has haunted the DSLR shooter. Indeed the proof of concept of the AF100 was based on what we heard from and saw customers doing: purchasing DSLR cameras because they liked the look of the image but then agonizing over all of the workarounds required to come out with an acceptable high definition recording.” The AF100 incorporates a large 4/3-inch 16:9 MOS imager that minimizes skew with fast imager scanning and incorporates low pass filters for elimination of aliasing and moiré. Additionally it has a built-in optical ND filter. The camcorder records 1080 at 60i 50i 30P 25P (Native) and 24P (Native) and 720 at 60p 50p 30p 25p and 24p native in AVCHD’s highest-quality PH mode (maximum 24Mbps). The AF100 also records in AVCCam’s HA (17 Mbps) and HE (6Mbps) modes 1080i only. Ready for global production standards the camcorder is 60Hz and 50Hz switchable. Equipped with an interchangeable micro 4/3-inch lens mount the AF100 can utilize an array of low-cost widely available still camera lenses as well as film-style lenses with fixed focal lengths and primes. Variable frame rates are available in 1080p selectable in 20 steps from 12p to 60p at 60Hz and 20 steps from 12p to 50p at 50Hz. Standard professional interfaces include uncompressed 4:2:2 8 Bit HD-SDI out; HDMI out; and USB 2.0. It records SMPTE timecode and is able to perform timecode synchronizing via the video output seeing timecode in. It has a built-in stereo microphone and features two mic/line switchable XLR inputs with +48V Phantom Power capability. The camera can record 48-kHz/16-bit two-channel digital audio recording (in PH mode only) and supports LPCM/Dolby-AC3 in any of the modes. Panasonic will support the AF100 with a three-year limited warranty (one year plus two extra years upon registration). Panasonic Solutions Company www.panasonic.com/broadcast
