SLR Photos + HD Video = Panasonic GH1 = Wow!

Panasonic's compact GH1 SLR/video hybrid gets a big thumbs up from New York Times tech columnist David Pogue.

Pogue wasn't wowed by last fall's G1 model, though he acknowledged that it was "a technical breakthrough that took a giant stride toward the holy grail of photography: gorgeous, professional-looking photos from a small camera." (It was Popular Photography’s Camera of the Year.)

But the updated version, to be released in May, features for the first time full, unlimited-length, 1080p high-definition video, with autofocus, a first for an SLR-style camera.

You can use different lenses for shooting video, including ultra wide-angle. You can use all photo controls for video, including macro (extreme close-up). You can achieve sharp foregrounds with blurred backgrounds, which is impossible with a regular camcorder.

Pricetag: $1500 -- nearly twice the cost of its predecessor. "Panasonic says that most of the increase over the videoless G1’s $800 price is because of the new included lens. And it is a beauty: a 10X zoomer, specially made for video (for example, it’s silent when focusing and zooming)."

In the end, though, $1,500 doesn’t seem that bad when you consider what you’re getting: the world’s first SLR that captures full high-definition video — and keeps it all in focus. Plenty of SLRs cost that much and don’t take any video at all — and plenty of $10,000 hi-def video cameras don’t take stills.

The camera is fast, well-designed, enormously satisfying to use, and generally tops in image and video quality. Overall, the Lumix GH1 is a big leap toward a future when pro-style photos come from consumer-size cameras.

Pogue's review / Slideshow of Pogue's sample images.

HD Platypus Workshop: May 1-10 in Portland

Dirck Halstead says there are still a few spots open in his upcoming Platypus Workshop in Portland, OR, May 1-10, a comprehensive boot camp for staff and freelance photographers, picture editors and media producers making the transition to high-definition digital video storytelling. You can attend as a "Shooter" or as a "Producer."

As a Shooter you are the storyteller. You get to use a new Canon XHA-1 HD camera, wireless and on-camera mikes from Sennheiser, tripods from Libec and an Apple laptop MacBook Pro with the latest version of Final Cut Pro for editing. You may work alone, or with a Producer, to create the class exercises and a final 8-minute documentary or news story. Tuition for Shooter = $1,995

Producers are an integral part of the process and the course. They attend all classes and team up with shooters as they research stories, make arrangements, conduct the interviews, go out on the field exercises and co-produce the final project . . . as a team. The Producer and the Shooter both come back to the edit bay and cut the projects together. Tuition for Producer = $995

Participants will learn about the newest HD digital cameras, field sound recording, cinematic storytelling, the use of lenses, tripods, and Apple's latest Final Cut Pro editing software.

Register here.

78 Cameras and Something's On

There are still some things that one-man-band mojo backpack videojournalists can't quite cover the same way as the big guys:

For the Super Bowl this Sunday, NBC says it will use 52 high-definition cameras; 93 microphones; 24 digital replay sources; 20 hand-held cameras; five robotic cameras, including two attached to the goal posts; and one cable camera suspended above the field.

BUT! That doesn't preclude the opportunity for less well-armed videojournalists to cover other, often more interesting, Super Bowl-themed video stories taking place off the field, and even around the nation. Join us at KobreGuide as we keep our eyes open for those online gems, and please let us know what you find, by submitting them here. (And, yeh, we're tuning in for Bruce, too.)