Panasonic has announced an upcoming firmware for the Panasonic S1 and S5 that brings full-frame 5.9K 12-Bit RAW over HDMI video capabilities to the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR. There is a slight caveat for S1 users, though. S1 users will need to have purchased the $200 DMW-SFU2 Upgrade Software Key to unlock the extra video features of the S1 – but aside from that, it’s a free update for those users.
Owners of the Panasonic S5 will not have to buy that software key and will just get the features as soon as the firmware becomes available – which is expected on July 12th and will become available on the Panasonic Lumix Global Customer Support Website.
With the footage being shot to the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G, this means you’re shooting Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) files and not ProRes. If you already use DaVinci Resolve for your video editing then you shouldn’t really need to alter your workflow. I suspect, however, that you’ll likely need the Studio version of the software to handle larger than 4K resolution – unless Blackmagic has exempted the free version from that limitation for their own file format (which I don’t know either way – if anybody’s tested, let me know in the comments).
As well as full-frame 5.9K (5888×3312) resolution at 23.98, 25 and 29.97fps, you’ll also get APS-C 4K (4128×2176) 17:9 at up to 60p as well as APS-C Anamorphic 3.5K (3536×2656) at up to 50p – with all three formats offering 12-Bits of raw data over HDMI to your Video Assist 12G.
The firmware updates are to be released on July 12th and when that happens, you can download them from the Lumix website.
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