Panasonic is teasing an announcement taking place at the Cine Gear Expo in Los Angeles, California today.
The company put out a teaser video on social media and, to my mind, it gives a pretty strong indication that this will be a new camera.
As you can see below, the video features the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lens mount with the tagline "New phase" – all of which is pretty much identical to last year's teaser for the Panasonic Lumix G9 II, the company's first MFT camera to feature phase detect autofocus.
You'll notice that the countdown also begins with "7" rather than a more obvious number like 10 or 5. All this, in conjunction with the fact that the announcement is taking place at a cinema-focused show, leads me to the conclusion that the new product is probably a camera, and that camera is probably the Panasonic Lumix GH7 – which would obviously feature the new phase detect system.
If this is the case, it's incredibly curious that Panasonic's traditional flagship imaging product is almost being stealth-launched – but there may be good reason for this.
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Firstly, the company is hot off the high-profile launch of the Panasonic Lumix S9 – its creator-oriented compact full-frame camera. It put an incredible amount of marketing muscle behind that announcement, particularly as the S9 is a completely new kind of product for Panasonic, so it is understandable that this one is a bit more low-key.
It's also worth noting that the S9 launch was inundated with leaks, not only on the usual rumor sites but even on Amazon (thanks to an early listing for the Sirui handgrip). So Panasonic might be playing its cards closer to its chest for this one, to ensure that there's no time for any info to spill out.
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The Panasonic Lumix GH6 is still a relatively young product, having only launched in February 2022. However, from day one its lack of phase detect AF was lamented – and after the G9 II was announced, it felt like only a matter of time until a GH7 materialized.
Were it not for the contrast-based autofocus, the GH6 would be almost perfect. If tomorrow does indeed bring us a GH7 with modern AF, we're pretty much guaranteed one of the best cameras for video. Roll on, Cine Gear…
You might be interested in the best Panasonic cameras, which includes G series Micro Four Thirds cameras and S series full frame mirrorless cameras.
