Panasonic to announce their first full frame mirrorless camera – Wait, what?

Well, this was unexpected. Panasonic is apparently going to announce their first full frame mirrorless camera this month, in only three weeks. Yes, a full frame Panasonic mirrorless camera. At least, that’s according to 4/3 Rumors. Apparently, the camera will be officially announced on September 25th, but if this is indeed true, I’ll bet a certain website will have leaks available before then.

The Nikon Z6 & Z7 mirrorless cameras seem to have split photographers down the middle. Some are incomprehensibly furious at Nikon’s decision to only include one memory card slot, proclaiming that it is “not a pro camera” and will never sell. Then again, on the other hand, Nikon can’t keep up with demand. Canon is also apparently getting ready to announce their own new mirrorless camera in a few days, too.

But Panasonic may come along and steal the show if the September 25th announcement holds true – at least amongst the video crowd.

If Panasonic were to announce something this huge, a September 25th announcement wouldn’t be unusual. It’s the day before Photokina 2018 opens up. The day when many big announcements are made so that people know what to come and see when they visit the show.

4/3 Rumors seem pretty sold on the idea that the announcement is coming and that Panasonic is definitely coming out with a full frame mirrorless. They don’t know if it’s in cooperation with Leica and/or Olympus, but they’re guessing it’ll possibly have a Leica SL mount.

Given the potential video capabilities of the Nikon Z6 & Z7 cameras with an external recorder – they’re the only full frame cameras (either mirrorless or DSLR) to offer 10Bit 4:2:2 uncompressed HDMI output – Panasonic might be coming to outdo them. The GH5 already shoots 10Bit 4:2:2  internally with the Micro Four Thirds sensor. So, there’s really nothing to say they couldn’t do the same for full frame, negating the need for an external recorder.

Needless to say, if the rumour is true and an announcement does come, the whole mirrorless market is going to get a lot more interesting.

[via 4/3 Rumors]

Update: A previous version of this article stated that the GH5 shoots 10Bit 4:2:2 ProRes internally. I thought they’d added this in a firmware update, but apparently not. it does, however, still shoot 10Bit 4:2:2 footage internally. It just does it with a different codec.