On April 9th Panasonic will announce the new GF and G camera. And by end of the month there will be a second camera announcement for what I have been told is a “new kind of camera“. This is quite a top secret project and for now I can only speculate what it could be:
1) New GX with integrated EVF: Plenty of Panasonic patents described such a camera having built-in and tilting viewfinder. The current GX camera is super discounted ($499 with X lens) and is certainly due for a replacement. And having a built-in EVF would further differentiate it from the GF series.d
2) New high end compact camera with fixed lens: Panasonic showed some interest in fixed lens compact cameras with larger sensor like the 1inch Sony RX100.
3) New High End GH: A new GH camera with superb video quality for professionals and with the new Panasonic sensor tech with high dynamic range and over 1 stop noise improvement.
4) New Full Frame Mirrorless line: The Canon 6D and the Nikon D600. proved to us that FF sensor cameras are getting closer to the $1,500 price tag. And it will be hard for any MFT or APS-C high end cameras to compete against them. I got no rumor about Panasonic launching a FF Mirrorless but it may would make sense for them to do it. Also because Canon recently stated that they will further push the low end FF camera development.
5) New Sports camera line: Like the current GoPro Hero series. An unknown source told me that this is one of the areas Panasonic want to play a role in the future.
I repeat, we don’t know yet what it is coming by End of April. And as usual expectations should be kept low. That said Panasonic stated many times now that they want to get into the “high end” market. So let’s see if they are going to surprise us!
